Indian Society

Globalization is the word used to describe the growing interdependence of the world’s economies, cultures, and populations, brought about by cross-border trade in goods and services, technology, and flows of investment, people, and information. Westernisation is a process whereby societies adopt western cultural practices, whether through compulsion or influence. With this cultural assimilation, the entire lifestyle of people in different societies is changing to a new pattern. Influences of global and western cultures are making inroads into Indian culture as well.

How Westernisation And Globalisation Changed Indian Culture

In today’s era, the various means of telecommunication, social media, and most importantly the Internet has a big role to play in the spread of westernisation and globalization.

Positive Changes

1. The modern values of the world such as Humanitarianism, secularism, etc have crept into the traditional cultures of India. Socially mankind has become more tolerant and open.
2. Western liberal thoughts such as individual rights and freedom became part of Indian culture where hitherto societies were bound by caste and class boundaries.
3. Rational thinking and scientific temperament are leading Indian youth to question arbitrary and orthodox cultural practices.
4. Ideas of equality and humanity are leading to empowerment of vulnerable and deprived sections of the society. Today’s Indian women are more socially and economically empowered than ever before.
5. Global and western cultural practices including music, dances and arts of different nations fused with Indian music and arts.
6. There is a fusion of foods products, edible items, and recipes of various cultures. McDonald’s and Chinese cuisine are happily tried and purchased by people of India along with Indian dosas and idlis.

Negative Changes

1. Our deep-rooted traditions and customs have loosened up their hold with the emergence of globalization and westernisation.
2. Due to the increasing influence of western and global practices, the Indian family structure is losing its strengths. More and more individual-centric nuclear families are leaving behind the weaker members such as old age parents and grandparents who were the source of values and parenting are now being treated as a burden.
3. Changing lifestyle, increasing materialism and consumerism is leading to lifestyle disease such as depression, loneliness, obesity, etc.
4. India’s culture of food, clothing and dialects are also being affected negatively resulting in a declining uniqueness of diverse and plural Indian culture.
5. Western and global impacts are leading to the destruction of traditional and eco-friendly practices which were an eminent part of Indian culture. Such practices are creating various challenges such as climate change, cross-boundary issues, water and air pollution, etc.
6. Globalization leads to loss of cultural identities, under which Western ideas are being imposed upon the eastern thought.
7. Globalisation and westernisation are considered as a threat to cultural diversity imposed by the market-driven forces of hegemonic modernity.

Resilience Of Indian Culture

1. India is a bouquet of flowers of varying religion, dialect, edibles, tradition, custom, music, art and architecture etc, bundled into a single unit of patriotism and unity. The common factor within all these diversities is the Indian mindset of welcoming, greeting, celebrating in a united way with immense affection and togetherness.
2. Above observations of the positive and negative impacts show that despite the influence of westernisation and globalisation Indianness of the Indian culture remains intact.
3. Indian food remains distinctly Indian, even Chinese and Italian foods became Indianised. On the other hand demand of Indian curry, Biryani, Dosa, etc is rising in western countries.
4. Spiritual concepts and beliefs of Indian society are more or less intact. Rather Indian spirituality is spreading across the globe. Practices such as Yoga and meditation are gifts from India to the globalised world.
5. Festivals such as Diwali and Holi which were earlier celebrated as Hindu festivals are now becoming more and more secularised and being practised across the borders irrespective of religious identities.
6. India has a rich cultural background and pride of its culture is famous throughout the world. Globalization has not only inculcated westernization in India but conversely, Indian culture has also spread its impact globally.

Globalisation and westernisation are not new phenomena occurring for the first time on the face of the earth. It is a continuous process in which societies and cultures of the world interact and affect each other. Recently, due to rapid physical and virtual connectivity, this pace of interaction and influence has increased. The resilience of Indian culture is evident from the fact that many civilisations emerged on the face of the earth and vanished, but the essence of Indus valley civilisation and the Vedic era spirituality is still alive in India. This implies that Indian culture always welcomed other cultures but never lost its original identity.