For want of a better title, I choose to call it this way..but in a way, I somewhat resent the onward march that resurgent India is making towards a truly global economy, and at the risk of sounding like a fuddy duddy, I endeavour to elucidate upon the reasons why I feel that way..
As all economics students would probably be well aware, globalisation brings with it certain benefits - namely greater choices, newer and better products, more employment and the usual foreign exchange increase et al. India, as we are constantly being told by different experts, is currently reaping great benefits from this phenomenon, and is poised to achieve much more in the not so distant future if Goldamn Sachs and their BRICS report is to be believed.
However, something that the Goldman Sachs of the world have probably not looked at is the impact of these global forces on local culture and heritage - and by heritage I mean heritage with regard to cuisine, culture, language and the works. The beginnings of this argument happened after I went back to my hometown, good old Lucknow, post a four month interval.
I believe that every city in the world has something that gives it a flavour, its own experience...you call it soul if you like..and same is the case with Lucknow. It is an old world kind of place..at least it was when I was at school -- which itself was a hundred and fifty years old in
1994 -- Lucknow to me was the best place in the whole world - still is - but a look at some latest developments did not quite gladden my heart with joy .
With the retail revolution spreading like wildfire across the country, it would have been indeed a formidable achievement for Lucknow to have held out against it for long. So we saw the development of Wave, the first multiplex and mall. And that, as they say, was the last straw..things took off at break neck speed since then.
Ganj, the main market is still pretty much the same...however, it does have stiff competition in the form of the newly built Sahara Mall. Like all its counterparts, this one too follows the tradition of a cinema multiplex and hordes of shops, with glitzy displays that entice you to reach for your purse and shell out the premium price commanded by the different brands. But..wait a minute..doesn't this mall look like all the other malls that I have seen across the country..let me see..Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai ....hey..all of a sudden,
there seems to be a boring similarity between these places...and isn't that strange that wherever you go..people say..hey let's go check out the mall..reason for that being pretty straightforward -- the old relics have always been there..its this new toy, the new attraction, that is the happening place..consequently, the energy and enthusiasm for the same...
Having realised this, I suddenly had a dark premonition...would this relentless drive towards progress lead to the erosion of our own cultural heritage...and after a pause, I thought, Am I overreacting ? After all, there was Mumbai - the great cosmopolis, which exhibited tremendous
diversity, taking all these things in stride and still thrived..and Indian culture was always well known for adapting to and evolving from the different injections of culture that happened to it over a long span of time..so was this fear unfounded ?
I am still to ascertain, but I don't feel too confident..Mumbai was always a metropolis...a look at the CST makes you think that the British were looking hundred years into the future when they made it...Mumbai's cultural ecosystem is vastly different from the rest of the nation..it
moves to a different rhythm altogether..whereas a place like Lucknow was a pretty stable and constant kind of town, where unchanging, everlasting things were kind of reassuring in a strange way, and every drastic change, like the closure of the Mayfair Cinema, the British Council Library and even Kwality Restaurant was lamented with grief by your's truly...and now..right next to the Mayfair Building stands a gleaming new glass fronted building, which is of course, pretty incongruous with its British era cream and pink counterparts...soon it will be occupied with different shops, and Ganjing will no longer be the same...so won't the coming generation miss out on something that we enjoyed greatly ? Will they ever get to know the fun of shopping at Love Lane ? I don't know...and I am full of despair...
So my contention..globalisation implemented with irrational exuberance will wreak havoc with traditional cultural ecosystems..and the faster we would want to embrace it, we should also be equally keen to retain what constitutes our individuality...otherwise all cities will look and feel the same..and travelling will not be fun anymore..
As all economics students would probably be well aware, globalisation brings with it certain benefits - namely greater choices, newer and better products, more employment and the usual foreign exchange increase et al. India, as we are constantly being told by different experts, is currently reaping great benefits from this phenomenon, and is poised to achieve much more in the not so distant future if Goldamn Sachs and their BRICS report is to be believed.
However, something that the Goldman Sachs of the world have probably not looked at is the impact of these global forces on local culture and heritage - and by heritage I mean heritage with regard to cuisine, culture, language and the works. The beginnings of this argument happened after I went back to my hometown, good old Lucknow, post a four month interval.
I believe that every city in the world has something that gives it a flavour, its own experience...you call it soul if you like..and same is the case with Lucknow. It is an old world kind of place..at least it was when I was at school -- which itself was a hundred and fifty years old in
1994 -- Lucknow to me was the best place in the whole world - still is - but a look at some latest developments did not quite gladden my heart with joy .
With the retail revolution spreading like wildfire across the country, it would have been indeed a formidable achievement for Lucknow to have held out against it for long. So we saw the development of Wave, the first multiplex and mall. And that, as they say, was the last straw..things took off at break neck speed since then.
Ganj, the main market is still pretty much the same...however, it does have stiff competition in the form of the newly built Sahara Mall. Like all its counterparts, this one too follows the tradition of a cinema multiplex and hordes of shops, with glitzy displays that entice you to reach for your purse and shell out the premium price commanded by the different brands. But..wait a minute..doesn't this mall look like all the other malls that I have seen across the country..let me see..Gurgaon, Ghaziabad, New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune, Mumbai ....hey..all of a sudden,
there seems to be a boring similarity between these places...and isn't that strange that wherever you go..people say..hey let's go check out the mall..reason for that being pretty straightforward -- the old relics have always been there..its this new toy, the new attraction, that is the happening place..consequently, the energy and enthusiasm for the same...
Having realised this, I suddenly had a dark premonition...would this relentless drive towards progress lead to the erosion of our own cultural heritage...and after a pause, I thought, Am I overreacting ? After all, there was Mumbai - the great cosmopolis, which exhibited tremendous
diversity, taking all these things in stride and still thrived..and Indian culture was always well known for adapting to and evolving from the different injections of culture that happened to it over a long span of time..so was this fear unfounded ?
I am still to ascertain, but I don't feel too confident..Mumbai was always a metropolis...a look at the CST makes you think that the British were looking hundred years into the future when they made it...Mumbai's cultural ecosystem is vastly different from the rest of the nation..it
moves to a different rhythm altogether..whereas a place like Lucknow was a pretty stable and constant kind of town, where unchanging, everlasting things were kind of reassuring in a strange way, and every drastic change, like the closure of the Mayfair Cinema, the British Council Library and even Kwality Restaurant was lamented with grief by your's truly...and now..right next to the Mayfair Building stands a gleaming new glass fronted building, which is of course, pretty incongruous with its British era cream and pink counterparts...soon it will be occupied with different shops, and Ganjing will no longer be the same...so won't the coming generation miss out on something that we enjoyed greatly ? Will they ever get to know the fun of shopping at Love Lane ? I don't know...and I am full of despair...
So my contention..globalisation implemented with irrational exuberance will wreak havoc with traditional cultural ecosystems..and the faster we would want to embrace it, we should also be equally keen to retain what constitutes our individuality...otherwise all cities will look and feel the same..and travelling will not be fun anymore..
