Urban India -- The NRI Viewpoint

On a brief trip to India last week, I was hoping to catch up with the homeland that I hadn’t visited in several years and savor her sights, sounds and smells as well as her people. By any account, four years is hardly an eternity. Certainly, things can’t change that much in such a short span of time. Perhaps things hadn’t changed and I was just oblivious to it the last time round, or maybe too naive to spot it.

Regardless, the truth is, ladies & gentlemen that urban India has changed tremendously from my previous memories of her. There was a time when the Indian youth were just that, Indian. The average Indian kid was stereotyped as a studious child, well-mannered, brought up in a conservative environment where their lives revolved around their parents and their families. Their upbringing, regardless of their economic standing, were characterized by "Indian values."

The age-old traditions, cultures and manners infused into their minds from the time they were toddlers. There were parental rules that had to be followed, at least pretended to be followed. Granted that the youth have flouted authority and surreptitiously broken rules from time immemorial, one had to do things in secret. Not brazenly and with a parental nod. This established, at least outwardly, a kind of moral uprightness and value system that was an inherent part of our societies. In today’s urban India, it’s all missing. Vanished. Khatam. How, I ask, did this all change? When?

Today, the youth of Bombay are not very different from their Western counterparts. No more elegant half-sarees but miniskirts. No youngsters gleefully gobbling pani puri and drinking lassi at the local dukaan but Tiramisu at an Italian bistro. The ancient traditions, culture and heritage passed down for generations have given way to inebriated youngsters enjoying a night of revelry at one of the city’s numerous nightclubs.

Is this really India? Apna Bharat, Hamara Hindustan - is this it? Perhaps this wave of westernization and erosion of culture and values is limited to a few, a solitary blond hair follicle in a jet black mane? No, no way. This is the urban India of today. The youth today are being bombarded day in and day out with Western ideas and lifestyles as a result of the media. The television, cinema and the Internet, pore into our homes and as a result people are changing their ways and their habits, their thoughts and prejudices. Access to Western ideas and culture, once a privilege of the wealthy classes of the land, is now available to everyone with access to the media. Changing attitudes are quite apparent from even the choice of attire of the Indian youth. Faded jeans, bandannas, piercings and halter-neck tops abound. There was a time when Indians prided themselves on their strong set of values and ancient traditions. I don’t know if we still have the right to do that. 

A look at Bollywood films, the backbone of Indian entertainment, staple of millions from maharajah to basti-wallah, and a good reflection of urban Indian life, will show just how India has gravitated in the last decade. Until recently, the blockbusters were still in the same mould as the 70’s and 80’s. Stories revolved around the goodies and the baddies, fighting for pyaar and protecting maa, along with generous dollops of dishum-dishum and songs picturized on the love-struck lead pair romantically swinging around trees and tentatively holding hands in lush gardens. Cute.

Cut to today and often, the goodie has a lot of shades of the baddies of the yesteryears. The lines blur. Stories of manipulation, deceit and betrayal abound and are glorified. Life revolves around plotting to make money, debauchery and wooing barely clad women performing sleazy dances. The good guys in the old movies had curfews, respected their elders, idolized their parents and ate home-cooked food. Today’s heroes seem to live alone, in swanky apartments. Extra-marital affairs and other examples of moral laxity are glorified and touted as, quite plainly, the norm. Ever see any more movies where the hero implores the Almighty to help him? Ever see any where the protagonists are downright broke - spartan slum dwellers fighting to make it in a world controlled by the goondas? The films of yore promoted a kind of Indian moral code that’s missing today. One can hear people complaining about today’s films not being suitable for family viewing. Films, after all, reflect reality and this is today’s reality.

Aside from the moral degradation of the youth and society in general, there are some redeeming features of this sudden adoption of Western ideas. The caste system that has been banned in India is still practiced in certain parts to this day but such ideas have been greatly weakened by Western ideas. Similarly, the amount of people able to converse in English has shot up considerably in the last decade.

Today, the rickshaw-wallahs and chai-wallahs can all speak a few words or sentences. The truth is that in some ways India will be better off with this influx of Western ideas, however, they seem to not understand the fact that not all Western ideas are positive. We should be celebrating our glorious culture and singing paeans about our heritage, not abandoning it lock, stock and barrel to embrace an alien culture which our youth believe to be superior to our own. As much as India stands to gain from this urban Westernization, she stands to lose much more by breeding a new generation void of Indian values and culture as she shifts herself towards the Western world.