Impact of globalization on Indian culture, employment and social values

Globalization is the process of rapid integration of countries and happening through greater foreign trade and foreign investment. It refers to increased possibilities for action between and among people in situations where latitudinal and longitudinal location seems immaterial to the social activity at hand as per the definition of social theorists. Territory in the sense of a traditional sense of a geographically identifiable location no longer constitutes the whole of “social space” in which human activity takes places. In this initial sense of the term, globalization refers to the spread of new forms of non-territorial social activity (Ruggie, 1993; Scholte, 2000).

Governments of several countries liberalized the trade and allowed more flexibilties in their business policies to provide equal opportunities to multinational firms in their domestic market. Indian government did the same and liberalized the trade and investment due to the pressure from World Trade Organization. Import duties were cut down phasewise to allow MNC's operate in India on equality basis.As a result globalisation has brought to India new technologies, new products and also the economic opportunities. Despite bureaucracy, lack of infrastructure, and an ambiguous policy framework that adversely impact MNCs operating in India, MNCs are looking at India in a big way, and are making huge investments to set up R&D centers in the country. India has made a lead over other growing economies for IT, business processing, and R&D investments. A global culture has emerged due to technological changes. Since 1991, India has witnessed an explosion of new media. Between 1990 and 1999, access to television grew from 10% of the urban population to 75% of the urban population. Cable television and foreign movies became widely available for the first time. Despite being heavy users of this new media, nonelite urban middle-class men continue to be attached to previous family arrangements (Derne, 2005). The cable TV, iinternet, and satellites have acted as a catalyst in bulldozing the cultural boundaries. All these technologies have changed perceptions and dreams of ordinary people. Changes have taken place not only in quality of life (better living standards than in past) but also in the social architect of society (conventional to modern). Cultural values (for which India is known), have changed due to liberalization and globalization. As a result a global culture is emerging. The main effect of spread of MNC's in the reason has taken a toll on family structure. Indian society was considered a conservative socity during pre-liberalization period but changes are clearly visible in post liberalization era. Earlier youth stayed with their parent before marriage but now unmarried boys and girls are sharing same apartment and staying away from their parents.

Another effect of MNC's and globalization is seen on education. Our youths leaving education in mid-way and joining MNC's . That is not a good indication. A lot is known about the Indian culture and thousands of web pages are available about Indian Culture at the net. However, objective of writing this piece of information is to analyze the practical implications of influences of globalization on Indian social architecture in the post globalization period. Globalization has influenced Indian society in both ways (positive as well negative). There has been a increase in the violence, particularly against women. Yeah, scientific and technological innovations have made life quite comfortable, fast and enjoyable. India has opened its doors not only to MNC's but also to cheap and filthy material (CD's or DVD's of Hollywood movies, porn movies, sex toys, foreign channels like MTV) in the name of liberalization. None can deny that globalization has helped changing communication scenerio. In India, landline or basic phone was a prestige symbol few years back but now you find people riding bicycle with a mobile in hand, talking or listening music or even clicking cameras of their phones targetting pretty girls or ladies. Its very nice, improvements in communication means have helped people taking advantage of globalization. Territorial distances have disappered and world has become a global village. and lots of people are taking advantages of internet or mobile phones. DTH or cable network has facilitated exposure to other cultures and as a result society has become more open compared to its earlier conservative look. Outcome of this is evident in more datings, celebration of friendship days/valentine day, rising number of call girls and also underage pregnancies that is likely to affect people emotionally and physically and make them more prone to sexually transmitted diseases . Things have become cheaper than earlier, volume of job opportunities for young generation existing in the job market. People are less worried for government jobs as MNC's and private or public sector are offering more lucerative jobs. Indians now can earn money working from their homes. License to more operators in the field of telecommunication has helped extension of internet facilities even to rural areas. In place of old cinema halls, multiplex theatre are coming up. Old restaurents are now replaced by Mc. Donalds. Fast food and chinese dishes have replaced juice corners and Parathas. Job opprtunities have increased. Earlier jobs inhotels and restaurents were for male population but now female are doing jobs in five star hotels. Even in small cities women are found serving foods instead of waiters. Ten years ago few people were familiar with the term e-mail or internet. Now broadband has become popular and its network is spreading fast even in small towns. Several options are available like earning through paid e-mails, paid online surveys, writing/posting blogs etc. So, where is the problem?

Only worry or concern? All this at what cost?

More inflow of money has aggravated deep rooted problem of corruption?

Its not so that corruption was not there earlier. Corruption was there but earlier people were afraid of being caught but gradually feeling of being guilty is disappearing. People are trying to get rich by any means.

Modern gadgets are equiped with cameras, voice recorder, radios, games and lot of things.

We hear daily a new scandal.

Police raid on net cafe,

Young boys and girls caught in compromising positions,

Cafe owner arrested with objectionable movie or MMS clips of customers without their knowledge

[A piece of advise: Net cafe is a place for surfing net and not for love making so beware of consequences if you do anything indecent in the cabin. There may be a spy camera/web camera in "On mode". There are reports that hotels and even some house owners place spy cameras so nowhere you have the privacy]

Girls being blackmailed by their ex-boy friends using MMS

Girls being blackmailed by their ex-boy friends using MMS

Mobile phones banned in schools

Teacher arrested for making nude MMS of their students

Ban on TV channels

Girls being raped in moving vehicles

What is all this?

This is effect of globalization, communication networks, hundreds of TV channels telecasting adult content 24 x 7 and displaying ads showing girls in bikinis. Only digital media can not be blamed for this. Young girls and ladies try to copy actresses by wearing similar dress and follow similar life style.

When government relaxed telecast restrictions, new channels cropped up. Kids were changing channels in presence of their parents whenever there were

Kissing ads or movie scene but now they have become used to. There are several shows on TV channels where people don't mind their languages. For example if you have ever scene pre-selection shows of "Roadies" at MTV, just check language of selectors and participants. I don't like to tell much about this here.

This is also not a serious problem.

But somewhere something is wrong?

There is deterioration in social values

There is less respect for ladies, older people

We are taking advantages of new technologies but we have to save our cultural heritage endangered due to expanding networks of mobile or television. May be this is transitional phase and when we get saturated we'll start looking back for our old customs and traditions.

In a conference on "Women and Globalization" held at the World Social Forum (WSF), Mumbai, Sunila Abaysekaran, the head of Inform, a human rights organization in Sri Lanka, organized by the All-India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), said that the denial of a means to a livelihood is an act of violence and globalization is responsible for that violence. He further stated that globalization has had a very specific negative impact on women. The neo-liberal policies of the globalization process denied women the rights to land and water. This directly affects their livelihood and prevented access to food and basic amenities. Jayati Ghosh, an economist, said the Government opted for policies which had systematically destroyed our economic rights. Because of the concessions and reduced tax rates that the policies demanded, India's expenditure in the social sector, especially in public health, had come down drastically. And women had been the first to be affected by the cuts.

The impact of globalization on the country’s value system and the overall well being of the countrymen was debated and voted for at the concluding session of the Jaipur Literature Festival. The gathering seemed to be equally divided with 73 persons findings the threat real and 71 others perceiving it as not.

All these opinions and discussion suggest that we have to keep our eyes open and vigilant towards the pros and cons of globalization and if necessary need to take essential measures to stop further deterioration in social values beside taking full advantage of the process of globalization.

If you have reached to this point reading this hub, please, do not hesitate to post your comments or views as in all likelihood you may be able to provide advise to thousand of Indian youths who are visiting this hub. Remember your positive comments may help preserving our cultural values. May be the widening generation gap is narrowed down and people start respecting old values.

REFERENCES:

1. Ruggie, John Gerard (1993), “Territoriality and Beyond: Problematizing Modernity in International Relations,” International Organization 47; 139-74.

2.Scholte, Jan Aart (2000), Globalization: A Critical Introduction (New York: St. Martin's).

3. Stanford Encyclopedia.2002. Globalizationhttp: at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/globalization/