Economic liberalization & Social attitude transformations

I had lived my childhood in pre-liberalization India in an educated upper middle class nuclear family in Guwahati city. Memories of weekend pastimes include enjoying Doordarshan programs like Rangoli, Chitrahaar, Ramayan, Mahabharat with family, Star Trek, Vikram Betal, Ek-Do-Teen-Chaar and the Famous Five with my brother & our neighbourhood friends; attending art classes at the Artist Guild & taking badminton classes at the Nehru Stadium; playing cricket with cousins & friends in our lawn & the neighbours' lawns and breaking umpteen number of the neighbourhood windowpanes and flower pots while aiming for sixes; going out with family & close relatives or family friends to nearby scenic picnic spots or to the zoo or to the seasonal attractions like the Book Fair in winter - where my parents used to encourage me & my brother to buy heaps of books, the Durga Puja pandals in autumn and the hot khichdi (bhog) served there - the aroma of which vividly lingers in my mind and the very thought of which still makes me salivate, and the Bihu concerts in spring - the star attraction of which used to be live concerts by the music maestro Dr.Bhupen Hazarika who would enthrall the audience for hours together with his timeless songs. It was a time when social events like New Year's Eve, Eid, Durga Puja, and Christmas were indeed platforms for socializing, sharing, harmonizing and flourishing together. I fondly recall the drawing room discussions among the adults while guests used to visit our home or we used to call on our relatives & family friends; these discussions mainly revolved around descriptions of places visited or books read, critique of plays & theatres, artistes, musicians, public figures & government policies. And almost every gathering used to be resplendent with music - folk, modern, classical, regional, Hindi, English - and everyone used to participate without inhibitions, support one another, appreciate one another - and feel enlivened. It was a time when running businesses was the government's job and civil services used to be the dream career that parents used to aspire for their wards.

In contrast, when I see the childhoods nurtured in today's upper middle class Indian homes, I really feel pity for these children as somewhere deep down I tend to compare their childhood with "our" childhood and realize how fortunate I & my contemporaries have been, compared to today's children. May be my frame of reference is too narrow to generalize for whole of India, as today I get to see primarily the households in Delhi NCR - my workplace - a metropolis, and to a considerable extent, the households in Guwahati - my hometown - a tier II city. But if Guwahati - which traditionally has been (in)famous for its inertia - is rapidly following the same trend, then there are high chances that the rest of India is also moving in a similar direction. And I sincerely wish, I were wrong.



I am astounded to observe how the typical 13 years old Indian upper middle class child of today craves to visit malls & multiplexes in weekends with friends - sometimes directly from school on a Friday in school uniform; crowds the McDonalds & Pizza Huts to eat lard-ridden buns & fries and drink carbonated sugar syrups; takes pride in owning a 3G-handset even before 3G telephony services have been launched in the country, and which is - needless to mention - replete with the latest multimedia features, while their parents are vehemently fighting with school authorities to reverse recent fees hikes and would perhaps win - who cares if back home they have to give in to the demands of their child for a high end cell phone.


But afterall, why not? Why should I bother when their parents can afford it for them and do not bother. I bother, because it is not always "over & above" what is expected of children of that age to indulge in, but is often "at the cost of "what they are expected to indulge in. The focus of society today is shifting to "wholesome satisfaction of the self in the short run" because of the growing belief in "I have one life and that life is short , so I got to enjoy today". Earlier it used to mean more "to invest today to reap rich dividends tomorrow" - and therefore there used to be a focus on wholesome development of the self - even if it meant embracing a kind of austerity during student life and maintaining a single-track distraction-proof focus on doing well in academics and extra-cirriculars so that you could earn a good living in future and enjoy the materialism you had abstained from during childhood. As scarcity is giving way to abundance, somehow abundance mentality is giving way to scarcity mentality - an irony of the highest order. The child of today is encouraged to be much more confident - often to the extent of becoming arrogant - he would not take a no easily, he would participate actively to argumentative discussions, he would strive to have his way through even if it meant upsetting someone - because otherwise he would be branded a loser - which is not acceptable to his ego. This aggressiveness more often than not helps him to secure his need for short term achievements, but the virtue of modesty gets killed down the line, and the child increasing evolves into an ambitious, aggressive, shrewd adult perhaps very well suited for the corporate world, but unfit for having a happy and lasting marriage.


I remember, when I had asked my parents for a music system when I was in high school, they had promised to get me one if I could be in the top 10 in the Xth boards. I met that expectation of theirs, and they gifted me the music system. I had earned my music system. In retrospect, the way I know my parents, I know they would have bought me the music system even if I were not in the top 10; but by setting a condition they made me feel the happiness of "earning" my dream gadget. Meanwhile, perhaps they would have also used this time to save some extra money to buy the gadget. In contrast, the today's upper middle class child gets an iPod for his 12th birthday, a digicam for his 13th birthday, may be a features-rich cellphone for his 13th birthday and a laptop on his 14th birthday. It may sound exaggerated, and I wish it were so; but the truth remains - the increased buying power of parents thanks to increased earnings of middle class Indian households is depriving children of the process that makes a person value a thing when he earns it. The short cut is rendering him incapable to persevere, and in the long run making him get frustrated easily & lose his balance in the face of adversities e.g. when he has to face situations like delayed promotions, pay cuts, layoffs etc in later life. Austerity & abstinence from materialism in childhood are not negative points, but they are very much part & parcel of the education process; that is the reason why in ancient times sons of kings also had to go through the same gurukul process of education marked by austerity & abstinence from material comforts.

The drawing room discussions in upper middle class homes today are predominantly about share markets, real estate investments, imported cars and latest gizmos. These discussions are important no doubt, because afterall we got to live in this age and not in the days of yore. But we ought to be careful because the children too listen to our discussions and learn from them. When they are continually bombarded with information pertaining to the stocks & properties, they tend to glorify & idolize materialism and that is dangerous. In their childhood, they ought to learn things we learned when we were young in a socialistic setup - they ought to value collectivism, sharing, literature, music, sports. They ought to learn there are actually no short cuts to excellence, as short cuts are not sustainable. They ought to learn perseverance, focus, dedication, and they ought to develop a long term view of things - because they are the ones who would grow up to become those who have to form visions & strategies for their businesses and families, and for our nation and for the world.


The Nehruvian socialistic ideology was the call of the hour after India's independence. It helped in erecting the socio-economic backbone of a nation that had been robbed of its morale & independence by years of colonial rule. Over four decades this framework helped in making the nation self sufficient in food grains and establishing & catalyzing domestic industrialization catering to domestic demand for goods, merchandise & energy. After four decades, it was time to take the nation to the next level of maturity - from political independence to economic interdependence with the rest of the world. And our leaders rightly chose the path of economic liberalization. And the results of this strategic shift in economic policy have started to show with India becoming one of the largest & fastest growing economies. And more is yet to come. However somewhere in this transition from socialism to capitalism, the virtues of a socialistic society are being compromised upon. It is wrong to argue that it is a natural outcome of this transformation - that is not a characteristic of the proactive face we Indians like to put up these days, rather it is a highly defeatist attitude that says that the Indian is at the mercy of his circumstances - which means he is not the master of his own life.


I strongly believe it is important to keep the goodness of socialism alive while embracing the goodness of capitalism. Our tradition or our culture has been one of love, tolerance, sharing, celebrations and collectivism - and we must preserve these even while we are fast ascending corporate ladders, triggering entrepreneurship, managing businesses and multiplying fortunes. Most importantly, we must ingrain these in the children of today - in our own homes - because their future character & personality is dependent on how they are brought up today. Tomorrow if they lack the virtues of the socialistic Indian, that would not be by virtue of their choice, but by virtue of OUR choice as we are transforming now and the choice is purely in OUR hands. There is no harm in being ambitious, aggressive, capitalistic - but not at the cost of the virtues we had been taught when we were their age. The economic trajectory we have chosen is undoubtedly the best one, and we can make it better by preserving the strengths of our tradition. We must gift our future generation, not just a developed economy, but also the goodness & richness of our culture & character - so that the development is a sustainable development that is not at the mercy of adversities like recessions.