Evaluation Of The Influence Of Globalisation On India

Globalisation is the new reality. It is not a rigid force but it is an evolving set of consequences. Some of them are good, some are bad and some are unintentional. In simple terms globalisation means the process through which societies and economies are integrated through interflow of ideas, communication, technology, capital, people, finance, goods, services and information. Globalisation is generally referred to as a modern or western concept but it is hardly new to India. India played a distinct role in the world economy during the beginning of the Christian era. A form of globalisation in India was in existence during the Indus Valley Civilisation. The trade links between Sumer and Indus Valley Civilisation is one of the examples which show the existence of globalisation in the third millennium BC. India was the world’s largest economy during the historic period, as it accounted for around 32. 9% share in global GDP, but the arrival of the Britishers had isolated India from the world markets. India was intentionally isolated from the world economy which ruined the basic economic structure of India. After independence India was left with a disturbed economy and scarce financial resources, that is when globalisation was reintroduced in India in 1991 through the New Economic Policy. Globalisation is one of the branches of the New Economic Policy. Liberalisation and Privatisation were also the part of New Economic Policy. This introduction made a huge impact on the social, cultural, political, communal and monetary life of India.

Cross country integration has several aspects such as social, political and/or economic but the most common out of all is the financial aspect. Economic aspect refers to as the development and integration of a country’s economic with other country’s economy, which will automatically lead to the integration of the social and cultural aspects of the respective countries. The socio-cultural impact of globalisation is both in a negative and positive way. The Indian cuisine is considered as one of the popular cuisines across the globe. Historically Indian spices were one of the most traded commodities. But after the independence and introduction of the economic policy western foods such as Chinese, pizza, burgers, etc have became quite popular in our country and the youth is more fascinated towards these kind of foods. Indian cuisine has became world famous but the people of our country are shifting from their roots. If we take a look at the clothing trends, we see a drastic change in the fashion industry. As we know the traditional Indian clothes for women are sarees, kurtis, cholis and ghaghra and for men it is kurta, pajama and dhoti but after globalisation western clothes such as jeans, tshirts, skirts, etc are more preferred by the people of our country. Indian performing arts include multiple varieties of religious, folk, cultural and classical forms and it is popular worldwide but hiphop and western dance form are more liked by the people of our country. The increasing migration rate and financial independence has led to breaking of the joint families into nuclear families. Concepts of national identity, family planning, job and tradition are changing rapidly. The rise in the trend of nuclear families has reduced the social security for the senior citizens. As we know that in today’s time getting information about something is very easy and this has led to specialisation and promotion of higher education in the country. On the flip side, the disadvantage of private education, coaching classes and paid study material is that it has created a gap between the haves and have-nots. It has become very difficult for an individual to obtain higher education. A research says that by 2050 more than 50% of India’s population will live in cities because the boom of the service sector and city centric job creation has led to increasing rural to urban migration.

The biggest problem in our country is unemployment and to some extent globalisation has helped our country to cope with this problem. Foreign Direct Investment has led to economic growth and job creation. However, the jobs are concentrated more in the service sector and this has led to a rapid growth of service sector. Globalisation has led to a boom period in consumer market. Today a consumer has large number of products unlike the times when there were only a few manufacturers. The rise in service sector has led to a downfall in the agricultural sector. Greater integration with global markets had led to constant fluctuation of prices. This has increased the vulnerability of Indian farmers. Farmers are increasingly becoming dependent on seeds and fertilizers sold by Multi National Corporations. Globalisation has not made any positive impact on agricultural sector, rather it has few detrimental effects as government is always willing to import food grains, sugar etc but not willing to pay to the farmers. Greater integration with outer world and different people has also led to the increasing susceptibility to diseases. The diseases have taken a global turn which has led to greater investment in healthcare system.

Globalisation has made a strong psychological impact on Indian society. The first one is the development of bicultural identity/hybrid identity which means a part of one’s identity is rooted to his/her local culture and another part is rooted to the awareness of one’s relation to the outer world. The development of global identities is not just merely to immigrants. The people today especially the youngsters develop an identity that gives them a sense of belonging to a global culture, which generally includes awareness of events, practices, styles and information that are a part of the global culture. We cannot say that the impact of globalisation is entirely positive or negative. It has been a mixture of both, each of the consequences mentioned above can be seen in both the ways. However it becomes a matter of concern when a negative impact is observed on our Indian culture and heritage. The western influence on the youth has become alarmingly high. Every individual in India seems to believe that anything happened or is going to happen in our country is recognised appropriate until and unless it is recognised appropriate by the West.