By Prashant Kaushik:
The last decade of 20th century – A new coin of human advancement called Globalization, after being long in air, finally lands in India and soon replaces the nascent currency of Nationalism (Just 2 centuries old). Distances collapse and the world melts into a (Global) village. Economically and Culturally, India is once again thrown open to the rest of world with a promissory note of ‘Vice — Versa’.
The rattles of this new coin grow louder and the new word doesn’t remain an isolated item of Economics Glossary but is associated with Humanities, Languages and Sciences as well. The Zeal to serve the entire human species rather just your native country, is appreciated, awarded and reinforced into our conscience. Phrases like ‘Universal Brotherhood, World without boundaries’ are echoed under western sponsored loudspeakers and soon become popular sentiments among the youth, at least among the educated ones. It is this extended definition of Globalization that I shall be more concerned with in this article.
The million dollar question is whether Globalization benefited India or Not?
Yes, possibly it did, but certainly after extracting a heavy and irreversible price. We caught a peculiar habit of ridiculing our own customs, age old beliefs and culture. The way we dress, the language we use, the music we like and so on – All being written in western handwriting. So, what’s wrong about it? Well, nothing except that in the long run we tend to lose confidence in our own race.
Consequently, what we produce, what we build and what we think becomes a function of what has already been produced, built or thought in the West. We all turn into nothing more than a copy machine which howsoever perfect may be, will do nothing more than a replication. Be it be scientific advancement or movie production. This replication becomes even more vicious if we constantly stare at west to acknowledge and certify every inch of progress we made.
Even something as intrinsic as the definition of beauty was not spared. The hitherto craved broad figure and elephantine Walk (as found in mythological literature) was replaced with lean built and Cat Walk. The ‘world without a boundary‘ concept was mostly cashed upon by those of us hunting for greener pastures. Its amusing to see how the Green Card Aspirant (and Holders) justify their westwards flocking on the pretext of serving the entire human species. Discarding 1/6th of the humanity, its ironical how a better place to serve humanity can be located amidst the (much better) 300 millions. With the youth preferring the so called humanist and global way of life, the hitherto highly sought after armed forces were bound to face decimated aspirants which eventually they did.
Interestingly, Globalization was as much of need to the Indians as it was for the West . If the Miss World and Miss Universe awards of the 90’s gave us a reason to be proud of, then as much did they give the cosmetic multinationals a new found market which had awakened to branded Glamorization overnight. Also, the ‘High Quality, Low Price edition’ of Labor may not have been available in such consistent fashion to their laboratories and industries.
Closer still, Globalization has perhaps benefited them more. They were already at apex — economically, socially and militarily. Globalization was like calling for cease fire. In absence of acute nationalism, each party remains where ever it was. It was our India which first propagated the concept of Universal Brotherhood (Vasudhev Kutumbhkamb) much much earlier than the west ever did and words like ‘Chauvinism‘ and ‘Fanaticism‘ were alien to this land. For a country which for centuries believed in peaceful coexistence, it deserve it’s rightful place under the sun. It’s unjustified to leave it bleeding with wounds, facing constant threats and crippled with hunger, for the sake of Globalization. Nationalism is the need of the hour, and will remain so at least for the next 100 years.