G lobalisation Janardhan works in a call centre. He leaves late in the evening for work, becomes John when he enters his office, acquires a new accent and speaks a different language (than he does when he is at home) to communicate with his clients who are living thousands of miles away. He works all night, which is actually day time for his overseas customers. Janardhan is rendering a service to somebody who in all probability he is never likely to meet physically.
This is his daily routine. His holidays also do not correspond to the Indian calendar but to those of his clients who happen to be from the US. Ramdhari has gone shopping to buy a birthday gift for his nine-year old daughter. He has promised her a small cycle and decides to search the market for something he finds affordable as well as of reasonable quality.
He finally does buy a cycle, which is actually manufactured in China but is being marketed in India. It meets his requirements of quality as well as affordability, and Ramdhari decides to go ahead with his purchase. Last year, Ramdhari on his daughter’s insistence had bought her a Barbie doll, which was originally manufactured in the US but was being sold in India. Sarika is a first generation learner who has done remarkably well throughout her school and college life by working very hard.
She now has an opportunity to take on a job and begin an independent career, which the women of her family had never dreamt of earlier. While some of her relatives are opposed, she finally decides to go ahead because of the new opportunities that have been made available to her generation. All three examples illustrate an aspect each of what we call globalisation. In the first instance Janardhan was participating in the globalisation of services.
Ramdhari’s birthday purchases tell us something about the movement of commodities from one part of the world to another. Sarika is faced with a conflict of values partly originating from a new opportunity that earlier was not available to the women in her family but today is part of a reality that has gained wider acceptability. If we look for examples of the use of the term ‘globalisation’ in real life, we will realise that it is used in various contexts. Let us look at some examples, different from the ones that we have looked above: Some farmers committed suicide because their crops failed.
They had bought very expensive seeds supplied by a multinational company (MNC). An Indian company bought a major rival company based in Europe, despite protests by some of the current owners. So many Nepalese workers come to India to work. Is that globalisation?
Go through newspapers for a week and collect clippings on anything related to globalisation.