GLOBALISATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE

G lobalisation and C ulture There are many ways that globalisation affects culture. We saw earlier that over the ages India has had an open approach to cultural influences and has been enriched because of this. The last decade has seen major cultural changes leading to fears that our local cultures would be overtaken. We saw earlier that our cultural tradition has been wary of the kupamanduka , the frog that lives its whole life within a well, knows nothing else, and is suspicious of everything outside it.

It talks to no one, and argues with no one on anything. It merely harbours the deepest suspicion of the outside world. Fortunately for us we retain our ‘traditional’ open-ended attitude to this day. Thus there are heated debates in our society not just about political and economic issues but also about changes in clothes, styles, music, films, languages and body language.

You will recall from Chapter and how the th century reformers and early nationalists also debated on culture and tradition. The issues today are in some ways the same, in some ways different. What is perhaps different is the scale and intensity of change.