How India Became America

Bangalore: There isn’t a real wall separating India from the rest of the world and in fact, technology and globalization have brought down the last bricks on this wall of separation. Starbucks and Amazon have made their intentions clear on entering the alluring Indian market. While Starbucks plans on opening its first outlet in the coming summer, Amazon has already started a comparison shopping website in the country. In an op-ed on the New York Times, Akash Kapur writes that the arrival of these international giants signals the latest episode of India’s significant process of Americanization.

This emblematic transformation to the American consumerism and the techie culture of the West is quite distinctive, Kapur wrote in his piece titled “How India Became America.” Ever since India initiated its economic liberalization policies in the early 90’s, the country saw a newly liberated population increasingly indulging in an awakened consumer instinct and self-expression.

Explaining the difference between the Indian mindset and the American attitude in the earlier times, Kapur quite conveniently quoted R.K. Narayan who wrote, “Indian philosophy stresses austerity and unencumbered, uncomplicated day-to-day living. America’s emphasis, on the other hand, is on material acquisition and the limitless pursuit of prosperity.” As time passed and the country underwent a change of economic paradigm, by early 2000’s, Narayan’s views seemed outdated as India began to see tangible and intangible manifestations of Americanization.

Thousands of American brands reached the Indian shores, American businessmen flocked to the Indian market realizing the endless opportunities, the outsourcing companies began spending big on teaching its employees on what America is and the Indian youth echoed the Americans idioms and accents like never before – the author lists those tangible manifestations. And the intangibles were, he says, the new spirit of the country, a rebirth of thoughts – “a can-do ambition and an entrepreneurial spirit,” which is distinctively American. There was a change of approach in the country’s moralistic rejection of capitalism and fatalism.