How India Became America

The new awakening could be felt everywhere – from bookstores where the stacks overflowed with books titled ‘India Booms’, ‘The Indian Renaissance’ etc to many global studies suggesting Indian optimism and a new found admiration for the great American thoughts – “globalization, free-market capitalism,  multinational companies etc.”

India’s Americanization has been, in many ways, a wonderful thing as it lifted many from poverty, seeded the ideas of individual achievements, and initiated the process of dismantling the repressive old order in the society. However, the author laments about the complexity and ambivalent nature of the American style of prosperity. He sees an agricultural and environmental crisis and a weakening social structure under the weight of new money. “The American promise of renewal and reinvention is deeply seductive and is profoundly menacing” – he concludes.

Do the author’s arguments really make modern India a replica of America?  Fundamentally NO. While liberalization gave wings to the long suppressed Indian soul that was never austere or dour by choice, it didn’t make us American. Instead, there have been endless possibilities and this consumerist capitalism gave us a new line of thinking with regard to our habit of matching priorities to resources. We began to exhibit our rising fortunes and this reflected in our increased spending in malls, holidays, brands etc. While both would admit the fact that we share many strengths and flaws in common, we remain unique in cultural iteration.