SUMMARY

The research “Globalization, youth and cultural changes in Indian

Society” is an attempt to understand our youth in this era of globalized
world. It envisages a multiple dimensions of Indian youth ranging from
education, job, marriage, dowry system, Live in relationship, pre marital
sex, life partner, role of mass media, social media and Internet and the
changes in youth lifestyle in context of globalization keeping in view the
possible impact of cultural changes in contemporary Indian Society.
Further general objectives of this study are to elucidate the wide spread
crisis in contemporary Indian society and culture consequent upon
globalization.

Globalization:

People around the globe are more connected to each other today than ever
before in the history of mankind. Globalization in its basic form is
neither particularly new, nor in general a folly. Globalization broadly
refers to the expansion of the global linkages, the organization of the
social life on the global scale and the growth of the global consciousness
and hence to the consolidation of the world society. It is the process by
which the boundary line between different countries became insignificant
and the whole world transforms into a group or Global village. The
traditional concept of ancient India known as ‘Vashudhaiv
kutumbakam’ can be taken to be the starting point of Globalization in the
real sense in which the whole world considered as a family.
The most common interpretations of the globalization say that the world
is becoming more uniform and standardized through a technological,
commercial and cultural synchronization coming from the west. These
perspectives equate globalization with westernization. However, there are
other assessments that agree for viewing globalization as a process of
hybridization, which gives rise to global melange.

How globalization should be interpreted is hard to say because its

meaning varies widely according to the context in which it is used. Thus
in Economics globalization refers to economic internationalization and
the spread of capitalist market relations. In politics and international
relations, the focus is on the increasing density of interstate relations and
the development of global politics. In sociology, the concern is with the
social changes and the emergence of “world society”. In cultural studies,
the emphasis is on the global communications and their influence on
culture and identity. As it becomes evident, globalization is a subject of
study in various domains. In its broadest sense globalization refers to the
extension of a whole range of economic, cultural and political activities
across the world landscape. In this context, the increasing economic and
cultural interdependence of societies on a world scale involves interaction
in so many areas and at numerous levels, it is virtually impossible to
conceive of globalization as a singular concept.

Youth:-

Youth may be best understood as a period of transition from the

dependence of childhood to adulthood’s independence and awareness of
independence as member of community. Youth is a more fluid category
than a fixed age group. However, age is the easiest way to define this
group, particularly in relation to education and employment. Therefore

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“youth” is often indicated as a person between the age where he/she may
leave compulsory education, and the age at which he/she finds his/her
first employment.

The UN for statistical consistency across regions, define “youth” as

those person’s between the age of 15 and 24 years without prejudice to
other definitions by member states.

According to Oxford Dictionary definition “youth is generally the time

of life between childhood and adulthood”. The appearance, freshness,
vigour, spirit etc. are characteristics of one who is young. Youth is the
term used for people of both sexes male and female of young age.

According to national youth policy in India, age group between 13 to

35 years are considered as youth and as per census 2001, 41.05% of
Indian population are youth. The greatest wealth and strength of any
nation is its youth. The future of a nation lies in the hands of its
prosperity. The quality of youth determines the kind of future, the nation
will have. India is the largest youth population in the world today. India
has more than 50% of its population below the age of 25 and more than
65% below the age of 35. It is expected that, in 2020, the average age of
an Indian will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. In
India youth constitutes 41 % of total population and if we can harness this
powerhouse of the nation in right direction then India may reach to the
untold heights. Viewing in this context, this study is an attempt to
understand the youth in general and youth culture in particular in ever
evolving globalized world.

Youth Culture:

Youth today are growing up in an increasingly commercialized media

saturated world. In many way, the concept of ‘Youth’ and shared ‘youth
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culture’ are relatively new, having emerged in the 1950s in the wake of
post war expansion of consumerism in the western world. The concept of
‘Global Youth culture’ is not easy to define, as it reflects the assumption
that a majority of the world young people share a common cultural frame
work. In essence, youth culture can be interpreted as young people’s own
free space, which offers an alternative to the adult world as one develops
questions and assumes roles in one’s society.

Youth culture today tend to be strongly associated with increasing

commercialism so much so that youth become more widely
acknowledged as autonomous consumers and targeted by marketing
campaigns. Superficial or not, a centre feature of the global youth culture
is that young people around the world are connected by their
consumption of certain commercial products. Consequently it is
impossible to undertake an effective examination of youth cultures
without exploring young people’s relationship with the mass media,
internet and social media. Youth culture is created, adopted, accessed and
disseminated largely through worldwide telecommunication network that
are rapidly expanding to reach many different parts of the world. The
internet, local and satellite television and radio and other popular media
are the channels through which youth oriented cultural influences are
transferred to India using movie, music, media, Technology, lifestyle,
consumer goods, advertisements, sports and other means. Defined within
this context the current youth culture is clearly international in nature, as
the consumption habits associated with it are to be found whatever young
people have purchasing power.

In today’s world, peer group and the products of the industry are also
contributing greatly to the evolution of youth culture. Peer groups are
becoming ever stronger agents of socialization and at times this creates
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conflict within the socialization process, as the role of parents and family
has weakened in many contexts. The traditional roles and assumptions
associated with the succession of generations and their inherent
hierarchies have started to crumble. Socialization is no longer an
automatic process in which adults simply transfer prevailing values to
young people for their own use, as in the case with so called direct
socialization. In some settings formal institutions have become more
necessary; public, civic and other organization specializing in youth
development have taken over some aspects of the socialization process,
as parents, family members and neighbours can no longer manage on
their own. Peer interaction has a surreptitious impact on socialization as
young people experiment, investigate and test the principles, rules,
customs and habits of adult cultures outside the realm of adult influence.

The emergence of global media driven youth culture signifies the

building of a new landscape of socialization. With the structures and
traditional roles of families undergoing major changes, youth culture and
youth media have emerged as entirely new agents of socialization, giving
rise to new forms of socialization.

Purpose of the study:

Globalization has been a universal phenomenon in the modern world.

This process has directly affected the traditional societies and cultures of
the Afro – Asian nations. The process of globalization has caused
irreparable damage to the time old social and cultural values and norms of
behaviour in these countries. India is not an exception to this
phenomenon. Due to the impact of globalization, the traditional structures
of society have almost disintegrated.

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On account of globalization the traditional society and culture in India
has come under direct onslaught of western civilization and style of
living. The patterns of food, dress, ornaments, manners and etiquettes and
interpersonal communication have been directly influenced. Old
traditions have either wiped out or the same have been innovated in the
light of western ideas and ideology. Owing to these influences due to
globalization, the negative conditions have reached their highest point in
recent time and both society and culture in India have been overtaken by
a deep and a grave crises present time.

The negative conditions, crises and predicaments, which have become

matters of common observations, have motivated the researcher to launch
herself upon this critical research which will be fully in consonance with
the needs of the time and the same will be meaningful not only to the
scholars and students of sociology but also the policy makers and
planners of the country.

Scope of the study: -

A variety of factors may contribute to understand the effect of

Globalization on youth and cultural changes in Indian society. For
example the role of Information Technology and internet and mass media
in the lives of youth in respect of education, employment, culture,
fashion, sports and mass media etc. In a similar fashion the Peer pressure
is the determining factors in respect of relationship, lifestyle and
employment etc. However, this study does not represent the youth culture
of whole India but this study is based on the survey of university going
students, who comes from different section of society and different social,
educational, cultural and economical background and represent the
modern Indian youth particularly the educated youth and their thinking in

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this era of globalization, who are witnessing the revolution in field of
ICT, emergence of MNCs ,BPOs, KPOs and new all pervasive mass
media.

This study broadly looks into the multiple dimensions of Indian youth
and their aspiration in respect of education, job, marriage, dowry, live-in
relationship, life partner and lifestyle in context of globalization and thus
the emerging challenges before the culture of Indian society. However, it
may not be the perfect study because of the rapid pace of globalization
and every day the new dimensions are opening up for further intensive
study on this topic.

Further, although the results of this research can be compared with

similar analysis conducted in other countries to show similarities and
differences on the impact of globalization on youth culture and also this
study does not provide the cross country comparisons. India is a multi
ethnic and multi cultural countries and to understand its culture in any
single perspective is a very complex phenomenon but this research is an
attempt to understand the youth culture in contemporary globalized
world.

Significance of the study:-

The study of globalization and its impact on cultural, social, educational

and political fields in general and global youth culture in particular is a
subject of academic interest and research among worldwide scholars and
academician since the inception of globalization phenomenon. This study
further adds to the growing body of research by providing empirical
information about the impact of globalization on youth and cultural
change in Indian society. It is important to mention that academic
research on emerging Global youth culture in different countries has

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looked at wide ranging issues such as cultural globalization, media and
globalization process, impact of globalization in educational reform,
sexual behaviour and health risk of adolescents , effect on social
institutions etc. moreover, in India these studies have looked at few of
them issues.

This case study is peculiar in the sense that it provided the glimpses of
thoughts and behavioural pattern of Indian youth. The analysis is also
specific in the sense that it looks into the mindset of student sex wise as
well as faculty wise. This research made an attempt to peep into the
minds of different faculty students and tries to analyse what impression of
globalization process has been imprinted on the minds of these student
faculty wise and sex wise.

Research Area:-

The present study has been conducted at the University of Lucknow. The
Lucknow University has been treated as a universe for the investigation.
The researcher by using disproportionate stratified random sampling
method has selected 300 students for the study. These 300 students are
from three different faculties i.e. Arts, Science and Commerce and 100
students from each faculty have been taken as sample to conduct the
research. Out of these 100 students from each faculty there are 50 each of
Male and Female students.

Data Collection:

An interview schedule has been constructed for the collection of data.

The schedule consisting 52 questions were prepared. However the
investigator tried their level best to establish a rapport with respondents.

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Average time consumed for one interview was between half an hour to
one hour.

Findings:

Globalisation has introduced Indian society in general and youth in

particular to new cultural and social norms. However, this process has not
able to eradicate traditional Indian values and beliefs till now. Youth want
the best of both worlds. Furthermore, while they may choose to marry for
love, they are equally eager for their parents to accept their choice of
partner and give their blessings to the marriage.

While urban India today represents a combination of the traditional and

the modern and in a number of areas modern values and practices are
taking over. The findings show that materialism is increasing. Youth have
emerged as a significant target for marketers. Manufacturers are targeting
this new market, and new trends in fashion, culture and lifestyle are
emerging. The increasing reach of satellite television and the growth in
Internet usage has helped to facilitate the spread of these new trends
among youth and thus a emerging a new youth culture and cultural
changes may be easily observable. The study focused mainly on the
negative aspects of globalization and tried to discover the new horizon of
youth culture and cultural change in Indian society in the context of
Globalization.

It is evident from the survey, that the role of parents are decreasing on the
various important decision of their children lives in general, and on study
and job related matters in particular. One of the positive aspects of this
study is that now the parents are not imposing their will on the children
and it is evident from the data when 80% students said that they have
chosen the subject because of their own interest. Further it is seen that

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female students are quite concerned with the choice of their parents on
subject selection for them compare to mail students.

Another noticeable fact is that only 5.7% students say that they are
studying just for degree shows that today’s generation is seems to be
much focused and only small amount of students are least concerned
about their studies.

It is evident from the study that various brands, TV commercials and peer
pressure etc add their passion for living the hi-fi life style with passion
and fashion and these were the negative aspects of the globalization
comes to the notice of researcher.

It is summarized that now a day’s parents giving importance to the choice

of their children in case of choosing the subjects and students have
become more career oriented and wanted to live life king size and also
doing part time job primarily to full fill their life style related needs. Here
it is to be mention that this is somewhat contrary to norms of Indian
society which says that the students should acquire the basic knowledge
first (Brahmacharya ashram) then enter to materialistic world
(Grihastha ashram).

The results of the qualitative study on mobile phone usage among

students, reveals that mobile phone has become a very important
accessory of modern youth. Data shows that young people use mobile
phones for a variety of reasons such as for easier communication
(92.7%) and secondly their friends are using the mobile (7.3%).
Primarily it looks that this is a powerful means of communication but
later on further elaborate analysis brings the real picture and effect of the
globalization.

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The study indicates that mobile phone used for the diverse purpose
including communication, to express freedom and identity, entertainment
and information. Students prefers talking to his/her Girl Friend/Boy
Friend (68.7 %) is a new phenomenon observed and this mobile is a
determining factor of the emerging new youth culture centred around
internet, mass media and social media. 8% students talks in night hours
and on personal interview it come to notice that they prefer to talk to
his/her Girl Friend/Boy Friend during night hours. The night hour
chatting may bring forth the many new aspects of students individuality
and freedom and this need further more elaborate study.

The youth also perceived cell phones as fashion and status symbol. Youth
viewed mobile phones as personal items and used them to store private
content and maintain privacy. The respondents viewed mobile phones as
a marker of adulthood, as an extension of self and showed emotional
bonding with them. The youth also used cell phones to stay in touch with
friends and maintain friendships with individuals. They also felt that it
was easier to talk to members of the opposite sex on mobile phones
because they could express themselves more openly that way than in
person.

The surprising fact noticed during the research work is that, now students
are talking about their marriage without hesitation. Approx 50% students
are giving preference to the love or love cum arrange marriage. In Indian
cultural and social context, the marriages of children are considered as an
elderly work and arranged marriages are regarded high. The effect of
global culture of independence and freedom is clearly visible.

Findings reveals that the new trends are emerging among the youth one of
these are making Girl/ Boy Friend(60.3%), secondly live in

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relationship(44%) is gaining popularity among youth and thirdly,
youth(Especially Boy, 34%) are not hesitating for the sexual relationship
before marriage. It may be said that these are the negative and destroying
aspects for Indian culture. Another aspect which is noticed that boys
prefer the working life partner (78%) in comparison to house wives
(22%). It is observed that girls are little bit hesitant towards sex before
marriage and even a single girl not supported this view.

In view of Indian society norms, sex is supposed to a taboo, not to be

discussed in public and sex relationship before the marriage is
prohibitive. Any girls’ sanctity and piousness is destroyed in case of pre
marital sex. Sex before marriage is a negative impact of globalization
under the influence of mass media and internet now which is observed
amongst the Indian youth. There is a serious challenge before the value
system, norms and tradition of Indian society, which the globalization has
posed.

Another paradox is apparent amongst youth even in this modern era in

respect of dowry. It is seen from data that the there is huge difference in
sex wise opinion. Whereas female are against the dowry system (91.3%)
but 36.7% boys are in favour of this. This indicates the paradox in
thinking of people particularly youth in the globalized world about this
pre established social norms. Still there is hope because in Toto 63.3%
youth does not support the dowry system and there is also a
transformation taking place in the thinking of Indian youth while
choosing the life partner.

There is a lot of discussion held for the new emerging youth culture and
their lifestyle in India onset of the globalization. Globalization, its process
and effects continues to be debated. The new youth culture is emerging in

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India and it can be better understood by thorough analysis of the lifestyle
adopted by youth. There may be the effect of Globalization, indigenous
culture and traditions in their lifestyle and its effect may be reflected on
the analysis of their clothes, itinerary, food, fashion, movie, mobile and
music.

Research put the light on student’s choice of clothes, itinerary, food,

fashion, movie, mobile and music. It reveals that 82.7% students prefers
to wear western outfits as against the 17.3% of total students prefers the
traditional Indian outfits, out which 33.3% female prefers the traditional
Indian outfits, 80.3% students prefers Branded dresses as compared to
19.7% wears the non branded dresses. It is evident from the data that
26.7% students wear the western dresses because they think that in
western dresses they look sexy, smart and it is in Vogue/Fashion. This
show the growing influences of western values of looking sexy, smart,
pomp and show type of living style among Indian youth and contrary to
this Indian society appreciates the value of simple living and high
thinking.

Data further indicates that 24.7% students love watching the Hollywood
movies as against to 75.3 % Indian loves bollywood movie, and they
prefer watching movies at Cinema Hall or multiplexes (73.3%). The more
striking facts is that they love to watch the movie along with their friends
(66.7%) then followed by Girl Friend/ Boy Friend. This may be seen as
the expression of independence and freedom and desire to live the life
with joy, fun and excitement. Study reveals that there are the signs of
growing popularity for the Chinese or junk food (44.3%) amongst youth
and this is the clear impact of globalization over the preference in Food.

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Globalisation affected India and the Indian culture in general and youth
culture in particular. We may see from the above data on tremendous
impact of Internet, Mass media and Social media on youth. Just as a coin
has two sides, the impact of Internet, Mass media and Social media on
youth is also positive or negative.

The majority of students today are using the Internet (79.3%) and most of
them are the member of Social networking sites (75.3%) such as
Facebook, Twitter, Orkut, Linkedin etc. the data reveals that the total
time spend on the internet are increasing and about 24.7% students spend
more than 3 hrs time on Internet. The personal interaction shows that
these Youth are capable of using Information and Communication
Technology in diverse ways, as a result of which traditional forms of
socialization such as the family and school are increasingly being
challenged and overtaken. As indicated in World Youth report, 2003
which say that “it is appropriate to claim the practice of youth, points
towards a phenomenon called network sociality”. Though it is apparent
from many cases, which are reported to Police, that social media now
days leaving a negative impact. As data indicates that most of the youth
spend lot of time on internet to visit and check their single or multiple
social media accounts and this affects badly the performance and
concentration in study. The risk of using social media may also include
mental health, social bulling (emotional distress), texting (texting is used
to harass people using cell phone and social networking sites for instant
messaging to threaten and harass the social media partner) and privacy
violation.

Thus Information and communication Technology and media culture in

general are shaping the thinking of children and youth. The data shows
that 36% students watch TV for more than 3 hrs and 58.7% students love
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watching the sports, Music and daily soap opera TV Shows and these are
their favourite channels too. On the analysis of the impact of
advertisement, data shows that 74.3% students are influenced by the
advertisements/ commercials shown on TV and they buy the various
products. Further analysis brings the fact that 56% students buy the
lifestyle products such as clothes, cosmetics and consumer goods to
groom their personality and the convenience for themselves. This reveals
the eagerness and awareness of students towards his/her personality under
the deep influence of media driven culture.

One of the objectives of this study was to see that whether there was any
difference in the thinking pattern of student faculty wise and it is
observed that there is a misconception among others that the students of
arts selects the arts subject just because of there is no other option before
them but it is observed that the faculty wise thinking pattern of youth is
more or less same and no distinct and different opinion is found in this
regard amongst the students.

The overall analysis shows that youth are highly impacted with the
globalization in either way. In a first place with the growing ICT and
media culture, the youth are benefitted in area of education, employment,
personality improvement and other gains of technology and on the other
hand the new social interaction platform is emerging apart from family
and society and making youth vulnerable to emotional breakdown,
loneliness, security fear, threatening and succumb to the pressure of the
appeal of advertisement while in decision making etc. thus there is a vast
scope to further analysis of the impact of Globalization on youth and
cultural change in Society.

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