In pursuit of brand names

A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance.

In a Newsweek article, Fareed Zakaria quotes Nehru’s famous speech made at the eve of India’s independence. Nehru was referring to India awakening from over 200 years of colonialism into freedom and dignity, what Zakaria is referring to is a country awakening to malls and bowling alleys. The lead photograph in the story is of a bunch of young people partying at a night club in Mumbai. Like most stories that have appeared in the media in the last few weeks as part of Bush’s visit to India, the country has been hyped as the next big thing. Its amazing GDP growth, the explosion of call centers and middle class incomes, the malls and the tech boom, the azim premjis and the narayan murthys, the next China – everywhere you turn, the same clichés are being mouthed. A article in the WSJ talks about India’s bright future by saying :

The nation's deep pockets of computer programmers have spawned deep-pocketed urban consumers, now at the core of the consumer boom. Many younger Indians are more confident than their parents about the country's economic direction, say executives, and are more willing to buy expensive foreign brands.

"There is a sense of a brighter future," says Nandan M. Nilekani, chief executive of Infosys Technologies Ltd., India's second-biggest outsourcing company. People are "loosening up their purse strings....

The immediate beneficiaries of the consumer boom have been India's ubiquitous celebrity endorsers. Outside the Metropolitan mall complex near New Delhi, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan appears on a giant video screen, touting one of his 14 products. He hawks Cadbury chocolates, Eveready batteries, Parker Pens and Pepsi. The 64-year-old Mr. Bachchan, whose white goatee stands in blinding contrast to his chestnut-colored tresses, also endorses digestive pills and hair oil.
Inside the four-story Metropolitan shopping complex, Shruti Chowdhary spends her morning off from an outsourcing company loading up on new clothes -- Reebok tennis shoes for herself and black blazer from United Colors of Benetton for her brother. Ms. Chowdhary -- 25 years old, single and living with her parents -- estimates that 70% of her monthly salary goes to shopping.

For sure, there is truth and merit in all of these things – India is a growing and vibrant economy. Economic growth and prosperity is vital to any nation, but when millions upon millions of our fellow citizens lack the most basic amenities and dignities of life, can we really claim that India is shining. And meanwhile despite the fact that middle class and middle aged women are buying Gucci handbags in droves, they still haven’t figured out how to pull the flush in a public restroom (yes, this is my pet peeve!)

What saddens me the most is that we are defining our moment in history - our “nation’s soul” so to speak – by the trappings of the global consumer culture. There should be more to our aspirations than just brand names and the pursuit of a Toyota SUV.

P.S I know I have written about this before, but the overwhelming consumerism of middle class India disturbs me and it alienates me . Its not the place I grew up in . But I have a feeling I maybe in a minority on this one.