Q.33) Is diversity and pluralism in India under threat due to globalization. Justify your answer.(GS-I: INDIAN SOCIETY,UPSC CSE 2020)(Answer in 250 words,15-marks)

Globalization is the policy and process which is the most important happening after the second world war at the global level which has brought enormous changes all over the world. No aspect of life and no place on earth is untouched by the phenomenon and process of globalization. In brief, this is the financial integration of the world capitalist economy with USA and the west as the epicentres making the world financially an integrated whole. It has many aspects and dimensions like economic, political, cultural, social and life style. We can include life views, life worlds and the world views.

1. It has been described in many ways; it is called information society just for the reason that information is fast. The collection, manipulation and dissemination of information has become a major occupation. A concept nearer to this is, network society. Some scholars seeing the fast changes has called this society risk society. Since things change very fast in this society; one scholar called this, runaway process.

2. Globalization in other ways also is not a totalizing process. One important challenge has come from the Islamic countries as well as the very religious and cultural ethos of the middle east and Arab countries. There are many shades of this opposition. One is the perpetual hatred of the west among the Muslim youth of these areas which has been expressed in many ways. One is Daesh or ISI or the dreaded Islamic terror groups. The Arab spring had many causes but one important cause was the anger against those regimes which are supported by the west. There are many in this area who do not like the western life style and hegemonic pretentions it has. Even in India, an implicit dislike for the west exists and an alternative is sought to be in place.

3. One more trend of opposition is the current of religious revivalism, now sweeping most parts of the world including India. In India for a long time one opinion was very hostile to the west. They felt many cultural degenerations have creeped in to India because of the west. The current wave of revivalism in India is also because of hatred towards the west.

4. Another trend not very amenable to globalization is the resistance of ethnic movements or local cultures against the global trends. In some cases, this is the resistance but, in many cases, this is the persistence of local traditions and local cultures. This was there in Japan earlier, they took to western clothes when out of their homes but the moment, they entered their homes they took to their kimonos. A Japanese industrialist; Akio Morita called this process Glocalization, the combination of the global and the local. Robertson, an analyst of globalization saw in Japan, the Japanese have developed the practice of ‘Dochakuka’ or a market practice combining the local with the global.

5. In India the process of globalization has produced two responses; one is the process of fusion in which the global trend is fused with the local. In India the global is fused with different regions. The other process is of ethnic assertion in which the local rebels against the global. One scholar said the two processes operate simultaneously.

In India the process globalization has not undermined the diversity and pluralism which is the soul of Indian culture. Globalization is a reality and it has produced commonalities in India but at the same time the ethnic identity has repeatedly asserted itself. Globalization has continued in India with all the regional and religious diversities and pluralities.