These days, a giant-sized, moth eaten face of Arnold Schwarzenegger stares at us Bombaywallas from a billboard, heralding the release of a Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Terminator 3’. I know wet blankets and challengers of globalisation would view this with unease or snootiness and call it ‘creative extermination’. Those who lament globalisation are not necessarily people who vandalise McDonald’s every time they are unhappy with the American government. They are simple people from everyday life, like old cabbies who lament why Bollywood music has become like American music, and ‘concerned’ citizens who blacken posters because they are outraged at marketing strategies using skin to lure audiences.Phenomena of the developed world, are now opening up in places like Amravati, which is two hours away from Nagpur. Hollywood DVDs are easily available in Bulandshahr and Moradabad in UP and MTV is consumed by the tribal population of Bastar. Therefore it’s hardly surprising that the critics who fear for the future of Indian culture are screaming from the rooftop that India is becoming one colossal shopping mall. So deep is the penetration in rural areas, that when I visited the coastal region of Orison after the devastating cyclone some years ago, I was flabbergasted to see Fair and Lovely cream being sold in a small makeshift shop, even though corpses had not yet been cleared from roads.There is no denying that trade is an emotionally charged issue, because, in addition to bringing in goods and services, it also shapes our sense of cultural self. No wonder almost all countries restrict immigration in part to preserve some notion of a well defined national culture. France spends approximately three billion dollars a year on cultural matters and employs twelve thousand cultural bureaucrats, who are trying to nourish and preserve a uniquely French culture. To put it simply, globalisation has intensified the clash between differing notions of freedom - the freedom to engage in market place exchange versus the ability to maintain a particular cultural identity.You cannot have one without the other.An ancient Greek sage said that when you step into a river, you change the river and the river changes you. When you consume a product from alien shores, it alters you subtly but certainly, just as you influence them to tailor their products in the future to your needs. If you glance through human history you will find great deal of practical evidence which will demonstrate that culture is inherently dynamic and characteristically hybrid, with cultural genres and media in a state of constant alteration, with some growing and others falling into marginality and even oblivion. The purists who are ‘Talibanising’ Mumbai need to understand that Bollywood cannot lock horns with Hollywood without eroticising their products and marketing them provocatively. While they come to you with the unshackled images of the 21st century world, you expect the indigenous industry to be reined in by 19th century outdated morality. Loading an industry with superior competition and then expecting it to fight it with a handicap dating back two centuries is not only unbelievably stupid, but also unfair If they are free to hold on to their non-existent indigenous heritage, I am also free to embrace the cultural diversity of the human race.The question is, whose freedom will have the final say?And at the end of the day, is it only our culture that has been perforated with another’s? I think not. Recently when I was in London I was delighted to see a picture of Aishwariya Rai on a bus advertising Bride and Prejudice. In UK today, curry has become the national dish officially. That is a telling reflection of the huge change that the Indian population has made in that country. Recently I witnessed Diwali in London, and the noise of bursting crackers went on till well past midnight. I could have sworn I was in India. It makes me wonder. Why are we so affronted by our changing landscapes? The world has changed, but not just for us. Whose culture is it anymore, anyway?
