Consumerism Sneaks Into India's Navratri Holidays

[Guest guest]

Oct. 6, 2003 - Conspicuous consumption has traditionally been

discouraged in India. But the annual Hindu festival season, which

started last week with the celebration of Dusshera and continues next

week with Divali, the festival of lights, feels more like a trade

fair this year than a holy event.

 

Spurred on by declining interest rates and a booming stock market,

India's middle classes are consuming on a scale and in a style that

is unprecedented.

 

In the last 12 months, the number of mobile phones in India has

almost tripled to 20m and this is on target to double again within 18

months.

 

Cinema ticket sales are also soaring at India's burgeoning network of

international-style multiplexes - a novelty in a country where until

recently many audiences had to put up with power cuts and lack of air

conditioning.

 

And the number of shopping malls, which are proliferating in the

booming satellite towns around Delhi, Mumbai, and other major cities,

are set to double in the next year. In Mumbai alone, 22 new malls are

under construction.

 

"For the first time over the last two or three years we are seeing

consumers taking it for granted that tomorrow will be better than

yesterday," said Santosh Desai, president of McCann Erickson India,

the advertising company. "They are consuming luxury goods in a manner

previously unthinkable."

 

One longstanding taboo - the use of religious festivals to promote

consumption - is evidently defunct. Traditionally, Bengalis have

treated the annual Durga Puja (celebration of a popular goddess who

defeats evil) as an occasion for reverence.

 

But in the tents or Pandals erected to the goddess this time round,

Durga's effigy was hard to find among the clutter of product stalls

and brand promotions inside. Most of the devotees were congregated

around counters selling life insurance, pharmaceuticals that relieve

stress, DVD music stalls and promotions for home appliances.

 

A similar lack of reverence was apparent last week at the Navratri

festival in Gujarat, another regional festival, in which people

perform traditional dances until dawn. This year however, there were

Hero Honda and TVS motorbikes for those who won first and second

prizes in the sponsored dances and lesser products for the runners up.

 

"Almost two-thirds of Indian annual consumer spending takes place in

the festival months of October, November and December," said Suhel

Seth, chief executive of Equus Red Cell, a UK advertising firm. "What

is new is the degree to which sponsors have encroached on what were

community events."

 

For example, the formerly austere festival of Karwa Chauth, in which

wives fast for a day in honour of their husbands, has turned into an

Indian version of Valentine's Day, which culminates in an expensive

restaurant outing and the exchange of opulent gifts. Indeed, even

Valentine's Day, an unmistakably American invention, has become

mainstream among India's consuming classes.

 

The numbers of rich also continue to grow. According to the National

Council for Applied Economic Research, a think tank in New Delhi, the

proportion of Indian households qualifying as "high income" has risen

from 2.5 per cent in 1993 to 7.5 per cent in 2003. These enjoy an

annual income of Rs190,000 ($4,200) or more, covering about 80m

people.

 

But the exchange-rate calculation understates the income's true

purchasing power, which given India's relatively low prices, is

roughly quadruple the dollar figure, according to economists. This

class is now buying mortgages or automobile loans in much the same

way as their western counterparts.

 

"We are now seeing mortgage and auto-loan growth of about 30 per cent

a year," said Deepak Parekh, head of HDFC, India's largest housing

lender. "Some of this is re-financing of old mortgages to take

advantage of falling interest rates. But there is also a big non-

cyclical growth of the middle class."

 

Falling import duties have also opened up a completely new market for

expensive residential furniture and appliances. Last year Interiors

Espania, a boutique chain that sells European quality furniture, sold

400 chairs worth Rs60,000 apiece.

 

"This kind of luxury market is very new," said Nitin Bhayana, vice-

president of the company. "If you look at the bridal and jewellery

market or even the growth of private health clubs you find similar

things are happening."

 

But not everyone is happy with India's new consumerism. Many point to

the commecialisation of khadi, or homespun cotton, which Mahatma

Gandhi, the austere leader of India's freedom movement, held up as a

symbol of anti-materialism. Nowadays, khadi is for the chic and rich.

 

"There is a distasteful side to all of this," said Mr Desai. "It has

become fashionable to redo your bathroom with imported granite and

gold-plated taps so you can show off to your guests. It can all get a

bit garish."

 

Source: The Financial Times, London

By Edward Luce

Published: October 6 2003 13:16

URL: http://news.ft.com/servlet/ContentServer?

pagename=FT.com/StoryFT/FullStory&c=StoryFT&cid=1059480363695