Keeping up with the Jones (runaway consumerism in Indian society)

March 15, 2004

Keeping up with the Jones

The malls are drawing big crowds

India's fast-growing consumer class has fired a competitive need towards over-consumption amongst people in the country, a leading psychologist says.

According to Dr Achal Bhagat, the country's economic boom has meant a new obsession has arisen amongst the middle classes to "keep up with the Joneses".

He argues that for these people, the focus of their life has become to acquire things.

"Life has become a comparative statement," he told BBC World Service's The World Today programme.

"It's the Joneses kind of story all over again. You are comparing your goods from skirts to mobile phones to houses. There is a rush on and there's a credit line that's always ticking."

Accusations

Advertisers are now very keen to stimulate this huge potential market.

In particular, India's new middle class has been enthused about the arrival of shopping malls.

Some spend all day there, buying international goods and snacking on Western fast food, protected from the heat and haggling of the world outside.

However, Western environmentalists have begun to view this runaway consumerism with some alarm.

There are concerns about the environmental consequences of rampant consumerism

Some fear that rampant consumerism among both the Indians and Chinese middle classes will be disastrous.

But this has infuriated many in India, who accuse Western countries of being greedy themselves and unwilling to share with others.

"Before the Indians learn they should not have the cars, the air cons, the fridges - because it's going to worsen the ozone hole and lead to climate change - the Americans and Brits need to be told equally that if everybody across the globe were to have an air con, this is what it would do," said Sunita Narian of the Centre for Science and Environment in Delhi.

"So we all have to reduce our levels of consumption."

But Dr Bhagat warns of other concerns to do with the effect rampant commercialism might have on India.

He predicts falling values causing rising divorce, teen pregnancy, crime and depression. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3492610.stm

“Some great voice is waiting to be heard which will usher in the sacred light of truth in the dark hours of the nightmare of politics, the voice which will proclaim that 'God is over all,' and exhort us never to covet, to be great in renunciation that gives us the wealth of spirit, strength of truth, leads us from the illusion of power to the fullness of perfection, to the Santam, who is peace eternal, to the Advaitam, who is the infinite One in the heart of the manifold. But we in India have not had the chance.”Rabindranath Tagore

“Vedic Heritage

I do hope that your newspaper will acquaint the Hindus living away from India with the source of Hindu Dharma and not only to the mythological information about it. The Vedas, the Upanishads and the Bhagavad Geeta are the source of Hindu Dharma. The homogeneous wholeness of cosmic life, the mysterious, interrelatedness of all things and beings inhabiting the planet, the divinity and sacredness of life and the built-in equal status of all living beings obliging us to have reverence for life, are some of the salient characteristics of our Vedic heritage.

The Hindus who have gone abroad with the sole purpose of acquiring money and physical comforts must be made aware that dedication to atma-paramatma — the existential essence of life — is the ultimate purpose of human life. Instead of aping and imitating non-Indian ways of life, they should carry the torch of Vedic culture to all parts of the globe.”Vimala Thakar, Himachal Pradesh, India Hinduism Today, February 1994

Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

“Indians have no goal as far as spiritual life is concerned. Mostly, if they have it, it is so limited, that it should help them in family life, in their relationship with others, with their bodies, or with their jobs, or with their marriages, or little more and little more — that is all. But very gross, the goal is extremely gross of Indians; is that they want to achieve a kind of an affluence that you have, in their hearts of hearts. But they do not know the pangs . . . they think they can keep the Spirit as well as the other side of it. You cannot. You cannot serve two masters. So now what

to do? They would prefer to choose this side than to choose the Spirit.”

Shri Adbhuta-caritra DeviImportance Of Self-Realization, Delhi, India — February 8, 1983

Adbhuta-caritra (987th): Of marvelous history as depicted in Lalitopakhyana and other Puranas; or Her acts from Srsti to Anugraha are unique and marvelous. www.adishakti.org | www.al-qiyamah.org | contact us