India's socioeconomic makeover. Richard Breyer. 

Full Text: COPYRIGHT 1998 News World Communications 

"Namaste, Sony Entertainment Television. Please hold. Namaste, Sony..." 

It's a hectic morning at the corporate headquarters of one of India's leading cable companies--and New Delhi's recent nuclear test explosions haven't caused the pace of business to miss a beat. Inside, secretaries juggle phone calls. Outside, in the crowded reception area, anxious young producers-men and women in their midtwenties--rehearse their pitches and plan power lunches on their mobile phones. 

Off to the side, a large television set shows I Dream of Jeannie. Jeannie speaks Hindi, out of sync. 

This is the new, post-1992 India--young, ambitious Indians in offices of multinational corporations; mobile phones; cable television; and Hollywood stars dubbed in Hindi. 

In the old India, there was no cable television or mobile phones. Multinationals had to play by the government's Byzantine rules. Many stayed away. 

And before the 1992 economic reforms, the young and the restless were not rehearsing pitches or doing power lunches. They were at the U.S. Consulate applying for a visa to study in the United States, or at; the Ministry of Information meeting an uncle who would introduce them to the subsecretary in whose department there was an opening. 

In 1992, India began dismantling its unique brand of socialism-part Soviet-style centrally planned, part British colonial bureaucracy The country really had no choice. With the fall of the Soviet Union, India lost a major trading partner, political ally, and benefactor. 

MIRACLE OF THE FREE MARKET 

Before the reforms, most of the pillars of commerce--banks, utilities, airlines, trains, radio, and television--were government owned. High tariffs, inconvertibility of the rupee, limitations on foreign ownership, corruption, and exorbitant taxes kept foreign investors and multinationals away. 

Today there are privately owned airlines, phone companies, and television channels. Foreign capital is being invested in India, and foreign corporations are setting up shop. There are more choices, more jobs, more money flowing into the country and into the pockets of the well-educated, well-connected urban middle and upper classes--stockbrokers, airline executives, copywriters, computer programmers, shop owners, and TV producers. 

Five years ago it was difficult to find pizzas, jeans, and Walkmans in India. Today Domino's, Levi's, and Sony have outlets in most major cities. India's affluent can shop at malls and supermarkets, watch cable television, surf the Internet. Their children have Barbie dolls, Star Wars action figures, and video and computer games. To put it simply, India appears to be becoming more Western. 

Is this good or bad? It depends on whom you talk to. The upper 5 percent, whose horizons are broader and pockets deeper as a result of this trend, are very pleased. Followers of Mahatma Gandhi give it a thumbs down, arguing that Walkmans and pizza have tittle to do with self-sufficiency and simplicity. 

Others are concerned that a relative few will benefit from these changes. India's population is nearing a billion. A third are poor--some very poor. The saddest cases are in dries, where millions live in, to Western eyes, garbage heaps. 

In the new, more open economy, the gap between the haves (200 million at the most) and have-nots (300 million at least) will likely increase. The majority of the poor simply do not have the resources or opportunities to participate in the new order, but the communications revolution will make them more aware of what they're missing. 

In Indian cities, at an intersection or stoplight, it is quite common to see a primitive oxcart next to a Mercedes. In the past, the oxcart driver did not envy--and probably did not even see--the Mercedes and its well-dressed owner in the back. If India's consumer-based culture is anything like the West's, however, in the future the poor will want essentially the same things as the rich. 

Environmentalists are also concerned about the changes in culture and economy. Currently, Indians consume one-thirtieth of the nonrenewable resources of their counterparts in the West: one-thirtieth the electricity, plastics, and paper products. 

In rural India, cow dung is used as fuel and fertilizer and oxen for transportation. There is no refrigeration or packaged goods. Most villagers brush their teeth with neem tree branches. The neem tree has a natural antibacterial sap that works just as well as commercial toothpaste. 

GROWING PAINS 

In the new India, villagers, especially the young, will probably want Colgate, a Honda motor scooter, a John Deere tractor--someday a Ford. But if India's 1 billion--who live in a country a third the size of the United States-begin to consume like America's 260 million, there will be a catastrophe. India does not have the resources to produce the goods and services required to sustain a Western-style consumer economy. 

So with development comes problems, new challenges. What else is new? Like other modern countries, India faces explosions of expectations and threats to its traditional culture. The question is not, will India change? It is, how deeply and how rapidly? 

Bombay, the economic hub of the country, is a good place to ponder this question. The city has million-dollar condominiums and luxurious five-star hotels. It also has slums with sewage running through them. 

And there are millions of middle-class Indians who will never set foot in a five-star hotel or a slum. But, like middle-class Indians throughout the subcontinent, they will set foot in appliance stores, buy a television set, and pay 200 rupees ($6) a month to have it hooked up to "cable." 

The viewing habits of this important sector of society offer clues to what post-1992 India is becoming. 

Cable television arrived in India at about the same time the government opened up its markets to the West, in the early 1990s. CNN's coverage of the Persian Gulf War was a key factor in cable's expansion. Indians had thousands of relatives working in the Gulf region, and their wellbeing was of great interest to their families back home. 

After the war, Indians stayed connected. At that time, the only cable channel available in India was Hong Kong-based Star-TV, which offered only English-language programs. After years of being deprived of Western popular culture, urban middle-class Indians could now feast on MTV, Oprah, and Baywatch. 

RESISTING THE HOLLYWOOD CULTURE 

The common wisdom among media types was that it would be just a matter of time before English programming, most of it produced in Hollywood, would take over Indian screens and, eventually, its culture--or, at least, the culture of the young. It was just a matter of time, critics warned, before teenagers in New Delhi and Madras would look, sound, and act like VJs on MTV or before young professionals in Bombay and Bangalore would behave like those on The Bold and the Beautiful. 

However, when Doordarshan, the national broadcasting system, and new cable companies began to offer high-quality programs in regional languages, a different scenario unfolded. Viewers switched to films, musical shows, sitcoms, and soaps in Hindi, Tamil, and other "local" languages. 

The only Hollywood-made programs that earn reasonable ratings are those that are dubbed. For example, Who's the Boss, Dennis the Menace, and I Dream of Jeannie in Hindi have loyal fans, but their numbers are nothing compared with the "channel drivers" produced in Bollywood--the hip name for Bombay, India's film and television capital. 

The issue of language is complicated in India. Hindi is the official national language and the tongue of the wealthy north, which includes Bombay and New Delhi, the capital of the country. However, it is only I of 14 major languages and hundreds of dialects. Each of the 14 languages is part of a distinct culture with its own traditions and literature, which includes radio and television programs and, in some cases, regional film industries. 

There is a Hindi film industry that makes films in Hindi, and there are Hindi cable television channels. There are also cable channels and film industries making and distributing products in other "local" languages--Tamil, Telugu, Gujarati, and so forth. 

English is an important linking language, used across the country for business, scholarship, and medicine. Cable companies offer ESPN, CNBC, Discovery, and the BBC in English, but these channels get very low ratings. Most Indians--even those fluent in English--prefer their music, films, television, and radio in their regional language. Why? Language is the glue that holds together that which is sacred to Indians--family, region, and class. 

TRADITIONAL FAMILIES AND MARRIAGES 

With few exceptions, Indian families are large and extended, with at least three generations living in one household. Elders have very high status and play central roles in the family. In many cases, they provide the roof over their children's and grandchildren's heads. 

It is common for newlyweds to move in with parents rather than go off on their own. "Grannies" raise the young, teaching family traditions and language, while parents pursue their careers. 

With one television set per household in India, grandparents also have a great deal of say about what the family watches. This clearly has much to do with the popularity of programs in Hindi, Tamil, and Bengali and the poor ratings of English-language programs. 

India's multilingualism is a key ingredient of the nation's rigid class and caste systems--systems that, among other things, help sustain a dependable and inexpensive pool of servants who make the lives of upper-class Indians quite comfortable. 

There are few opportunities for members of the lower classes to learn English. Those who attend school are taught only their local language. Employers speak to their cooks, drivers, guards, "tea boys," and nannies in Tamil or Hindi or Bengali. As a result, there is no need or impetus for those in the lower classes to learn English. In fact, in many instances there are pressures for them not to learn a second, "foreign" language, for this would be interpreted as rejecting one's community and culture. 

Without English, there is little opportunity for social or economic mobility. A guard, sweeper, or bus driver who speaks only Tamil or Hindi will do the same work all his life. And there is a good chance that his son will do the same work as he. 

This is also true for mothers and daughters. A washerwoman, house cleaner, or seamstress who speaks only her regional language has little chance to change her status or the status of her children and move up the economic ladder. 

WEARING NIKES BENEATH SARIS 

Language plays a very different role in the lives of the middle and upper classes--and their children. They have unlimited opportunities. Because 99 percent know English, they can practice their professions or do business in any region of the country or in most parts of the world. They can also live in both traditional and modern India--yuppies with arranged marriages, enjoying pizza as much as chapati, wearing Nikes under their saris. 

Language and regional loyalties are not the only reasons upper-and middle-class Indians stay connected to their traditions. Another factor is that they simply don't need many of the things the West has to offer. 

At construction sites, it is common for laborers to crush boulders by hand with sledgehammers to make gravel. This would make no sense in the West--too labor-intensive, too expensive, very inefficient. But in India, this way of' doing things provides employment for 40 people who need the work. 

Western-style supermarkets, and the culture that goes with them, have little appeal to middle-and upper-class Indians living in neighborhoods where street vendors sell high-quality fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and other staples door-to-door. Labor-saving devices--washing machines, dishwashers, power tools, and the like--are of relatively little value in a country with hundreds of millions of people willing and able to do manual labor. 

But in some sectors, the old ways are changing. To participate in the global economy, India's banks, investment companies, and media have to modernize. Foreign manufacturers and mutual funds are investing in India because they are convinced that 200 million middle-class Indians are about to become Western-style consumers. They may be correct. 

In downtown Bombay, New Delhi, and Madras, shoppers use American Express and Visa cards to pay their bills. Bankers sit in front of computer terminals finalizing car loans and home mortgages. Producers edit Pepsi, Nike, and Honda commercials on digital editing systems, then uplink them to satellites. From there they travel to television sets across the country. 

These new technologies are changing India--especially urban India--but not so much as to put street vendors, servants, and grandparents, and the culture they help maintain, out of business. 

Stay tuned. 

RELATED ARTICLE: Up and Coming India 

In 1992, with the Soviet apron strings cut, India began to dismantle its socialist system--part Soviet-style central planning, part British colonial bureaucracy. 

The advent of the free market has brought an unprecedented expansion of the middle class, which is now over 200 million strong. 

Still, at least 300 million people remain mired in desperate poverty. 

But while televisions, jeans, pizza, and Walkmans have proliferated, Indian families remain large and extended, with at least three generations living in one household--and many marriages are still arranged. 

RELATED ARTICLE: India 

Official Name: Republic of India. 

Capital: New Delhi. 

Geography: Area: 1.22 million square miles (about one-third the size of the United States). Location: Occupies the bulk of South Asia's Indian subcontinent. Neighbors: Pakistan on west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan on north; Burma and Bangladesh on east. 

Climate/Topography: The highest mountains in the world, the Himalayas, dominate India's northern border. South of that, the wide, fertile Ganges Plain is one of the world's most densely populated areas. Just below is the Deccan Peninsula. About one-quarter of India is forested. The climate ranges from the south's tropical heat to the north's frigid cold. In the northwest is the arid Rajasthan Desert. By contrast, 400 inches of rain fall annually on the northeast's Assam Hills. 

People: Population: 970 million, Ethnic groups: Indo-Aryan, 72 percent; Dravidian, 25 percent; Mongoloid and other, 3 percent. Principal languages: Hindi (official), English (associate official), 14 regional languages, hundreds of dialects. 

Religions: Hindu, 80 percent; Muslim, 14 percent; Sikh, 2 percent; Christian, 2 percent. 

Education: Literacy: 52 percent. 

Economy: Industries: textiles, steel, processed foods, cement, machinery, chemicals, mining, autos. Chief crops: rice, grains, sugar, spices, tea, cashews, cotton, potatoes, jute, linseed. Minerals: coal, iron, manganese, mica, bauxite, titanium, chromite, diamonds, gas, oil. Crude oil reserves: 4.3 billion barrels. Arable land: 55 percent. Per capita GDP: $1,500. 

Government: Federal republic. 

Richard Breyer is chairman of the Television, Radio, and Film Department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. He has been a Fulbright scholar to India twice.