Home » Current Affairs » Articles » Importance of Time Management

India and Postmodernism

India is making a modest beginning towards postmodern society by developing its information communication technology which is the core of postmodernism.

Computer has become a part of popular tool of information processing in all public and private establishments in India. Internet services are easily available and are widely used to communicate with the people around the world. Cyber cafe is a popular place providing facilities of informatory exchange.

Even though the spread of information technology is partial and there are variants in its influences from the urban to rural space nonetheless it’s a visible sign that India is moving towards a postmodern society.

Other indicator of postmodernism seen in India is that the country is rapidly becoming a consumer society. The modes of consumption are reflected in the styles dresses, usages of luxury items, means of transport, multiplexes malls etc.

All indicates that the lifestyle and leisure time activities of Indians are changing perceptibly across the country. This is a shift towards a postmodern society in India.

The the rise of popular culture is another indicator of postmodern society in India. The popular culture is very much evident in the mass communication discourse in the country. Its imprints are found on advertisements, TV serials and Bollywood cinema etc. The emergence of popular culture in the contemporary Indian society indicates that country is fast becoming postmodern society.

Another indication of postmodernism is the rising expectation of the people in India. There is an all-round enchantment among the people when the government, created the space for liberalization, privatization and globalization since 1990 in the country.

The opening up of the Indian economy has given rise to the emergence newly upward mobile community of people in the country. This certainly supports the view of India’s shift towards postmodern society.

India’s transition from modern to postmodern society however has thrown open some serious challenges. Indian are faced with the dilemma to either clinging to their, local or national ‘identity’, or move ahead for attaining the greater heights of material gains.

An individual seems to be caught up riding in two boats; one global and the other radically local or national. On one hand, the global technological progression has catapulted the individual to gain unprecedented materialistic possession; on the other, local and nationalistic identities are compelling them for a collective violent outburst against the forces of globalization that lures them with its own riders.

Indians are caught up in this cobweb of these two challenges posed by postmodernism. It’s like having the cake and eating it too. The Jallikatu protest in Chennai is a local assertion of such identity formation while the violent outburst at Delhi University’s Ramjas College is the nationalistic manifestation.

Both these phenomena have to be seen in the larger picture of India’s transition from modernism to postmodern society and can be construed as pangs of such transition process.

Even though such transition is a slow and its variants are seen in urban and regional categorization, nonetheless it is a firm indicator towards the shift towards postmodern society.