Westernization in India, and its consequences.

Has Westernization increased the threat to women’s safety and dignity in India?

Westernization is a process whereby societies come under or adopt Western culture in such matters as industry, technology, law, politics, economics, lifestyle, diet, language, alphabet, religion, philosophy, and values. It is a complex economic, political, cultural, and geographic process in which the mobility of capital, organizations, ideas, discourses, and peoples has taken a global or transnational form. It is a two-sided process, in which Western influences and interests themselves are joined by a wish of at least parts of the affected society to change towards a more Westernized society, in the hope of attaining Western life or some aspects of it.

India is a secular country where the people have the freedom to practice any religion and also to convert into another religion of their choice. So, all the cultures are freely accepted and respected by the Indians. But, the influence of western culture started in India during the 19th century when the British established their colony in the country.

In the weeks since a woman was viciously gang-raped on a New Delhi bus, the limited views or interests of India’s mostly male, mostly rural politicians have been on full display. Senior politicians blamed the rape on Western culture, on Westernized women, on modern city life, even on bad karma. The government’s mishandling of the popular outrage made the situation worse: Police in New Delhi used tear gas and water cannons on female protesters, many of them college students.

As the entire country monitored the health of the young woman—who died in a Singapore hospital on Dec. 29—Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said something that made sense. “The emergence of women in public spaces, which is an absolutely essential part of social emancipation, is accompanied by growing threats to their safety and security. There can be no meaningful development without the active participation of half the population, and this simply cannot take place if their security and safety are not assured.”

With women’s lifestyles slowly coming to a similar pattern as a man’s lifestyle, one can see women wearing lesser clothes than a normal Indian woman would usually wear, she would be seen at times and places which could not be safe for their own good, due to newer entertainment forms such as – night clubs, malls, lounges/bars, cheerleaders appearing in cricket shows to create more “buzz” , the country is seeing the change of women’s status in society. Women are no longer the ones who are meant to live on this planet to serve for their husband, they now have an equal say to every decision that is made in the household. They are allowed to walk around freely as men do, with no question asked. In a society like India, this would not truly be accepted by all classes, man or woman.

Some women sometimes internalize the western culture to such a deep level they eventually believe they are amidst a western culture. Some women like these go schizophrenic. Since they feel disconnected from their real world and imagine themselves in a culture all together, they eventually do not understand what the difference is between reality and illusion.

Therefore, women need not to afraid of westernization. It is the way one deals with it in the culture they actually live in. Each society has its own norms and presumptions which need to be accepted by all unless one does not mind being socially castrated. Change is inevitable though, but each society takes its own time.