The Social death
In the early 1990s’, the first time, Indian economy was left open to the masses.
We can say, that was one of the first initiatives by India government to step into the experience of much bigger, much profitable global markets.
Till then, the first four and a half decades of Indian governance was mainly based on much restricted, much controlled business environment.
The initiative to decontrol, let loose was of course welcome by one & all. The Indian manufacturing sector suddenly had an easy access to the global demand, and be a part & a contributor into the global economic system.
And at the same time, the world raised its head to glance towards India as a much stronger and potentially dormant consumer & user of/for their products.
The nation, of course took a few years to absorb & get used to the changed equations of the world markets.
Along with the commerce & economics, it brought a radical change in the social configuration of Indian masses.
The influx of foreign goods, technology and an easy access to adapt, use & consume, the lifestyle related goods, created a sense of awe, amusement & surprise in the Indian social circle.
The financially blessed class could put their hands on the latest productions, almost at the same time with their foreign counterparts.
Besides the obvious craze & adaptations, came the biggest revolution for the people of India in the form of CONNECTIVITY.
It can be well claimed that the 2nd half of the decade of 90s’, made the world much smaller a space for us. It suddenly made the actual geographical distance seem to matter lesser & lesser.
Yes, here we are talking about the freedom to get connected, liberalization of the telecommunication world, internet & world-wide-web.
Though it made it’s late entry into India, was already a phenomenon, being made optimum use of, by developed economies of the West.
Now, leaving the last 2 decades behind us, let’s step into our todays’, the current times into the 2nd decade of 21st Century.
If we ask almost anybody in India, randomly, irrespective of caste, creed, color, religion, education, social class, financial standings; about their view point of last 20 years; are sure to get an unanimous response in the form of various steep, extreme, sudden changes being experienced by one & all, in the last a decade or so., precisely in the last 7-8 years. Here we refer to the changes in the form of actually experiencing, in person, the Darwinism theory & principles of “Struggle for survival” & “Survival for the fittest”.
The Indian Socio-economic system has experienced all the vulnerabilities which came with the liberalization, as a package. The recessionary phase became a more frequent cycle, instead of once upon a time story.
But the biggest impact which struck the nation, was the unexpected change in the lives of the people. Liberalization did bring a change in the technical aspect, but without the people being made ready to embrace the same.
It was like too quick, too sudden.
The mentality, the attitude, the acceptance, the understanding was too immature to touch & feel the change through your hands. It went on like a slide-show which keeps you amused all throughout and not giving enough time to actually fix your senses & get attached to it.
As we know, one needs to start from kindergarten & spend the next 10 years, under gradual, systematic, cumulative advance to reach to the first competitive level of Std- X.
Here the Indian mass was exposed to & promoted much faster & thrown into the highly advanced times, with much less experience & maturity to actually deserve the stand.
Along with it came the increased polarization of the people in every sense of the term.
Most of us, I believe, must have experienced through the late night sweet stories from our parents & Grand-Parents about their times, where the words of virtue as “trust” , “security”, “hard-work”, “honesty”, “responsibility”, “adaptability” , “patience” ; always found repetitive mentions.
But frankly, these mentions are getting rarer with every passing day, today.
The trust is lost within families. Nobody can claim & feel fully secured. Hard-work is replaced by smart/quick work.
Honesty doesn’t earn money.
Nobody wants to take responsibilities on their shoulders and be accounted.
Patience is the hardest thing to put into practice & thus adaptability has become a rare case model.
The entire focus and efforts are being applied to earn more & more money & power to keep oneself an edge above all, to be happier, to feel more secured, and to maintain one’s social status.
It’s not bad to earn money, more money; but the compromises being done & means to achieve the same has forced man to stoop to an embarrassing level.
The principles & ethics are the matter being ridiculed and anybody referring to such terms is being considered a hypocrite.
The innocent, immature, ill-experienced mind of a 10-12 year old in the late 90s’ was exposed to the lure of mobile phones & internet. Suddenly the world for them became of multiple choices and dreams generated to achieve the same, at any cost.
One morning, one day, and things changed for them.
The simple rustic laid-back child, the emerging youth started dreaming of reaching to the moon. And at the same time, came the realization that it’s a race and he/she needs to be one of the front-liners to touch the winning line.
THE RACE IS ON.
Winning at all cost attitudes is getting stronger.
Compromises being done.
Rules are broken.
Short cuts being discovered & implemented.
The innocence of the childhood met SUDDEN death. The physical senses got exposed to the medium much faster & much deeper than actual inner elevation of thoughts, education, action & thus the wisdom.
The medium of latest gadgets implanted in them the new level of desire, greed, dreams beyond the practical limits of nature. And the medium took complete control of their controlling system and made them increasingly non-sensitive towards much required social etiquettes, responsibilities & behaviors.
And this, somehow, I believe resulted in frequent recent non-human incidents of suicides, rapes, killings.
The fact that, the happenings like these are being considered at its peak, in recent times, shows the source , the root , around a decade and a half back, when the innocent minds were infused with various forces and made vulnerable.
I consider the late 90s’ as the time, the tipping point, of the socially destructive phenomena which we all are experiencing today.
Friends, the science, the technology, the evolution is not bad.
It’s a blessing for every living being on earth, if being used at the right time, with care & with respect to the nature around us.
Before the changes are being applied to serve the mankind, why not the social system, the biggest beneficiary, be made aware, made educated, and made to understand the pros & the cons?
Change is good. Change is welcomed. But the people, for whom the change is being brought about, should be the matter of subject on the first hand…..
#The images used are only for reference & understanding purpose and is sole proprietary right of the original owner.
