Few ruling dispensations at the Centre have been as overtly friendly towards foreign investment as the current one. Equally, few ruling dispensations have been so intent on establishing, almost as conspicuously, a version of Indian culture that it considers appropriate. Ironically, the contradiction embedded in these two positions does not appear to have occurred to anyone around Raisina Hill or in the wider Parivar that underpins the National Democratic Alliance.
Embracing globalisation as an economic credo willy-nilly involves imbibing, consciously and unconsciously, cultural mores that may or may not conform to a prescribed (or preferred) model of indigenous culture. Contrary to what Rudyard Kipling asserted, the twain do meet, and they do so in an osmotic process that is both hard to determine and fiendishly hard to control.
Consider the transformation of business, especially among the big corporate groups that define us, as a result of foreign investment-driven economic reform. Thankfully, the depressing years of "import substitution" (another term for substandard goods and services) are behind us. The last pangs of the swadeshi debate that wracked politicians in the mid-nineties have decisively abated in favour of foreign direct investment (FDI). So much so that Finance Minister Arun Jaitley could confidently talk of promoting "foreign direct investment selectively in sectors where it helps the larger interest of the Indian economy" in his lengthy, insomnia-curing Budget speech last week. Why, he was even emboldened to propose raising the FDI limit in insurance, long opposed by the Left for some unfathomable reason, and defence.
Mr Jaitley could make these statements because global influences permeate not just Indian business but many aspects of everyday life so thoroughly that no one (bar the occasional crackpot) is likely to challenge him. But if he or his more conservative colleagues were inclined to apply their minds to the issue, they would find it hard to define the Indian business scene as specifically "Indian". And the change has gone way beyond the factory floor or the swishy glass and granite corporate offices.
Here is one example of the cross-pollination of business cultures. The tradition of family businesses persists, but India is increasingly seeing professional managers gaining traction and power within these corporations, just as they do in global family businesses. The small but perceptible rise in the presence of professional women chief executives and senior executives in corporate India is a sign of global influence, too. Then again, more and more patriarchs of these families are happy to have their capable daughters succeed, where earlier only sons (and in their absence, nephews and sons-in-law) would be considered eligible.
True, male chauvinism hasn't entirely deserted India's corporate culture, but the visible increase in the number of women in the white-collar workforce has begun to exert an influence - the laws on sexual harassment being a prominent case in point.
In urban India - which the National Democratic Alliance rightly sees as the locus of progress - the impact of the growing participation of women in the white-collar workforce can be seen in myriad ways. We see more assertive, independent women, sure, but also those who can choose alternative lifestyles that may not conform to established or hitherto accepted social paradigms. This, too, is the possibly unintended but unstoppable impact of plugging into global supply chains and networks, even if it prompts people of a certain persuasion to actively (even violently) oppose such change.
The drive for global best practices can have a similar impact. Human resources (HR) practices are a case in point. With pay and perks increasingly tied to measurable performance, new concepts have become part of the business lexicon. The 360-degree assessment, for instance, has become standard in many large corporations. This involves having juniors assess their seniors (anonymously, of course, to preclude retribution).
The importance of introducing this technique is hard to underestimate. In a corporate culture hitherto steeped in unquestioning obedience, the 360-degree assessment enables junior executives to question and criticise their seniors and forces the latter to consider seriously the opinions of their subordinates. This is a small step for a corporation but a giant leap towards a global culture.
These are but small, stray examples of the cross-cultural absorption that constantly occurs as foreign firms and their executives and ways of doing business enter India. It's an accumulation of numerous such interactions - some good, some not-so-good - that have made India a very different place from the closed milieu of the isolated seventies and eighties.
No culture is perfect, but India, one of the most diverse countries in the world, is well placed to absorb the transformation wrought by globalisation without becoming the den of moral turpitude that the self-appointed cultural czars fear. "To build a Modern India: The best foundation is our own Culture," the Bharatiya Janata Party's election manifesto robustly declared. Sounds great. But if the expected flood of foreign investment actually does flow in, the party may find it a problem to define exactly what "our Culture" is.
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