India Calling: An Intimate Portrait of a Nation’s Remaking
By: thisindianlife
Category: social theory
| Aperture: | f/1.8 |
|---|---|
| Focal Length: | 35mm |
| ISO: | 800 |
| Shutter: | 1/40 sec |
| Camera: | NIKON D90 |
Anand Giridharadas signs a copy of his book India Calling after a book launch at the American Center in Delhi.
Giridharadas spoke about the impact of ambition in India.
Ambition and desire are spreading faster than money in India. “To buy a washing machine costs money but to desire one is free,” says Giridharadas. The spread of ambition is motivating a new generation to a series of revolutions.
Imagine a 14 year old boy in a family that farmed for generations in a village. He’s angry that he is poor and he rejects the poverty his parents and forefathers lived in and is filled with ambition to break free of other people defining what he can and can’t become. He wants to be defined by his own ambitions and to consume like the rich do and talk like the rich talk. Giridharadas believes that this is a dynamic in the new generation in India that was not there before.
When there’s only one maharaja in town it doesn’t feel so bad to be poor. When there are a million maharajas, like in Bangalore, people start wondering, “is there something wrong with me that I’m not a maharaja? Why not me? Why don’t I talk like that?”, says Giridharadas.
In the midst of the social change sweeping through India, Giridharadas wonders whether there are enough people taking a step back from the noise of the media and of consumption to ask, “what are we becoming?”
Click and listen to Giridharadas speak:
Leave a Reply
Blog at WordPress.com. Theme: Duotone by Automattic.
