A Bitter Pill or Sweet Nectar?: Contradictory Attitudes of Salaried Workers to Economic Liberalization in India

Abstract

The intensification of the globalization of the Indian economy over the past decade has dramatically influenced social life in India, both economically and culturally. This paper presents, and accounts for, the contradictory bur critical attitudes towards liberalization held by the lower middle classes in Bengali society by documenting localized responses to the globalization of the Indian economy. Based on recent fieldwork among lower middle class salaried workers in West Bengal, this paper has two main aims. First, it examines whether policies of economic liberalization have provided an overall improvement in the standard of living for lower-income workers and their households. Our findings show that an overwhelming majority universally condemn policies of liberalization for serving the needs of a wealthy minority; they themselves have nor materially gained. Second, we explore the complexities of cultural globalization, especially in terms of the dramatic changes to Indian television. On the whole, the free flow of information engendered through global media was positively evaluated, albeit at times they took a critical view of the culturally inappropriate foreign influences.