Culture and Privilege in Capitalist Asia - Jurusan Antropologi ...

270 SALIM LAKHA
deregulation of the economy, combined with the greater influx of foreign capital,
technology, people (overseas Indians) and media influences, has contributed to a
globalisation, not only of the economy, but also of lifestyles, especially among the
urban professional middle class and new urban entrepreneurs. The state, therefore,
has played a crucial role in economic development, as well as in the emergence of
new social forces manifested in the growth of the middle class and new
entrepreneurs. To the extent that these social forces have acquired a distinctive
cultural identity through globalisation, the state is also implicated in the process of
cultural transformation. This issue is worth emphasising since the development of
cultural identity cannot be viewed in isolation from the political-economic processes
associated with the role of the state in economic development.
In the Indian case, migration is a major consideration in globalisation and the
construction of cultural identity, particularly among middle-class professionals and
entrepreneurs. In addition to the flows of capital, technology and media images
generated by foreign corporations, the transnational links promoted through
migration have provided an important conduit for the diffusion of global and
Western cultural influences. These are nowhere more evident than among the newrich
middle class. Through their lifestyles and investments, diasporic Indians are
playing a particularly important role in influencing the material culture and
consumption of the middle class in India.
Apart from consumption, middle-class diasporic Indians, through their
transnational links, are also complicit in the spread of religious nationalism. By
incorporating diasporic Indians within its fold, religious nationalism in India has
come to transcend geographical and political boundaries. In short, transnational
links have promoted transnational identities. Combined with technologies of
communication and transport, migration has contributed to a transnationalism
which entails, in the words of Basch et al. (1994:52), ‘the living of personal and
political lives across geographical boundaries’. Tied to the imperatives of capitalist
accumulation, the transnational identity of the Indian professional and
entrepreneurial middle class represents an aspect of globalisation which in its
broadest sense involves ‘ever-intensifying networks of cross-border human
interaction’ (Hoogvelt 1997:114). The implications of this process for culture and
identity are complex, and deny any trend towards the homogenisation of culture
across the globe; instead ‘there are global cultures in the plural’ (Featherstone 1990:
10).
Through increased interaction with global forces, professional and
entrepreneurial middle-class Indians are developing lifestyles through the
consumption of high-status global commodities. In doing so they are constructing a
distinctive cultural identity, distinguishing them from the lower classes, the nonurban
population, and even substantial segments among the wider middle class, all
of whom either lack the financial means or the cultural attributes to emulate them.
Consumption of global commodities does not, however, entail cultural
homogeneity. The example of McDonald’s is instructive because it is compelled to
defer to local cultural sensibilities. Similarly, there is a preference for local