Revision summary
Post-1991 markets, English work, and digital media have changed urban dress, food, and leisure. Regional languages, ritual calendars, and caste marriage still structure most lives. Change is uneven: strong in IT cities, weaker in the agrarian interior, now spreading by phone. Global tools also revive local culture, so the effect is hybrid, not only flattening. The core is influenced in degree, not replaced in kind.
Model answer
Flow diagram
flowchart TD G[Globalisation 1991 media migration] --> S[Brands English youth taste] G --> C[Family caste language faith] S --> H[Hybrid public culture] C --> H H --> D[Diversity bent not erased]
Conclusion
- Answer “to a significant but not total extent,” and split core (kinship, language, ritual) from periphery (dress, leisure, brands).
- Use 1991 and digital India as accelerators, not as the origin of all cultural mixing, which is older than satellite TV.
Globalisation has coloured the surface of Indian cultural life and has pressed on the family and the city, yet it has not dissolved the many languages, faiths, and marriage rules that make diversity. The extent is large in consumption and limited, though not zero, at the core.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Has globalisation destroyed Indian cultural diversity?
No. It has standardised some consumption. Languages, rituals, and marriage rules remain plural, though under new pressure in cities.
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Is the change only among the rich?
It began among the urban middle class, but cheap phones and television carry global images into small towns. Depth of change still follows class and region.
PYQ trend
When UPSC asked this
Related PYQs from other years, newest first. Open a question to read it.
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2022 · Q20 · GS I · 15 marks
Elucidate the relationship between globalization and new technology in a world of scarce resources, with special reference to India. -
2020 · Q18 · GS I · 15 marks
Is diversity and pluralism in India under threat due to globalisation? Justify your answer. -
2018 · Q19 · GS I · 15 marks
'Globalisation is generally said to promote cultural homogenisation but due to this cultural specificities appear to be strengthened in the Indian society.' Elucidate.
More from this topic
Q20 · UPSC Mains 2022 · GS I · 15 marks
Elucidate the relationship between globalization and new technology in a world of scarce resources, with special reference to India.
Globalisation and Indian Society
Globalisation carries new technology across borders as machines, patents, and platforms. Scarcity of oil, water, land, and minerals is the test of that pair. Yield-raising, digital, and renewable tools can stretch Indian resources. The same pair fuels consumption, e-waste, and imported mineral thirst. India’s way is public digital and green technology, not resource-blind consumer globalism.
Q18 · UPSC Mains 2020 · GS I · 15 marks
Is diversity and pluralism in India under threat due to globalisation? Justify your answer.
Globalisation and Indian Society
Global brands and platforms can flatten language and craft. Internal politics and caste also threaten pluralism. GI tags, regional OTT, and diaspora archives use global pipes to save difference. Hybrid culture is a new pluralism, not only a loss. Stand: partial threat from globalisation, not a single-cause collapse.
Q19 · UPSC Mains 2018 · GS I · 15 marks
'Globalisation is generally said to promote cultural homogenisation but due to this cultural specificities appear to be strengthened in the Indian society.' Elucidate.
Globalisation and Indian Society
Global media, brands, and English work-life spread a similar urban consumer style. That is the homogenisation usually blamed on globalisation. In India the same openness enlarges regional film, language politics, caste association, and religious publicness. Glocalisation packages yoga, food, and pilgrimage for a world market without ending local rules of marriage. The result is hybrid everyday life plus stronger identity badges, not simple cultural sameness.
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