The Hindu Business Line : `And-ness' the key

Marketers who understand and address the Indian knack of uniting conflicting values in their lives are the ones who will succeed with the changing Indian consumer.

Though it is morphing into a consumerist society, urban India continues to stay connected to its traditional beginnings. -- FALGUNI GOKHALE, DESIGN DIRECTIONS

The transition from tradition to modernity is the central challenge for all developing societies. India has its own unique solution to this challenge arising from its centuries-old history and culture. India is an "and" culture - a society where modern values don't replace traditional values but are assimilated to form new amalgams. Marketers who understand and address this `and-ness' of Indians are the ones who will succeed with the changing Indian consumer.

Modernisation theories propose that the central challenge for developing economies is to manage the transition from traditional to modern societies. India as a developing economy is also confronting this challenge. In the 15 years since liberalisation, urban Indian society has become consumerist in its orientation. And in the decades since Independence, of being a parliamentary democracy, urban Indian society has adopted many modern/Western values. As a result of the political, social and economic changes of the past six decades, today urban India can be more accurately described as a modern society with strong traditional roots.

What are these modern values and ideas that have made inroads into Indian society and culture? They are many. These include money power, equality, democracy, individuality, pleasure and indulgence, celebrity and glamour, enterprise, experimentation and technology. Further, many of these represent `rational' and `self-expressive' values as defined in modernisation theories.

At the same time, there are several, core values and ideas that continue to retain their imprint on Indian society. These include hierarchy, primacy of family, importance of religion, belief in the supernatural, importance of relationships, mutual duty/reciprocity, alignment to the group, male superiority and scarcity consciousness. These nine values and ideas have formed the core of the Indian cultural unconscious for thousands of years.

The challenge of change for Indian society arises from the reality that many modern values and ideas directly conflict with and contradict traditional values, for example, equality and hierarchy, gender equality and male superiority, indulgence and scarcity, belief in technology and religious faith.

The fundamental point to note is that the Indian way of managing change is not a forced confrontation between values. It's not about `Or' - a forced choice between traditional values and modern values. It's also not about `vs' - a clash between tradition and modernity in which one side emerges the victor.

The Indian way of managing change is to find the `And' in every potential conflict and in every context. The collective unconscious of Indians leads them towards synthesis, negotiation and co-existence - the search for `And-ness.'

The newfound confidence and dynamism of urban popular culture arises from this very `and-ness.' Today, the `and-ness' of India results in a constant churn and intersection of the traditional and the modern to create new blends, amalgams and trends that are uniquely Indian. The re-mix phenomenon is but one example of this churn.

Culture experts have commented about this fundamental aspect of Indian society in different ways. Prof Clotaire Rapaille, a French-American culture guru, author of the recent bestseller, The Culture Code, has studied the cultures of India, China and America. This is what he has to say:

"India has a different cultural code to China. The collective unconscious of India has a way to integrate the outside world without losing their soul. A culture which was able to get rid of the British, the Moguls, the Persians, the Arabs, etc., could survive anything. We will not have, in India, a phase of self-destruction like the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but more of a slow, practical way of using the incredible commerce ability of the Indians to their advantage without destroying their culture.

How can we perceive winning in these three cultures and how do we accomplish it?

The United States: We know that action is salvation.

The Chinese: Have the patience of water (which is also used as a surplice).

The Indians: The Indian culture tells them to submit in order to win.

There is no need to fight an enemy who is superior; submission will win in the end.

The Indian culture influences their invaders more than they are influenced by them."

Prof Sudhir Kakar, India's foremost psychoanalyst and social commentator, writing in The Inner World says: "... and its aim dramatises a cultural ideal of the whole society, namely, a receptive absorption rather than an active alteration and opposition." He also talks of the Elastic Indian - the eclectic Hindu who absorbs all manner of new religious practices such as Reiki, Pranic healing and Buddhist meditation alongside traditional Hindu rituals and practices.

These expert views point to the `and-ness' of the Indian world view, where the aim of the Indian cultural unconscious is to find the `and' answer to potentially conflicting values and ideas. Indians employ a variety of strategies to achieve `and-ness' in various situations - sometimes blend, sometimes balance, sometimes manipulate, conceal or negotiate and when all other options fail, then co-exist.

(The writer is Vice-President and Executive Planning Director, JWT Mumbai.)

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