THE NEW AGE MANTRA: A cell phone in every hand Click here to Enlarge THE NEW AGE MANTRA: A cell phone in every hand

There was a time when life was simple and social equations even simpler. Society consisted of an older generation and a younger generation and the twain met somewhere in between.

QED. Along came the New Age sociologist with trendy buzzwords and PowerPoint presentations and, suddenly, entire generations were reduced to alphabets. The X Generation, the Y Generation, the e-Generation, Baby Boomers, the Millennials and the newly coined iGeneration.



Sociology, demographics, the social sciences and popular culture have come together in one great melting pot to define who we are, the way we think and how we live. It is clearly not an exact science and generalisations can be misleading, but even so, today's youth in India represent a generation for whom the biggest visible change has been in lifestyles. The old socialist mantra of "rice in every bowl" has now been replaced with "a cell phone in every hand".



The rising tide of affluence has given today's youth the advantages of technology and a range of opportunities that no generation before them had. Nor have they ever represented such a predominant section of Indian society.





Aditi Patel Aditi Patel Aditi Patel, 20 Student

Daughter of doctors, Bhopal's Patel believes technology has broken down communication barriers between the old and the young, made the young more demanding and aware and the old more permissive.

"I am more privileged and liberated than my parents because they are more understanding."



DECEPTIVE LOOKS: They are brand-conscious but ultra-conservative Click here to Enlarge DECEPTIVE LOOKS: They are brand-conscious but ultra-conservative

Akhtar Fazel Akhtar Fazel Akhtar Fazel, 34 Disco Jockey

DJying for 14 years, Fazel has seen the shift from the no-Hindi-songs policy to the remix craze at Mumbai nightclubs. He says the success of Budha Bar III three years ago spurred others to add the Indian touch to their music.

"Everyone has started adding the Indian touch to their music. The youth are more clued-in."



That may represent a marketing strategist's dream with visions of a consumer behemoth driving a new youth economy of unprecedented scale and extravagance. With the wallets of the 20-35 age group stuffed with credit cards, the obvious fallout would be mass fads and a voracious appetite for big brand names. At one level, that is partly true.From jeans to sneakers and cars to computers, manufacturers and advertisers are unflinchingly targeting the youth market. Globalisation and liberalisation, they assume, has created a generation of clones who worship at the nearest gym instead of the nearest temple, are into the latest fads, whether diet, gadgets, sexual attitudes or fashion and basically dance to the same beat.Yet, as the INDIA TODAY-AC Nielsen-ORG-MARG survey shows, that is largely a fallacy. An amazing 78 per cent respondents say that they have never dieted to look good (Dr Atkins would have eaten his heart out), 87 per cent feel that men and women are given equal opportunities in their homes, 82 per cent would rather live in India than abroad, 60 per cent would not use sex appeal to get ahead in their careers and 75 per cent say luxury goods should be taxed higher, along with the rich. Hello, there's a reality check here.Even discounting rural youth, urban India was widely seen as embracing get-ahead liberalisation in attitudes and ambition. Judging by the response, globalisation, that overused phrase, seems to have passed them by without leaving much of an impact. Even sexual attitudes are comparatively conservative, contrary to the trends visible in cinema, television serials and music videos.What's more surprising is hypernationalism- even aggressive and militant at times-towards say Pakistan, especially at a time when both sides are moving towards peace and reconciliation. Similarly, in the midst of economic liberalisation, the Indian youth is turning inwards, strengthening traditional values and displaying conservative attitudes across the board.

That could, paradoxically, be a direct result of growing affluence and self-belief. As youth icon Amitabh Bachchan remarked recently, "India is shining on the global map.We have opened the doors to the world. The current generation has the boon of exposure to multiple influences and opportunities. It is natural that they would be a more confident and self-assured lot."

Sam Pitroda, the man most identified with India's technological revolution in the official arena, finds that today's youth makes him greatly optimistic about the future. "They are hampered by the brain chain as opposed to the brain drain," he stated, adding: "Let them fly."

Fly they will but in which direction? Inherent in the responses, there is a touch of arrogance and overconfidence, particularly in relation to their worldview (anti-Americanism, Pakistan-bashing and anti-globalisation) and their lifestyle choices (a majority oppose live-in relationships or kissing in public). Affluence breeds arrogance and overconfidence and often overrides reason.



This is, in every sense, a pumped up but paradoxical generation: it prefers the outward trappings of western culture - DKNY, Dockers and Reeboks are standard- but underneath beats a very traditional Indian heart. Much like the Chicken Tikka burgers they serve in McDonald's across India.





THE PAST AND THE PRESENT: The Indian youth is coping with changes Click here to Enlarge THE PAST AND THE PRESENT: The Indian youth is coping with changes

There are parallels here with futurologist Alvin Toffler's treatise in Beyond Future Shock, in which he argues that each generation's social memory focuses on its own defining moments. For earlier generations, the defining moment wasWorldWar II, yet in a survey this generation of Japanese and Americans assumed that the two nations were always allies.

Apply that to India, and according to the survey, the defining moment for today's youth was the Kargil conflict. This explains why today's youth display such aggressive intent towards Pakistan. The jingoism is reflected in their answers; their willingness to join the army if required (82 per cent) and war with Pakistan.



Toffler relates this obliteration of social memory or generational amnesia to the "turbo-charged change" taking place in most parts of the world. He argues that social memories vary in different regions of the world, in part because of differences in the rate of change.

Where change is swift, very little of the past repeats itself. In slow-change societies, the process of generational amnesia is slower. The elderly, he says, are respected in slow-change societies because they can recall the past and draw lessons from it.





Riddhesh Gandhi Riddhesh Gandhi Riddhesh Gandhi, 26 Corporate COO

After pursuing a business degree in the US, Gandhi (standing) returned to Mumbai in 2001. Initially he found it hard to adjust but now the COO of a careerguidance company says the joint family system has a lot to offer.

"I'm happy I have people to talk to and chill out with when I come home after a hard day's work."



In the Indian context that raises some intriguing questions. In India, with its multiple social layers, there is rapid change at one level, and very slow change at another. Today's youth cannot be bracketed together as being representative of an entire generation.

If one were to go by numbers and trends, it is basically the middle-class youth that will dominate lifestyle choices and social attitudes.



It is this section of Indian society that is largely responsible for what writer Salman Rushdie refers to as "chutneyfication". Social anthropologists refer to this as the outcome of the cultural clash between globalisation and local communities. Globalisation in such a situation does not necessarily erode cultural identity, instead it leads to the localisation of western attitudes and trends.



In India, it is seen in everything from Pizza Hut's chicken tikka pizza to raga techno music, from European fashion married to traditional Indian motifs to dietician Shikha Sharma's ayurvedic modification of the Atkins diet. It is also seen in MTV lingo and global brand advertising. Britney Spears does not sell brands in India, but Saif Ali Khan, Rahul Dravid and Preity Zinta do. The boundaries between East andWest have met, creating a new sub-culture.



Yet, it is still a community that is sending out mixed signals: conservative, even a tinge of socialism in terms of questions relating to the economy, family values, sex (a majority frown on pre-marital sex), careers (most would prefer a secure government job), education (a majority prefer to study in India rather than abroad) and lifestyles (thumbs down to extravagant weddings). There is very little in their responses that suggests a dramatic generational change, except perhaps in outward affluence and optimism.



Can this confused generation lead us to a better tomorrow? Better educated, with greater spending power and more tech-savvy, the urban, economically powerful young have undoubtedly an enormous role to play in shaping the India of the future. Judging by their attitudes and responses to the survey, they are just not sure how to go about doing that.