Date: 18 June, 2008

The Changing Mindset of a Billion Minds

The mindset of India as a nation is changing. The emerging Indian mindset is finding its roots in the Kshatriya values of the traditional
warrior class as opposed to the Brahminical values of the priestly knowledge class that has been the biggest influence of the Indian
mindset so far. The new India has found a leaf within its cultural roots in the Kshatriya way of life which is putting an accent on
extrinsic values of action, success, winning, glory and heroism as against the Brahminical values of knowledge, adjustment, simplicity
and restraint.
The India of today is seeking a "karmic transformation". While traditionally, Indians have taken refuge in the idea of karma and its
interpretation that our life is governed by our fate hence not much can be done to change what's writ. The new India is seeking to
transform its karma. The emerging belief is that karma is shaped by your actions and it is possible therefore to transform your being; to
achieve a life that you desire than live the one that's destined. This desire and belief of being able to change ones' destiny is the driving
idea or the core value of the changing Indian mindset.
This larger cultural change is visible in the changing cultural codes. For instance Indians today are no more content with sitting back
and waiting for opportunity to strike, on the contrary they are going out and knocking on the doors of opportunity. Take for example, a
city like Bangalore, which is facing a genuine scarcity of chauffeurs. In general, the Southern states in India are more conversant with
English as a language than say the Northern states. As such, most of the people who worked as chauffeurs in a city like Bangalore, had
some fluency in English as a language. And the boom in the services sector has meant that anyone who could speak some bit of English
and is open to working hard is sought after by the BPO industry. Many chauffeurs in Bangalore have joined the BPO industry at
salaries four to five times higher than what they probably earned driving someone else's car. Across strata and town class, Indians
today are "activating their destinies".
About a year back, for the first time on national television, 60 million households (those with cable and satellite connection) in India
collectively got exposed to a term called "x factor". "X factor" or more specifically the lack of it, was what the judges of the TV reality
show "Indian Idol", used to decimate the chances of many talented singers, some with more than 12 years of training in classical music.
For the first time the Indian middleclass realized the importance of looking good, dancing well and being stage friendly. They realized
that 12 years of training in classical singing may not be enough to win a talent competition, but being able to perform like a rock-star
might. For a Brahminical India, which valued talent over flair, substance over style and academics over personality, realizing the
importance of the so called x factor marks a never before shift in the mindset. The concept of x factor in many ways defines the code of
"currency to extrinsic values" that the new India is learning is a critical instrument to success.
Indians today are realizing how critical it is to push the limits and close the last lap, not letting go before the finish line. The result is
that while India has always done well in things cerebral such as chess championships and mathematics Olympiads; we are now
beginning to get medals in intense sports like tennis and athletics. In the year that went by, the entire world witnessed the dramatic
takeover of the French steel company Arcelor by Mittal Steel, a company owned by an Indian though not operating out of India. The
sheer perseverance with which Lakshmi Niwas Mittal approached the deal, making offers, aggressive counter offers, parlaying with the
involved governments and stakeholders was a spectacle in the art of "last mile closure".
The biggest fear in today's Indian youth is being ordinary. Their desire is to be extraordinary in everything they do. "Bunty Aur Bably"
that has been a blockbuster success across India has at the heart of its story, the desire of a young boy and a young girl from the small
town India to escape Fursatganj, a symbolic small thinking town, and make it big in the city of big dreams - Mumbai. The most
defining moment of the movie is when the film's protagonist refuses to go for a government clerk job interview, which his father has
set up through reference. His refrain to his father is that the job that you have set up for me has neither recognition, nor fun nor fame -
the three critical parameters that the Indian youth uses to evaluate anything including a career. As the film sequence goes on to
highlight, a set of values exactly opposite to the values of hard work, respect and honesty that his father lived by, spending more than
two decades in the government job of a ticket collector for the Indian Railways. The safe playing Indians who made efforts to blend in
and be part of the social whole are today universally seeking opportunities that will make them stand out and make them extraordinary.
Evidently so, the newer mindset is rooted more in action than the knowledge orientation of the traditional Indian mindset. This change
in the mindset of the new India is becoming the cultural engine of the Indian economic charge. Individual entropies of the young
people are adding up to provide a larger momentum to the country on the whole. Considering that more than 500 million Indians are
below the age of 21 years and its median age of 25 is even lower than that of China (33) that should make for quite a force.