“Resurgent India” is a term we’ve heard so many times in the last two years that it’s coming out of our ears now. More importantly, its all made us believe that Indianness is truly a resurgent sentiment. The reality is that this feeling is restricted to the metros and that too may be a questionable assumption. At least that’s what can be deduced from the findings of the “Bunty Syndrome” Study conducted by us at Euro RSCG.
For those of you who don't know, Bunty Syndrome is Euro RSCG's study of attitudes, behaviour and trends in Tier 2 cities of India. The study interviewed 2400 young people in 12 non-metro cities of India.
If you think about it, the reality will seem fairly apparent. The “brain drain” that India faced for close to 10 years was primarily a metro (read Tier I) phenomenon. It was the youth in the urban metros that lost their belief in the Indian system and opportunities owing to the perceived lack of career options coupled with the flawed Indian system. Hence, the obvious aspiration was to catch the next available flight to USA and hope to live a life of their dreams.
It is also the urban metros that are responsible for the “reverse brain drain” as well. As the economy started galloping and the service sector boomed, the young Indians (in the age group of 27 – 35) primarily who had migrated to other countries realized that the future seemed brighter back home.
Hence, it is only with the urban metros that we can probably attribute “resurgence of Indianness” since it is only here that the belief in the Indian values had actually waned and subsequently came back.
In the rest of the country (Tier II cities included), the belief in the Indian values and systems had never actually waned. Of course, cynicism existed and probably still does in small measures. But for multiple reasons (lack of visible opportunities and insufficient support may be a couple) the Indians in the Tier II cities never really considered jumping over to the other side of the oceans. They youth in these cities knew that they needed to make a living in India and hence believed a lot more in the Indian values and cultures than probably their urban counterparts. The only issue was that there was a lot of wrongs happening around them (corruption, lack of opportunities, casteism) because of which they could not openly show their positivism about India since they had no evidence to back it.
Today, with the Indian sub continent performing like it’s on steroids, there is a lot for these youth in the Tier II cities to feel proud about. And hence, they can very confidently and openly show their pride in being Indian. They have found the ammunition to back their belief in the motherland. In the Tier II cities, its not about resurgence but about the “Arrogance of being Indian”. This comes through quite clearly in the study. More than 94% of the respondents in the Tier II cities indicated that they’d prefer to work in India rather than abroad. The urban metros had 76% of the respondents indicating such a sentiment.
I guess that’s why youth in the urban metros watched “Chak De India” and were rejuvenated but not the youth in the Tier II cities. That’s because they live “Chak De India” every single day
For those of you who don't know, Bunty Syndrome is Euro RSCG's study of attitudes, behaviour and trends in Tier 2 cities of India. The study interviewed 2400 young people in 12 non-metro cities of India.
If you think about it, the reality will seem fairly apparent. The “brain drain” that India faced for close to 10 years was primarily a metro (read Tier I) phenomenon. It was the youth in the urban metros that lost their belief in the Indian system and opportunities owing to the perceived lack of career options coupled with the flawed Indian system. Hence, the obvious aspiration was to catch the next available flight to USA and hope to live a life of their dreams.
It is also the urban metros that are responsible for the “reverse brain drain” as well. As the economy started galloping and the service sector boomed, the young Indians (in the age group of 27 – 35) primarily who had migrated to other countries realized that the future seemed brighter back home.
Hence, it is only with the urban metros that we can probably attribute “resurgence of Indianness” since it is only here that the belief in the Indian values had actually waned and subsequently came back.
In the rest of the country (Tier II cities included), the belief in the Indian values and systems had never actually waned. Of course, cynicism existed and probably still does in small measures. But for multiple reasons (lack of visible opportunities and insufficient support may be a couple) the Indians in the Tier II cities never really considered jumping over to the other side of the oceans. They youth in these cities knew that they needed to make a living in India and hence believed a lot more in the Indian values and cultures than probably their urban counterparts. The only issue was that there was a lot of wrongs happening around them (corruption, lack of opportunities, casteism) because of which they could not openly show their positivism about India since they had no evidence to back it.
Today, with the Indian sub continent performing like it’s on steroids, there is a lot for these youth in the Tier II cities to feel proud about. And hence, they can very confidently and openly show their pride in being Indian. They have found the ammunition to back their belief in the motherland. In the Tier II cities, its not about resurgence but about the “Arrogance of being Indian”. This comes through quite clearly in the study. More than 94% of the respondents in the Tier II cities indicated that they’d prefer to work in India rather than abroad. The urban metros had 76% of the respondents indicating such a sentiment.
I guess that’s why youth in the urban metros watched “Chak De India” and were rejuvenated but not the youth in the Tier II cities. That’s because they live “Chak De India” every single day
Comments
very true! the proud to be Indian feeling was always there is the tier 2 cities....
I think all of us actually do not know how the youth feel elsewhere and think Mumbai is equal to India
cheers!