GLOBALIZATION AND GLOCALIZATION
In the 20th century India, both the society and population have changed. India is experiencing several processes of changes, such as demographic transition, industrialization and urbanization, skill development, social mobility, legal changes and greater assertion of autonomy. Among them, effects of globalization and glocalization are very significant and far reaching. Globalization is economic and glocalization is cultural. The former concept refers to the free flow of labor and capital across international borders, and the latter refers to the spread of the culture of globalization through local cultures. Glocalization has given rise to new meanings of tradition and modernity. Although Lee (1994,a) defined glocalization as the simulation of modernity for the spread of commodity forms in local cultures, it cannot be isolated from the replacement of thought categories in the process of commodity glocalization.
These processes of change have both functions and dysfunctions. Among the positive developments are: opening of demographic window (due to declining birth rate, lower life expectancy in old age, and progression of baby boom children); improvement in literacy rate; rapid expansion of education at all levels; greater flow of labor, capital and technology across international borders with emigrants sending a significant part of remittances; increased productivity of service and industrial sectors; infrastructure development; promotion of tourism; new opportunities abroad due to aging of industrialized economies; some empowerment of women; and new ideas of equality and justice. Among the dysfunctions are: environmental degradation; increasing marginalization among the agricultural laborers and artisans; rising disparities; religious and community bigotry promoted by leaders, media and market; trafficking of women and children; a large number of cases of female feticide; violence against women; and at the root of many other dysfunctions, an idea that all the emergent problems of the country are due to history.
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