Capitalism and Youth Culture in India
A Think Article by Esha Chaturvedi
Capitalism, according to the standard definition, is an economic and political system in which a country’s trade and industry are controlled by private owners for the motive of profit, rather than being controlled and distributed by the state. We witnessed the emergence of capitalism soon after the Indian independence — Jamshedji Tata pioneered capitalist industries in India by opening up ventures such as Tata Consultancy Services, Tata Motors, Titan Industries, Tata Salt, Voltas, and Air India. India has undergone several phases of capitalist domination. In the current era, we see Reliance taking over the economic system of the nation. In modern India, capitalism is not only an economic but a political system — major companies such as Reliance and TATA not only have major control over economic policies but also on the political parties they fund, ruling as well as the opposition.
In our democratic system, different policies pertaining to capitalism affect different parts of society to various degrees. For example, demonetization led to low-wage labourers without bank accounts to bear the brunt of economic loss, middle class citizens to stand in long lines to have their currency traded, while wealthy and affluent citizens remained well off.
Under such a dynamic economic system, one must question how these policies affect the youth the most.
According to recent data, Reliance Jio by the Ambani group of industries created more than 15000 jobs after demonetization. This is one example of how government policies have helped the youth to obtain better jobs and have a future. Capitalists investing in schools and colleges is also one advantage for higher education-seeking youth. Dhirubhai Ambani International School, Indian Institute of Science, National Centre for Performing Arts, Nettur Technical Training Foundation are some private educational institutes opened by the famous capitalists of the country. However, this education is not easily accessible as the tuition fee is not affordable by most of the youth.
Capitalism has also projected an observable impact on the media of the nation. News channels owned by private individuals may subject us to biased information. News is always shown in the light of one perspective instead of an impartial view of the scenario. Young people rely on the internet for sources of information and current news, and media advertisements targeted towards the youth may often provide false information and lead the youth to form opinions not established in fact. Moreover, capitalism has contributed to turning the youth against each other instead of holding them together in order to create a peaceful and unified nation. Every opportunity has become a rate race. There exists cut-throat competition among the youth, making them compete for basic commodities, stifling any dreams and aspirations of the young. Capitalism has his own drawbacks when we see on a broad scale. Major shareholding companies go bankrupt without looking at the repercussions of what would be the consequences. The youth suffers. In the case of Vijay Mallya we saw a capitalist, owner of the airline ‘Kingfisher’, run off to foreign land and render countless young employees unemployed. This is not the only time that a wealthy owner of a multinational company has left the country and left even banks bankrupt. The rise of Reliance Jio has also led to the shutting down of innumerous telecommunication providers and many small companies going out of business, leading to masses of young people towards unemployment and starvation.
Government policies to empower more small scale industries and young entrepreneurs have taken place since 2014. Schemes such as Make In India and the provision of loans for young entrepreneurs have helped the youth a great deal.
But according to research, these schemes have not even accomplished 50% of the promised goal.
The government is still making an effort to provide as much employment and job opportunities to the youth as possible. Capitalism also has disruptive psychological effects on the youth. According to a study in the United States, forty five million adults develop a mental illness and many of them go unnoticed. This has a lot to do with the stigma attached and lack of proper medical facilities.
This brings to light an alternative for capitalism, socialism, as pioneered by Karl Marx. He suggested capitalism is a progressive historical stage that would eventually stagnate due to internal contradictions and be followed by socialism. So will the predictions of Karl Marx prove to be true? Will India ever be able to see the rise of a socialist state? If yes, for how long the system is guaranteed to prevail? And if not, will the capitalists keep feeding off of the national resources and corrupting the government? A poll earlier this year found that respondents between the ages of 18 and 24 had a more favorable response to the term socialism than to capitalism (61 percent to 58 percent). Can one hope for changes in favour of a more equitable economic state, especially for young people?
The objective of a ‘Think Article’ is to bring knowledge about policies in the sphere, in context to the youth of India and, if possible, influencing the policy process. The article has no motivation to pass any political judgments.
Bibliography
- Salmon, Felix. “More Americans Aged Between 18 And 24 Prefer “Socialism” To “Capitalism””. Axios, 2020, https://www.axios.com/socialism-capitalism-poll-generation-z-preference-1ffb8800-0ce5-4368-8a6f-de3b82662347.html.
- “50+ Startup Schemes By Indian Government For Startups”. Inc42 Media, 2020, https://inc42.com/buzz/startup-scheme-indian-government-startups/.
- “Telecom & Infrastructure Industry India | Industry News — The Economic Times”. The Economic Times, 2020, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/telecom.
