How India Became America - NYTimes.com Home Page Today's Paper Video Most Popular Edition: U.S. / Global Search All NYTimes.com India World Africa Americas Asia Pacific Europe Middle East U.S. N.Y. / Region Business Technology Science Health Sports Opinion Arts Style Travel Jobs Real Estate Autos March 10, 2012, 11:24 pm How India Became America By THE NEW YORK TIMES Ruth Fremson/The New York Times Shoppers in the Express Avenue mall, the largest in Chennai. “Another brick has come down in the great wall separating India from the rest of the world,” Akash Kapur writes in the Sunday Review of The New York Times about Starbucks and Amazon entering the Indian market. “Amazon has already started a comparison shopping site; Starbucks plans to open its first outlet this summer.” “For me, though, the arrival of these two companies, so emblematic of American consumerism, and so emblematic, too, of the West Coast techie culture that has infiltrated India’s own booming technology sector, is a sign of something more distinctive,” Mr. Kapur writes. “It signals the latest episode in India’s remarkable process of Americanization.” I grew up in rural India, the son of an Indian father and American mother. I spent many summers (and the occasional biting, shocking winter) in rural Minnesota. I always considered both countries home. In truth, though, the India and America of my youth were very far apart: cold war adversaries, America’s capitalist exuberance a sharp contrast to India’s austere socialism. For much of my life, my two homes were literally — but also culturally, socially and experientially — on opposite sides of the planet. All that began changing in the early 1990s, when India liberalized its economy. Since then, I’ve watched India’s transformation with exhilaration, but occasionally, and increasingly, with some anxiety. Mr. Kapur concludes by saying, “India’s Americanization” has been a “wonderful thing” as it has begun the “process of dismantling an old and often repressive order.” But he worries about what will replace that order. “The American promise of renewal and reinvention is deeply seductive — but, as I have learned since coming back home, it is also profoundly menacing” he writes. Read full story here . America , India Related Posts From India Ink Where Is the Indian Economy Headed? 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Previous Articles in the Series » About India Ink This report on India from the journalists of The New York Times and a pool of talented writers in India and beyond provides unbiased, authoritative reporting on the country and its place in the world. India Ink also strives to be a virtual meeting point for discussion of this complex, fast-changing democracy – its politics, economy, culture and everyday life. More about the blog » E-mail the editors » Our writers » Follow us on Twitter » Archive Select Month January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011 October 2011 September 2011 Recent Posts January 24 Dalai Lama Stresses Science and Secularism in Jaipur The Jaipur Literature Festival focuses on Buddhism this year. 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