Welcome to Youngistaan!

My neighbourhood is currently seeing an influx of Punjabi migrants from India, most of whom are middle to upper class Sikh people. As a result the bigger churches in my area don’t look as large, when compared to the local Sikh Gurdwara(temple) which now is home to over 1000 worshippers. Of course this has meant that it has become quite normal to see older Sikh men walking around in their traditional turbans and women in their saris. However I have watched with fascination how the younger members of the Sikh community seem to be expressing their culture and faith. Instead of turbans and saris, the Punjabi youthtend to show their commitment to faith by giant car stickers featuring  a strange synthesis of traditional Sikh symbols and hip hop slang such as ’Punjabi’s on da rize!’.

This mash-up of traditional Indian with western youth culture is symbolic of the emergence of a new kind of young person that is emerging on the Indian sub-continent. Half of India’s one billion people are under twenty five. Whilst many of these youth live in abject poverty, the growing middle class is being spied with envy by youth marketers who are keen to get their hands on their estimated $10.5 billion dollars in disposable income.  

Pepsi Co’s indian marketers have labelled these new upwardly mobile Gen Y’s as Youngistaani. Strangely they also refer to Youngistaan as a place, or a state of mind of India’s new blinged up young. Pepsi’s brand ambassador Ranbir Kapoor says,

” I am young, I believe in myself. I have dreams and I chase them. This is what Youngistaan means to me – it is a way of being, it’s an attitude. In Youngistaan, I work really hard, but I party harder too. Trust me, in Youngistaan somewhere something incredible is waiting to be known.”

 Bollywood actress Deepika Padukonesays of Youngistaan,

“Youngistaan is about making choices and where life has endless possibilities. As part of being a Youngistaani, it’s not about where I am, but about thinking fun, thinking big. It’s about just being yourself and being confident.”

Sure it may be being spoken in Punjabi or Hindi but the messages are the same as we hear from members of Generation Y all over the world, theyare growing up with huge expectations of what kind of life the global economy can deliver them. Facinatingly along with inflated expectations India’s upwardly mobile youth are developing the same phobia regarding commitment as western youth as employment headhunter Ananda Dutta writes,

“A new generation has arisen which no longer clamors for permanent jobs, but is ready to adapt to a new footloose work culture…Loyalty no longer matters if the pay is right. Which is why employers now have to deal with the problem of attrition. With so many call centers, so many malls, marts, hypermarkets, and other service-oriented industries mushrooming, industry jocks are only too willing to jump jobs for better prospects.”

We have seen almost a century of the Americanization of global youth culture, already we have seen Japanese culture influence youth all over the world, Italian culture has changed how we eat and drink coffee and seek La Dolce Vita; and Ikea exports the Swedish lifestyle/design minimalist ethos across the globe. Maybe the 21st century will see the Indianization or the Sinozation (Chinese) of global youth culture? However whatever the ethnic hues of future youth cultures, it seems that late capitalism still manges to create an environment which works against commitment, that unrealistically inflates our expectations, that promotes radical individualism, that elevates materialism and which raises difficult challenges to biblical discipleship.  

Ok time to go order my Chicken Biryani