THE 'WEST' AS A CHANGING SIGNIFIER IN INDIAN MODERNITY: FROM CIVILIZATION TO GLOBALIZATION

Abstract

This paper researches how Indian modernity has imagined the West over the time – from colonialism to globalisation – until today globalisation. For most Indians, the West is the benchmark for their modernity as well as the bogeyman that they must confront and combat. It can not only be a source of ideas for this change, but also possible partners on this way towards progress. In this study, an effort has been made to understand the changes in the discourse of Indians regarding the Westerners during various historical periods and across different sociocultural domains. Thus, building on the notion of the ‘moving signifier’ theoretized by postcolonial theory, cultural and globalization studies research exists to explore India’s modern’s demeanour as a function of the meanings attributed to ‘the West’. In India’s modern journey, the meanings of these terms have been variable, hence the connotations of the word and the expressions that are constructed as a consequence have always been malleable in relation to this notion called. Starting with the colonial encounter, this paper explores how early Indian reformers and nationalists responded to Western ideas of civilizing progress for modern India - both adopting them wholesale as well as challenging them in their visions for its modernisation. This paper then follows this discourse through India's independence and nation-building phase, when Western models often served both as models to emulate as well as foils against which Indian identities could be asserted.

We explore how different political, cultural, and intellectual movements in post-independence India have constructed and reconceptualized an idea of the West according to shifting aspirationsal concerns, anxieties, and power structures. Particular focus will be given to India's economic liberalization during the 1990s and its subsequent integration into global economy. This period witnessed a profound alteration of India's relationships with Western powers, as increased cultural and economic exchanges created more complex patterns of influence, hybridization and competition between East and West India. This paper aims at assessing the extent to which the globalisation process has blurred traditional East-West divide as well as, at the same time, entrenched some components of cultural divide. Through the discussion of cases that cover political processes, the world of the ‘common’ consumer, and debates in intellectual circles, this part shows a ‘multidiscensional’ impact of ‘the West’ on contemporary India. Such examples show how Indian actors work with western acculturation selectively as adaptation or resistance, giving new synergy, which is locally mediated and globalized at the some time. Studies conducted by this team reveal that the ‘west’ as a concept in the modern Indian society has never been a singular unified phenomenon that remained constant; instead it has always been the dynamic signs which have always altered and/or have been in a state of conflict. It has been contested through various social actors and institutional representations from the end of the nineteenth century and up to the present day as part of reflexive deliberations concerning the nature of national identity, progress, and cultural essence to which the country and its peoples have been aspiring to since independence. Conclusion Dwelling, therefore, on the virtues of perceiving the West as a signifier in the process of becoming, can only enrich the analysis of India’s modernisation trajectory. It posits the means by which Indians actively participate in the process of receiving or adapting globalization and thereby avoids the traps of the discourse of ‘Westernization’ or ‘ cultural imperialism.’