Similar changes are taking place in all walks of Indian life, including politics, the arts, sports, and social development. And India will be better for it. Although the country is one of the youngest in the world, with an average age of just 26 years, until recently aging stalwarts incongruously dominated most fields, from politics to the arts and even business and sports.
But
now younger entrants are rising everywhere, bringing with them energy
and new ideas. In politics, as the country prepares for next year’s
general election, the leading contenders to replace 81-year-old Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh are the Bharatiya Janata Party’s Narendra Modi,
62, and Rahul Gandhi, who is just 43. Either man would be the first
prime minister who was not born in the British Raj.
The
arts were one of the first areas to witness this generational change.
For a long time, Indian literature, especially in English, was dominated
by a clique who wrote mainly for a niche audience and literary
recognition. Then, a few years ago, a group of young writers – such as
Chetan Bhagat and Amish Tripathi, both former bankers – changed the
rules of the game by writing for the mass market.
Rather
than write for literary critics, they began to use a simpler language,
including Indian turns of phrase. They also chose new themes: Tripathi
dipped into ancient mythology to write a trilogy about the god Shiva,
while Bhagat began to write about the lives of India’s young, upwardly
mobile middle class.
Predictably,
the purists pounced and the critics ridiculed. But people have bought
their books in the millions, and film deals have followed. As a result,
the market for books has dramatically expanded and publishers have been
forced to change their entire business strategies.
Something
similar has happened in the music industry. Previously dominated by a
small cabal of singers and music directors, the market has been
transformed by TV talent contests, similar to American Idol, which provide a national showcase for the wealth of India’s talent.
The
shows have made participants, some drawn from remote towns, into
overnight stars, and many of them have gone on to sign lucrative
careers. Thanks partly to this parade of new talent, the Indian music
industry is experiencing a period of extraordinary innovation and
expansion. The output of the US and European music industries sounds
stale in comparison, owing to a dearth of innovation over the last two
decades.
Generational
change has even come to India’s most popular sport – cricket. Such was
the adulation once heaped upon its aging stars that many of them
remained on the national team long past their peak. But a mere two years
after winning the World Cup in 2011, several members of that victorious
team have been replaced – a decision that until recently would have
seemed unthinkable.
India’s
social sector has also been transformed. Development policy used to be
dominated by career activists wedded to socialist-era thinking. But the
arrival of new faces from the world of business, such as Ashish Dhawan, Jayant Sinha, and Ramesh and Swati Ramanathan,
has meant that development issues are at last being assessed according
to the problem-solving approach of social entrepreneurs, rather than
through the ideological lens of activists.
Ironically,
it is the world of business that remains slow to change. The growth of
the IT sector in the 1990’s seemed to promise that change would be rapid
and far-reaching, but the old business families still dominate.
There is hope, though. Entrepreneurs like Manish Sabharwal of Teamlease,
and Binny and Sachin Bansal of Flipkart, an online retailer, are
fundamentally changing the way India does business. Similarly, Indian
academia may be moribund, but new public intellectuals like Pratap Bhanu
Mehta have emerged from outside the mainstream.
Yes,
India’s economy has slowed sharply, the rupee has plunged, and scandals
and protests dominate the headlines. But, behind the gloom, a new
generation is taking over, bringing with it fresh ideas and visions for
India.
Sanjeev Sanyal is Deutsche Bank's Global Strategist. Named "Young Global Leader 2010" by the World Economic Forum, he is the author of The Indian Renaissance: India's Rise After a Thousand Years of Decline (Penguin 2008) and Land of the Seven Rivers: A Brief History of India's Geography (Penguin 2012).