Globalization Impact on Festival Economy of India

Festivities have got vital place in Indian heritage. Versatile festivals can be seen in different religions or in Hindu itself there are different festivals for different cause. However people used to celebrate all festivals for happy and prosperous. In ancient India people used to celebrate festivals everyday but financial crunches has cut downed celebration from 365 days to 10 to 20 festivals. After globalization festivals economy moved to multinational companies and expanded their market and created boom of purchasing during festival time, also they created new festivals for the sake of marketing. In this article researcher tried to focus more on, how globalization has created new vistas for festivals and how they get monetary benefit out of it, how households suffer financially for doing high purchase through online or offline.

Keywords: Festivals, globalization, celebration, financial crunch

Introduction

Festival is a day or days of celebration of an organized series of cultural and social concerts or to remember an event to promote the cultural heritage of the society. When any festival comes, we are very happy and prepare it well by white-washing as well as decorating our houses and putting on festival dresses. In the basic sense, the word globalization refers to the adoption of liberalization of foreign exchange restrictions, open and unfettered trading markets, etc. As a result the world is considered as a ‘global village’. Being a complex phenomenon, it has several dimensions like political, technological, human, environmental, cultural, etc. It meant for improving business activities across the globe through the process of socialization of the people. In a formal literary context, it is also defined as the spread of new forms of non–territorial social activity. It also impacted on Indian culture through the effect of globalization people interstate and international more migration can be seen out of this multiculturalism aroused across world. However India is a land of numerous festivities after globalization in India corporate world used the festivities to improve their market sales, therefore there financial gaining will be more (Manjunatha, 2014).

The current paper entitled, “Globalization Impact on festival economy in India” focuses on the phenomena of globalization which has brought cheers in the lives of the people. It has opened new vistas of employment. The cultural heritage of India is connected through networks. These networks lead to the internationalization of cultures along with food habits, dress habits, life styles, etc.

Objectives of the Study

• To probe in to economy revolving with festivals
• To understand impact of globalization on festival economy in India

There are, however, limits to how much middle-class consumption can drive macroeconomic growth in India’s investment-starved economy. Paradoxically, in India even as consumption remains reasonably robust, growth in long-term investment has not yet reached a level that would sustain nine per cent growth. One view is that it can help strengthen the microeconomic foundations of macroeconomic performance by going easy on interest rate hikes, thereby bringing some cheer to the markets. A changed mood among investors in the short term may help boost investment prospects in the medium term. It is, however, not a convincing argument and the central bank may have good reason to ignore the idea (Baru, 2014). It’s perfectly fine if you don’t have time to read this column, busy as you may be getting that best deal out of the shopping festivals run by e-commerce sites. It is not just the Flipkarts and Amazons that are hoping you will shop till you drop, but the entire economy. You see, the economy banks on festivals to boost its GDP numbers. As we enter the official festival season of the year, the conditions are conducive to increased spending, despite skirmishes on the border. Flipkart earned 1,400 crore on the first of its Billion Days, the highest sales it has recorded in a day The new RBI Governor, Urjit Patel, has sweetened the deal by lowering interest rates, and companies in auto and FMCG sectors are salivating over the speed at which cash registers will roll this month. Auto sales were already up 21 per cent in September, compared with last year. (Thomas, 2016).

Indian festivals haven’t changed a lot as yet, though some influences can be found. Many festivals have gone global though, as a lot of Dussehra’s, Diwali’s, and Ganesh Chaturthi’s are celebrated abroad by the diaspora. Many locals attend these festivals as well, and get to learn about Indian religious events. But here’s a change within the country that’s quite a surprise. People are celebrating many more international events now such as Friendship Day, Valentine’s Day, Christmas, and even Father’s Day and Mother’s Day (Bose, 2014) These events hardly had any relevance in Indian society even a couple of decades back. Due to globalization corporate companies have introduced new festivals to occupy Indian market, however somewhat they achieved to get more financial flow involving with festivals. American festivals like Valentines day, Friendship day etc. are spreading across India.

We pray to God/Goddess to guide us in the right path and to make us pure, good and prosperous. However, in celebrating a festival, we, the people, spend a huge amount of money unnecessarily and on expensive things. In Manipur, there are many communities, and that's why it has a composite culture. In the present era of globalization has gained significant role especially from the last 15 years. People present gifts in a luxurious way. During festival, the prices of essential goods are sky high. However, things are continuously bought. Children and their parents themselves also buy new and expensive clothes and things. Transportation and roaming of people during festivals lead to over exploitation of fuel (Wahengbam, 2014). However it can be seen festivals creates corporate economy through more purchasing by people but when it comes to household economic it was found that those who are poor to have more financial vulnerability through performing series of festivals.

Conclusion

Globalization denotes ‘more spending indicates more earning’ people should spend more in turn creates financial crunch. Those who are get connected with media that may be social media, mass media they attract very much for luxury items especially urban dwellers. One research shows total 15 percent of earning of people will be spent for the festivities that can not yield benefit. Also people take debt from banks and MFI’s and spend for festivities it troubles in repayment of the debt and creates debt traps, therefore globalization turned in to boon for corporate and bane for households of India.