Rupee madness and modern maharajahs
By Sudha Ramachandran
BANGALORE - If "simple living, high thinking" was what Indians of another era
aspired to, today it is a different creed that's driving their lifestyles. If
you have the money, modern Indians would argue, flaunt it. And they seem to
have plenty of money to flaunt.
Take Mukesh Ambani. The chairman of Reliance Industries, number 14 on Forbes'
list of the world's richest and India's richest resident, is building a
vertical palace for himself in Mumbai that will rise to a height of 570 feet.
The "palace in the sky" will have three floors of gardens, two floors of
swimming pools, a helicopter
pad and space to park 170 cars. His wife, mother and two kids will occupy the
top four floors. The family of six will be waited on by over 600 servants.
Or consider liquor tycoon Vijay Mallya, whose net assets have been pegged at
about US$1.5 billion. He has some 42 homes scattered across the world, 250
vintage cars, a customized Boeing 727 and two other corporate jets, and three
yachts, including one once owned by actor Richard Burton. He wears gold chains,
diamond earrings and a big bracelet with his initials spelled out in diamonds.
Mallya's loud lifestyle might have provoked disdain among most Indians some
years ago. Not anymore it seems, if one goes by the number of those who now
mimic Mallya's flashy lifestyle.
No event provides Indians greater opportunity to show off their affluence than
weddings. Weddings have turned into extravaganzas, with rich - and even middle
class - families competing with each other to put on the flashiest show in
town. The clothes, the jewelry, the gifts, the menu, the entertainment, the
locale, even the guest list drip with ostentation, the showier the better.
When steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal got his daughter married in the summer of
2004, guests received a 20-page silver-cased invitation. The engagement and the
wedding were in French palaces, Kylie Minogue entertained the guests. The
wedding was a $60-million Bollywood production. Hotelier Vikram Chatwal's
week-long wedding to model Priya Sachdev spanned three Indian cities and is
estimated to have cost about $80 million. The icing on the wedding was the star
invitee - former US president Bill Clinton. The wedding of the two sons of
Subrato Roy, head of the Sahara Group, had about 11,000 guests, including
powerful politicians, the entire Indian cricket team and Bollywood celebrities.
India was once associated with Gandhian austerity. The unmaterialistic
"other-worldliness" of Indians was often seen as a trait unique to this
country.
Indian leaders like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru gave up lucrative
professions and comfortable lifestyles to plunge themselves in the freedom
struggle. They dressed simply in khadi (handspun cotton fabric), ate and
traveled like the masses. Gandhi celebrated his austerity, wearing little more
than a loincloth. Simplicity carried a statement.
At her wedding in 1942, Indira Gandhi, daughter of Nehru and later India's
prime minister, wore a khadi sari made of yarn her father wove while in
prison during the freedom struggle. The "jewelry" she wore at her wedding was
made of flowers strung together by the family gardener. Whatever happened to
that understated elegance of the Indian wedding?
It never existed, some might say.
Indeed, Hindu weddings have always been elaborate affairs, with celebrations
running into several days and hundreds, even thousands being invited for the
ceremonies. Yet a wedding had a personal touch to it, even if the invitees were
distant cousins one had never met previously. It was still an occasion when
people would invite their kindergarten teachers, the family cook and the old chowkidar
(watchman) and their entire families.
Not anymore, it seems.
It is unlikely that Mittal or Roy would have known personally even a tenth of
the people they invited to their weddings. Their invitees were people who
provided the event with star power and glamour. Weddings today provide Indians
with an opportunity to display their influence and connections with the rich
and the powerful.
And it's not just the seriously rich that love showing off. Even the middle
class do so, often running into serious debt to organize weddings with
ceremonies looking more like a glitzy scene from a Bollywood film. They pay
horrific amounts to have people they do not know attend their weddings.
Indians love showing off the power they wield, the perks their jobs bring them.
Officials and politicians vie with each other to ensure that they are
surrounded by gun-toting security personnel and that they are given an
"official car" with plaques announcing their position in the hierarchy and
sirens signaling their VIP status.
This compulsion to show off wealth and status seems at odds with the general
perception of the Indian as unmaterialistic in outlook, parsimonious in
spending and austere in lifestyle.
But "Indians have never been, and will never be 'other-worldly'," argues Pavan
K Varma in his book Being Indian: The truth about why the 21st century will be
India's. Hindus worship Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and prosperity.
"The pursuit of material well-being, artha is a principal goal of life,"
Varma points out. Indians "hanker for the material goods that this world has to
offer, and look up to the wealthy". And like wealth, "power in the Indian way
of thinking is a legitimate pursuit".
Indian society is deeply hierarchical. A person's entire worth is dependent on
the position he occupies in the hierarchy. In such a system, "The assertion of
status [and its recognition by others] becomes of crucial importance," Varma
argues.
Whether an official has direct access to the minister, how many telephones are
on his office table, whether his car is air-conditioned - all these are
indicators of his status. When a person's sense of self worth and his social
standing are so intimately connected with who he knows or what he owns, it is
not surprising then, that people look for any opportunity to put these on
public display.
Today there are more wealthy Indians than ever before. India is now home to the
largest number of billionaires in Asia. The number of millionaires in the
country has crossed 100,000 and is growing at a rate of 20.5% per year - the
second fastest in the world after Singapore. A booming economy and a robust
stock market have contributed to a more prosperous, 320-million strong middle
class with growing disposable income. Not only do they want to spend it but
also they want to be seen splurging.
And unlike the pre-liberalization years, when Indians had few things to show
off besides an Ambassador car or gold jewelry, today they have access to the
finest of branded goods. They don't have to go to Dubai in the United Arab
Emirates to buy what they crave, they can purchase it here.
With liberalization, not only do Indians have the means to lead opulent
lifestyles, but also the stigma associated with "Western materialism" and
excessive lifestyles during the freedom struggle and the decades of socialism
have now been removed. The pursuit of wealth is not considered dirty any
longer. Being rich and showing it off as did the the kings and emperors in the
past is fashionable again.
It's the era of the modern maharajahs and nouveau nawabs.
Sudha Ramachandran is an independent journalist/researcher based in
Bangalore.
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