5 Materialism

“Run after money, for you will never get it”

An ideal society for an average Keralite is American society. The great Kerala dream has now become

        “Study in IIT, secure a job in US and live there happily ever after”

Perhaps there are more

        “Secure a safe and high paying job, buy a luxury car, built a large house, and always be ahead of my neighbour”

The root cause or the driving force behind these dreams is materialism-an imported value of the west. Materialism essentially refers to the way of thinking that gives too much importance to material possessions rather than to spiritual or intellectual things. Amassing of wealth will naturally lead to the increase in consumption. When amount of wealth accrued is high cash spent on unwanted stuffs also increases. Then the dominant values of society changes to materialism. Society moves from conservative to rational or from eastern to western culture.

The western societies place high status on people owning large chunk of money and material possessions which at least according to them will bring happiness. The influence of mass media, social networks, and urban culture all leads to imitation of western culture.

As mentioned earlier when wealth accumulates people begin to forget the past and start spending lavishly assuming that the price of agricultural commodities will stay as it is forever. This is especially true when the wealth flow is newfound. (As the Malayalam proverb says “alpanu aishwaryam kittiyal ardharathiyilum kudapidikkum”). The newfound wealth and accompanying consumerist culture gradually gives way to conspicuous consumption. Huge houses, Luxury cars, luxurious ceremonies, funerals, get-togethers, changing food patterns, festivals which have become on show today are exhibitions of materialistic culture and boastfulness. The trickle-down effect in the true sense happens when the poor starts to imitate the dominant ideology of the rich.

Numerous facets of conspicuous consumption that have come to dominate our society are dealt in the subsequent chapters.

4. Reasons behind transition

The arrival of prosperity and concomitant materialism

Prosperity breeds transition, transition from non-materialistic culture to materialistic culture. The arrival of globalisation, free market had affected agricultural and services sector of Kerala economy heavily. On the services front with the help of IT sector young engineers earned good money. On the other hand the immediate impact that globalisation had on the agricultural produce has led to the drop in prices of various agricultural products such as rubber, pepper … has led to misery of farmers. Land cost remained stable.

Globalisation has offered large number opportunities for young graduates especially in the software sector. This has in turn resulted in the accumulation of money in the hands of youngsters. The new-found money caused consumption culture to rise and flourish.

Setting apart the initial fall in the prices of different agricultural produce the farmers subsequently reaped the benefits of globalisation. The price of agricultural produce such as pepper and rubber has also seen huge increase in a short span of time and the same with regard to fall in price. This sky rocketing of prices for agricultural produce in a short span of time led to sudden prosperity of different regions. The accumulation of large sums of money suddenly into the hands of farmers who haven’t seen or managed such a huge sum of money has caused materialistic culture to flourish.

The manufacturing sector in Kerala remained comparatively apathetic to the phenomenon of globalisation.

Sudden prosperity always leads to changes in social behaviour. People neither have past experience nor have good management skills to manage the sudden prosperity. The only ethic that guides people appears to be the amount of disposable income that one has. The income is disposed as soon as it is amassed. Materialistic pursuits and consumption culture starts to dominate the society about which I shall deal in the subsequent chapters.

3.Manifestation of anomie

Transitional society’s anomy is manifested in all walks of life. Materialism seems to be the driving force behind this situation. High aspirations, increased unemployment, increasing female workforce, night life, pub culture, deteriorating quality of education, unscrupulous politicians, feminist movements, LGBT movement, increasing privacy, more leisure time, influence of mass media, moral policing etc. are indeed the characteristics of the transitional Kerala society. As it is these factors may contribute to the good or bad of the society but accompanying these transitions new norms are yet to crystallise or rather, they are in the making. Thus man is confronted with the dilemma what side he should take the modern or the traditional. Let’s look into an example which caught national attention that took place in Kerala which was a conspicuous example of anomie or the transitional nature of Kerala society.

Moral policing and Kiss of love

The event kiss of love -originated in Kerala and captured the attention of the whole nation- was in fact a reaction to the increasing moral policing that have recently become a pathogen on the educated Kerala society. The reason that the event caught national attention was due to rise of intolerant right wing groups and since this was the first outburst by the public or the post modernisers of the day. State’s failure to take action against the moral policing has inevitably culminated in the reactionary event.

On one hand the religious leaders and political parties clandestinely or overtly opposed the movement as it was against the accepted norms and customs of our society whereas right wing outfits have openly challenged the event and finally the event whether a success or not have shown us that there are people in our society who dares to challenge the authority overtly. While this is a positive element that I support the way they have chosen to speak against a social evil is not something that I endorse. Perhaps the success of the event itself was due to the method adopted by the protesters which was sure to bring the wrath of conservatives.

2. Conservatism and modernity

Kerala society is innately conservative. The influence of religion and the existence of traditions, rituals… are examples for this conservative nature of Kerala society. Right now our society is hastily moving away from conservative nature to modern rational nature. The protagonists of modernity are the youth of the day and the conservatives mostly consists of middle aged and elderly people. Thus the formations of two polarised groups have paved the way for conflicts to rise of late in our society. The new generation looks as if to be celebrating the arrival of modernity especially the youth of the day while the aged are sceptical about the changes happening around them.

Conservatism

In earlier times the norms of the society included obeying parents, choosing a career that parent select for you, choosing the bride or groom according to the wishes of family, obeying religious leaders, observing religious rituals… These customs, rituals and cultural symbols etc. formed the part of traditional Kerala society. Today the foregoing elements are increasingly being questioned by youngsters who are influenced by rationalism, societies outside, mass media, western culture and so on. Apart from these the religious values that have been entrenched in the minds of people in Kerala society are also being increasingly scrutinised by the modernisers.

Modernism

Modernity comes with posing questions to the existing order of society. Lessened hold of religion over the lives of people, materialistic culture, changing dressing patterns, changing food habits, dislike towards out-dated traditions, changing pattern of relationships especially the formalisation of relationships… are indeed the characteristics of our modernity.

As we have seen the characteristics of old and new societies we are confronted with the next important question; what are the driving forces behind this transition that is currently proceeding in our society. The driving forces behind this transition are dealt in the subsequent chapter.

1.The Transitional Society

Kerala society has been witnessing increasing restlessness recently. This increased restlessness is due to the transitional nature of our society. The conservative Kerala society has entered the phase of transition in which a shift from conservative to modernism is taking place. So what is the nature of this transition? We know that it is fast; and rapid transition always brings associated complications with it. In fact this transitional nature of conservative Kerala society is giving rise to increasing disquietedness.

When society moves away from traditional conservative nature to modern rational state vigorously concomitantly a situation of anomie develops. Old norms are no longer valid, new norms are yet to come. Normlessness becomes the norm of society. People are confronted with the existential question. This situation is aggravated when the protagonists of the modernity confronts directly with the rightists of the day as was witnessed in the event ‘Kiss of love’.

To start with let me explain what anomie is; when individuals are confronted with insufficient moral constraint they don’t know what the appropriate and accepted way of behaviour is in particular situations. This situation is called anomie. When multiple individuals or the whole society are faced with insufficient moral constraints then the whole society moves towards a situation which is characterised by loss of morality and rise of conflicts. The reason behind these conflicts is the transitional nature of society. Let’s discuss an example for further clarification. Suppose an individual reaches a college for the first time. He doesn't know what should be the proper and accepted way of behaviour in the first days of college. How should one interact with the professors, how should one behave in the class, how to interact with the people of opposite sex… are the dilemmas faced by a student when he enters the college for the first time.  Thus a man is confronted with dilemmas in his life which causes confusion in his mind about what he should do in a particular situation.

When individual is exposed to new environment he faces dilemmas, but what happens when the environment changes and the individual is exposed to the changing environment? He faces dilemmas in this situation too. Let’s look onto an example for further clarification. The influx of large number of news channels and media houses is an example of changes happening over and above the individual. The competition between different newspapers and television channels has triggered the rise of sensationalism. This in turn has resulted in everything and anything becoming news. Whatever nonsense a politician or a head of religion or caste associations’ leader says becomes news. These changes happening in the surroundings of an individual is influencing and manipulating the individual. As a result the individual behaves or adapts to the changing environment and in this situation too he is confronted with the dilemmas. The individuals gets confused; what to believe, whom to believe becomes a question. These rapid changes occurring in Kerala society leads to the rise of moral breakdown and disquietedness which we are witnessing right now in front of us.

Bangalore Days

Bangalore days

The blockbuster movie Bangalore days directed by Anjali Menon have been watched by a vast majority of people of Kerala. Any movie whether an entertainer or not, will always represent the socio-cultural milieu of the society.

Analysing the different characters of the movie will give one a glimpse on Kerala society.

Aju

As it is always Dulqur has become the official orphan of the Malayalam film Industry. Like his every other movie he is either left out from his own family or born as an orphan. Barring apart his family background he epitomizes the typical new generation youth of Kerala.  The guy never shaves, will always have four centimetre thick facial hair grown randomly, always wear a T- shirt be it any occasion, the hair style is always the same as he wakes up in the  morning and always talks Manglish.

Kuttan

Kuttan epitomizes the typical malayali boys. Studies engineering, secures a job in Bangalore as an IT professional, hails from a small village and is exposed to the urban culture for the first time.  Just like any other IT professional from Monday to Friday he works in with his energy and waits for the weekend to arrive. Though he works in an urban setting he always dreams of going back to his sweet home. Like the typical mallus he loves to have a small village girl as his bride. Unlike his urban counterparts he like to marry a village girl with a local name, long hair, trained in home-grown ways… and finally like the traditional way the girl should address him by calling him chetta.

Divya Prakash

Divya Prakash represents the girls of Kerala. Nazriya as always plays the role of a student who is married off immediately as she finishes her college education. A typical arranged marriage in Kerala style. The smart girl who dreamed of studying an MBA course and had never thought about marriage suddenly takes a U turn when the man of her dreams arrives. Handsome, works in Bangalore city, IT professional, good earnings- The groom has everything that a typical malyali girl and her family is looking for-security, cash and status. The marriage is fixed.