UPDATED PROJECT PROPOSAL
Just after a couple of weeks in Delhi, I decided to change my research project topic completely. This decision is well-covered in my other post, so here I’ll just explain my plans for the project, and the work I’ve done on it thus far. My project is focused on the interaction between and the reconciliation of modern, (sometimes western) influence and traditional Indian culture. In many ways, India is a culture steeped in tradition and religion. This has become clear when exploring Delhi, the capital, and seeing countless mosques and temples that are well attended and often extremely crowded with serious devotees. You would never see such an emphasis on religion in the U.S., let alone the capital. Arranged marriage, strict dress codes and specific roles for men and women in society are examples of the traditional sides to India, from what I know of it so far. Youth culture in a place that is so traditional is very interesting to me. How do young people deal with these traditions, with parental pressures, religion, and an influx of technology and western culture? Even looking at our academic schedule in Delhi, we were mostly focused on the past–India’s history, looking at monuments, past empires, old religious sites, etc. As important as it is to look at the past, particularly how it relates to the future, I want to give a voice to modern, young, growing India. I have specific topics that I hope will spark conversation and resonate with some of the people I interview. The interviews will likely be casual, though I will inform the interviewees of my project and and be sure that they are comfortable with being involved. I’ll use their real names unless they’d rather I not.
During interviews, I’ll provide a short explanation of my project, and follow it with a few topics that might spark conversation surrounding the reconciliation I’m interested in. These topics vary, so I hope that at least a few of them will spark conversation and intrigue the interviewee. I haven’t planned a particular order for the interview topics but here are a few of them: social media, how does social media impact your life as a young Indian person, are there any issues with your parents viewing your social media, i.e. Instagram, Facebook, snapchat, etc.?; media influences of movies, television, and music both western and Indian, themes of sex, partying or drinking alcohol, reconciling this with religion, hiding from parents, etc.; lack of interest in religion; marriage; education and moving away from home; social activism including gender, caste, and sexual orientation. I have plenty of topics to work with, so hopefully a few of them will resonate with each interviewee, and I’m also willing to change the topics if I realize that other more important themes are present.
So far I’ve conducted one interview, which was really fascinating, informative and helpful. I spoke with a Delhi University student and got into an interesting discussion of feminism in Delhi, along with details about how she grew up and her relationship with her parents, religion, etc. I’ll be doing another interview with someone from Delhi over Facebook, and in both Chennai and Varanasi I hope to meet people around my age that are willing to speak to me, perhaps I’ll even look into colleges in these cities and attempt to meet students. The project will probably transform as I get deeper into it, but this is my plan thus far.
Research Update: Delhi
After conducting a few interviews, setting up others and making observations, I’ve narrowed my scope to focusing just on middle to upper middle class youth. Although I would like to get a more well rounded view of youth in India, those without much money rarely speak English, so the language barriers will likely be too great. Along with this, most of the young people I’ve met are students, so this is an even more specific sample that is not at all representative of Indian youth as a whole.
While in Delhi I was able to observe a great deal about youth culture, along with getting a couple of interviews. Spending time in places like Hauz Khauz, Connaught Place and even Dilli Haat allowed for some observations of youth in Delhi, though these spots were fairly touristy. I actually had some luck in Lodi Gardens, a space where many young people spend time, and in fact where plenty of couples go to escape from protective parents. This is where I conducted my first interview, with a 24 year old student at Delhi University named Pia. We spoke a lot about her childhood and relationship with her parents, siblings, etc. Much of our conversation was about women’s rights/inequality, along with LGBT issues, and her friends that she sees as pretty extreme activists. Activism in young people is definitely going to be a focus of my final paper. Another focus is interactions with media–social media, music, music videos, television, etc. and we spoke a little about this, mostly her use of Facebook. We also discussed western influences on how one dresses, education and her future career/her friends careers. With each of my interviews, I’ll be selective in what I include from each person, so I’ll probably pick out our talk of activism and perhaps her relationship with her parents in my final paper.
My other interview was done through Facebook with another Delhi student named Dias. This is another Delhi student, and he provided very specific answers with lots of examples of what he meant in certain instances, which was extremely helpful. One of the most interesting things we discussed is pop culture, particularly music and music videos. Some of our discussion revolved around influences on popular music from the U.S., along with general themes of partying, sex, and drinking. Two other topics include social media and the fear that many adults have surrounding it, and the state of religion currently and in the future.
Chennai Research Update:
Being in Chennai after Delhi I’ve had the chance to make a lot of comparative observations. I can safely argue that in certain ways there is less of a youth culture in Chennai than there is in Delhi, fewer spaces for young people to congregate, less obvious creativity; yet from what I’ve seen there is more discussion of activism and feminism within youth, so perhaps young people in Chennai just don’t have the space for a youth culture yet. This opinion has come to me after a few weeks of observation, and after conducting various interviews. I have had one very formal interview with a student from Madras University, along with a more casual but equally enriching interview with a group of five female college students that I ran into at a coffee shop. Before either of these I had a quick conversation about Chennai youth culture in particular with a couple at a different coffee shop, though there were no personal questions asked, just asking about their opinions on Chennai as a city for young people. After these three varied interviews I feel prepared to include Chennai within my final paper.