Seema multiplex

Support 'The India Forum': Help us grow. Our apologies for intruding. Please spare a couple of minutes. We are 4 now and we need your support to grow into a publication you will continue to want to read. 'The India Forum' is an experiment in reader-supported publication. It is free to read; it carries no ads and it is free of commercial backing. To make this work though and to continue to bring you informed analysis and thoughtful comment on a range of contemporary issues, we need your help. Please begin with a donation to the Vichar Trust. Go On Independence Day, 1947, most Indians would have come to know of Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny speech through that morning’s newspaper. Less than a year later, they would have heard of Gandhi’s assassination through the radio. Seventy-five years later, ‘breaking news’ is more likely to be accessed through the scores of television channels, or through instant forwards on WhatsApp. The sights, sounds, practices, experiences, and aspirations defining Indian society have transformed over the last 75 years. Some of the facets of life in the early years of the nation hold on in some form, others are fast disappearing. The train journey no longer holds the romance it did half a century ago. Bicycles have been replaced by motorbikes and cars as objects of desire. The landline telephone – perhaps the very same obtained after years of waiting – gathers dust in homes. These changes signal broader societal reorientations as India grows richer but...

Support 'The India Forum': Help us grow. Our apologies for intruding. Please spare a couple of minutes. We are 4 now and we need your support to grow into a publication you will continue to want to read. 'The India Forum' is an experiment in reader-supported publication. It is free to read; it carries no ads and it is free of commercial backing. To make this work though and to continue to bring you informed analysis and thoughtful comment on a range of contemporary issues, we need your help. Please begin with a donation to the Vichar Trust. Go On Independence Day, 1947, most Indians would have come to know of Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny speech through that morning’s newspaper. Less than a year later, they would have heard of Gandhi’s assassination through the radio. Seventy-five years later, ‘breaking news’ is more likely to be accessed through the scores of television channels, or through instant forwards on WhatsApp. The sights, sounds, practices, experiences, and aspirations defining Indian society have transformed over the last 75 years. Some of the facets of life in the early years of the nation hold on in some form, others are fast disappearing. The train journey no longer holds the romance it did half a century ago. Bicycles have been replaced by motorbikes and cars as objects of desire. The landline telephone – perhaps the very same obtained after years of waiting – gathers dust in homes. These changes signal broader societal reorientations as India grows richer but...