Are ‘Bharat’ & ‘India’ Beginning to Consume the Same Things?

Urbanisation has led to secularisation of voting behaviour. Voters’ top priority is now tangible economic benefit.

Image used for representational purposes (Photo: iStock)

They spend a fifth of their consumption budget on eating out. Transport services take care of another 20 percent. They are very fond of their communication gadgets and are willing to spend a sizeable amount to keep them going. They also spend a fair amount of time and money on beauty shops and salons.

They belong to what noted social scientist Dipankar Gupta calls the class of ‘rurbanites’ – rural in terms of habitat but urban in most other things. The latest National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data show that “rurbanites” follow the same consumption pattern as their urban counterparts.

Major Trends

• Consumption patterns in urban and rural inhabitants are increasingly overlapping.
  
• Stark increase in the number of non-agriculture households in rural India, leading to mushrooming of small towns and consumption boom.
  
• Urbanisation will lead to secularisation of voting behaviour.
  
• Economic benefits will be prioritised over communitarian symbolism.
  

Rurbanites and Urbanites Consume the Same Items

Data shows that when it comes to spending on services, top consumed items including food from hotels, transport and communication, are identical for rural and urban consumers.

According to the NSSO report, “food expenditure in hotels, transport services, repair and maintenance of selected items, hotel lodging charges and communication, etc. account for more than 65% of the budget-share among expenditure on all the services availed by the households in all-India level in both rural and urban sector.”

Data show that rural consumers spend a high proportion of their consumption budget (nearly 21 percent) on food in hotels, followed by expenditure on transport services (20 percent) and communication (11 percent). This is a marked change in villages once considered ‘little republics’ with very little linkage with the outside world.

The urban ethos has become so all-pervasive that the people in the countryside spend a higher proportion of their consumption budget on barber and beauty shops and tailoring services than even their urban counterparts.

Only with regard to domestic services provided by maids and recreational activities, urban consumers score over their rural counterparts, the NSSO report says.

The report reveals that when it comes to acquisition and consumption of durable goods too, there is hardly anything to choose between urban and rural consumers.

Acquisition of transport equipment is at the top of the agenda both for rural and urban consumers followed by jewellery and ornaments, heating and cooling devices and information technology and communication devices.

Growth of Non-Agri Sector in Rural Areas

The convergence in consumer behaviour in Bharat and India could be a result of a rapid growth of non-agricultural economy in rural areas. The percentage of non-agri households increased from nearly 32 in 1993-94 to more than 42 in 2009-10. The non-farm sector now accounts for nearly 75 percent of the rural economy, according to a recent Accenture report.

Image used for representational purposes. (Photo: iStock)

The structural shift in rural economy has resulted in the mushrooming of small towns that look like villages, but have acquired urban traits. As a result, rural areas/small towns are witnessing a kind of consumption boom they have never seen before.

The Accenture report says that from 2009 to 2012, rural consumption growth was a good two percent more than the growth in urban centres.

Caste to Lose Its Salience

What are the political implications of the convergence of Bharat and India? Sociologists argue that caste and other such primordial loyalties as a political mobilisation tool will lose their salience.

As the patron-client relationship in rural areas spawned by landlord-tenant structure collapses, even an influential Brahmin or an all-powerful Yadav may not be able to swing others’ votes in favour of particular candidate or a party.

It will result in what social scientists say is a greater secularisation of voting behaviour, where candidates or parties will be judged on what they are capable of delivering rather than on symbolism.

Image used for representational purposes. (Photo: Reuters)

Is that the reason why a ruling coalition’s chances of re-election go up several notches if there is higher economic growth during its regime?

A recent study shows that a 1 percentage point improvement in a state’s growth rate leads to a nine percent increase in the likelihood of the incumbent getting re-elected. It shows that aspirational politics is getting entrenched in the country.

With Uttar Pradesh going to go to polls early next year, will the contesting parties redraw their strategies in the light of these changes in our society? If they don’t, they may run the risk of being marginalised.