Valentine's Day is an example of this. Both Indian and foreign companies have been promoting Valentine's Day, and it has been quite successful with young, urban couples. But some extremist political groups have used it as a symbol of modernization and Westernization. Every year Indian newspapers will have pictures of these groups burning Hallmark cards. Last year they actually went into restaurants that were promoting Valentine's Day to cause some trouble. For these groups, it is a political stunt to generate publicity around the issues that they want to promote. But it also reflects larger questions about India's modernization.
An interesting example to juxtapose with Valentine's Day is Akshaya Trithya. It is a Hindu festival which has existed for hundreds of years and is seen as an auspicious time to start a new venture, but, until recently, it was not very commercialized.
Indians have one of the largest private collections of gold in the world. In fact, India generally accounts for 20% of global gold offtake in any one year. But in the early 2000s sales were stagnating, so the World Gold Council decided to put a lot of money into marketing festivals such as Akshaya Trithya, especially in the south where a great deal of the gold is bought.
Instead of being an obscure Hindu festival, Akshaya Trithya became a day where if you are a middle class or upper middle class family in Chennai, you go to your jeweler to buy gold. The existing cultural tradition has been transformed into a highly commercialized occasion.
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