Month: August 2026

In The News, My Take

Comparing Generations: Boomers to Gen Z in India

“Gen Z” has possibly become the biggest buzzword in India over the last few months. According to Beresford research, “Gen Z” (with Z being pronounced Zee as the Americans do) are those born between 1997 to 2012 with their current age being 14 to 29. I belong to the Boomers 1 generation – now aged between 72 to 80 having been born between 1946 to 1954. The world in which the current Gen Z live in, is far different from the times when I was their age which translates to 1965 to 1980.


At a global level, the biggest conflict the world had ever seen till then, the Second World War had ended only 20 years ago. The post war Cold War was very much on ( the phrase was coined by Churchill in 1963), The US and the USSR were by far the most powerful nations of the world. Indeed most countries were affiliated in some way or the other with one or either of them. Nehru’s experiment with non-alignment had not proved to be useful. He had died a broken man in 1964 after China attacked India in the winter of 1962. This had resulted in a shameful defeat for India.

As kids growing up in India, to put it mildly- times were hard. In 1965, India’s population was 490 million. The poverty rate was 45-50 % which peaked to 62 % in 1966-67. India’s nominal GDP was $59.37 billion with a per capital income was about $121. The average life span was 44-45 years . Overall there was scarcity and apprehensions about the future. Food rationing was very common and luxury goods were beyond the reach of most people. Those were the days when having a car or a telephone was a major luxury! There was a premium on “imported goods” and everything ” foreign ” was considered to be great! Television and social media were no where in sight!

The 1980s- the end of my Gen Z days- saw war in many parts of the world like Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq etc. Thankfully the long drawn out Viet Nam war ended in 1975. We in India were much better than in the 1960’s but still way behind much of the developed world. The nominal GDP was $186.33 billion with a per capita income of $267. About half the population of 692 million still remained under the national poverty line. Scarcity continued to haunt us. Our generation was used to a hand to mouth existence which engrained frugality and the need to save so deeply in our psyches!! As a result, today when we can afford to live a far better llife, many of us still fear about “saving for a rainy day”!!

Today’s India’s nominal GDP is $4.15 trillion with a nominal per capita income of about $2800. The average lifespan is around 72 years. The population of over 1.40 billion continues to grow and the extreme poverty rate has fallen sharply to about 2.3 %. More than anything else, the quality of life across the board has improved very significantly. Food supply and health care have changed beyond recognition. Today, there is nothing which is unavailable in India- for a price of course! The days when we as kids were happy to get a few candies from relatives coming from abroad are long, long over!

In this context, since standards of living have gone up considerably what we used to consider a luxury are now part of everyday life. The highways have improved beyond belief. The airlines and railways are far better than they were back in the day. However, like we expected better decades ago, today’s Gen Z too expects better. They are impatient and scornful of elders- as once we were- and want everything now! E Commerce had created new standards of instant gratification. You can get most things delivered to your doorstep in less than 20 minutes these days!

Today we have in India the largest population of the young in the world! The percentage of Gen Z is reckoned to be about 25-28 % of India’s population. This translates to about 368 to 427 million individuals! To put things in perspective for readers in the US, the population of that large country is about 350 million!

Naturally, our Gen Z has aspirations higher than previous generations. This is the biggest challenge the leaders of our country face as we move towards the closing years of an eventful decade.

Authors, In The News

‘Anandamath’: The Revolutionary Roots of ‘Vande Mataram’

Of course, like any other child in India, I had heard the patriotic song, ” Vande Mataram”! As kids in the 1950s we sang this along with the adult members of our families. It had the honour of being called the National Song. After all “Vande Mataram” had been a galvanizing force in the Freedom movement which culminated in India getting indolence on August 15, 1947.

However here’s a confession! Until recently I had no idea that the song had been written by the famous Bengali novelist and poet, Bankim Chandra Chatterjee as far back as 1875 ! It got more prominence when it appeared in his Bengali novel called, “Anandamath”. This novel published in 1882 is considered a landmark of Bengali and Indian literature. I had erroneously believed that it dated back to the early years of the twentieth century and hence had become popular in the freedom movement. I did not realise that Bankim Chandra Chatterjee (1838-1894) had passed away even before the partition of Bengal in 1905-06. This was one of the first movements in which “Vande Mataram” became a rallying cry for the freedom fighters.

There has been renewed interest in the origins of the song- and therefore in the book ” Anandmath” due to recent developments in India. On hearing about the origins of “Vande Mataram” our National Song, I lost no time in ordering the English translation of the book. I would have loved to read the original Bengali version but sadly I cannot read that language. The book is available in English, Hindi etc in Amazon India. I understand that the novel is set in the 1770s when sanyasis and fakirs in Bengal revolted against the British especially when the province was struck by the Great Bengal Famine. I always thought I was well versed in Indian history so it came as a shock to me to learn the Sanyasi revolt l( a series of guerilla battles ) lasted for 37 years from 1763 to 1800! I can’t recall having been taught about this in our history lessons.!! This actually makes it the first revolt against the British ( then the East India Company) as it happened much before 1857 – acknowledged to be India’s First War of Independence.

“Vande Mataram” ( I Bow To Thee, My Mother”) a poem honoring Mother India is in six stanzas. It was sung in its entirety from the 1890s till 1937. It was in 1937 that some members of the Muslim community objected to the stanzas beyond the second stanza. This was because the author/poet visualized Mother India to be a Goddess and the poem had imagery with reference to the Goddesses Durga, Lakshmi and Saraswathi. In 1937, the Indian National Congress then decided that only the first two stanzas would be recited. That, then, became the established practice.

How has the 1882 book come into the limelight in 2026? The Government of India recently amended the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act 1971 to include the National Song in its ambit along with ‘Jana Gana Mana” (the National Anthem) , the National Flag and the Constitution of India. The Government’s position is that the National Song has to be sung in its entirety. The Congress Party ( which leads the Opposition in India) seems to have a different view. From several actions involving their leaders, over the past few weeks, it appears they are adamant in restricting the National Song to the first two stanzas. I think we -in present day Indian- are in a world far different from British India in 1937. That being so I feel the National Song needs to be sung in its entirety.

In India, almost everything goes to the Courts. I am sure in due course of time the Supreme Court of India will be called upon to give their judgement on what is right and what is wrong from the legal standpoint. This apart there will be political ramifications as well.

As a writer and a voracious reader, I am fascinated by the fact that current events have brought to the fore a book written over 140 years ago!