Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and Perceptions

Front Cover
Peter Ronald DeSouza, Sanjay Kumar, Sandeep Shastri
SAGE Publications, Oct 1, 2009 - Social Science - 208 pages
This book comprises the first nationwide study based on face-to-face interviews with 5000 youth to capture the popular mood of this important demographic segment of contemporary India. It records their perceptions of various issues, ranging from modernity, development, globalization and unemployment, to leisure and lifestyle, social networks and family, and their hopes and aspirations for the future. While it breaks some myths about them, on one hand, it helps strengthen some commonly shared perceptions about them, on the other.

Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and Perceptions underlines that Indian youth reflect an authentic multiplicity of aspirations, ′world views′ and interest, quite like the rich tapestry of India′s diversity. It indicates that they are a mix of continuity with change. However, they stand distinct in many ways from the youth the world over. This book is also likely to break some myths related to the youth, opening avenues for new debates. For example, the study reveals that there is hardly any decline in interest in politics between two generations.

The book would be invaluable for professionals in advertising and other media sectors and all those involved in market research. Students and teachers of specialized psychology courses, behavioural sociology, political sociology, social change and modernization will also find it useful.

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About the author (2009)

Sanjay Kumar is Professor and Director of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) since 2014. His core area of research is electoral politics, but he has also been engaged in research on Indian youth, state of democracy, and slums of Delhi. He has directed several national-level studies, most important being the series of National Election Study (NES) conducted by Lokniti–CSDS since 1996.

Earlier, he had authored Changing Electoral Politics in Delhi: From Caste to Class; co-authored (with Peter Ronald de Souza and Sandeep Shastri) Indian Youth in a Transforming World: Attitudes and Perceptions; edited Indian Youth and Electoral Politics: An Emerging Engagement; and co-edited (with Suhas Palshikar and Sanjay Lodha) Electoral Politics in India: Resurgence of the Bharatiya Janata Party and (with Christophe Jaffrelot) Rise of the Plebeians? The Changing Face of Indian Legislative Assemblies. He has contributed chapters in several edited volumes and research journals and writes regularly for national newspapers. He is also a known face on Indian television as an expert on elections.

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