Cultures are never frozen in time, they keep moving, keep evolving.
Filmmaker and writer Sharad Raj reflects on Lucknow as a city negotiating nostalgia, feudal memory, and postmodern aspiration in a hyperconnected, globalised world.

My City Lucknow, A Cocktail Of Nostalgia, Feudalism & Postmodernism: Lucknow culture today stands at the crossroads of nostalgia, feudal heritage, and postmodern globalisation. In this reflective essay, filmmaker Sharad Raj examines identity, authenticity, social media performance, Tehzeeb, capitalism, and the evolving cultural psyche of modern Lucknow.

Ms. Frederique Vanessa Bianchi, a French Indophile and Festival Director of Toulouse Indian Film Festival, on watching my debut film, “Ek Betuke Aadmi Ki Afrah Raatien” (The Joyous Nights of a Ridiculous Man), said that while watching my film, which was set in my hometown Lucknow, she felt that like any other culture Lucknow is not frozen in time, it is alive and throbbing regardless of the fact whether we like it or not. Cultures are never frozen in time, they keep moving, keep evolving. However, with the advent of Globalisation accompanied by western companies and brands, from fashion to food, local cultures were encroached upon and then more or less destroyed in their attempt to conquer the world.

Post-colonial societies of Asia and Africa that considered themselves inferior to the western powers that once ruled them welcomed these changes with open arms. The Shetty joints of Mumbai serving coffee, idli and dosa were replaced by baristas, and kebabs and curries were replaced by broasts, roasts and sauce-based gravies.

My hometown Lucknow remained distant and sleepy for the longest time. The invasion of global capitalism was in stages that started in metros, followed by mini metros and then the smaller towns with aspirations to become bigger and swankier.
Family and friends travelled in the early years of globalisation to Mumbai and Delhi to shop and devour burgers and KFCs. No longer. Once the multinationals reached Lucknow and other smaller towns in a bid to capture new markets and homogenize culture, local outlets were pushed to the backyards. But not for long. Extreme materialism, rather fuelling the conversion of productive societies into consumptive ones, led to alienation and fragmentation of life, families and societies, with identities being threatened

Lucknow Culture Today: Between Tehzeeb And Global Capitalism

How Social Media Is Repackaging Authenticity In Small-Town India

When Nostalgia Becomes A Postmodern Commodity

Social Media And Identity
A hyperconnected world is exposed to diverse cultures and viewpoints. Globalized capitalism and advertising build identity around brands and products. The breakdown of a monolithic grand narrative results in a resurgence of the local and the subaltern. Today, in a highly digitized world of social media, we can see reels and shorts of local foods, fashion, dance and music, with each one oppressively declaring itself “iconic”!

Today Instagram is dominated by small towns and perhaps most Instagram accounts are of and about Lucknow. Each one claims authenticity, ironically in an unauthentic world. Every kebab shack is authentic, and every cloth emporium is “traditional”. Of course, towns and cities grow, and more the merrier the “authentic”, but they need to be closely examined to see whether it is just a case of self-assertion or really something that belongs or belonged to Lucknow. There is a “claim war” currently on social media. After allowing one’s identity to be trampled in the late nineties and early 20th century, now it is time for resurgence, often reactionary. Now the wind seems to be blowing the other way.

Feudal Memory

Lucknow was the capital of Avadh, home to Avadhi cuisine, clothes, poetry, art, architecture etc. Today it is the city where the famous Lulu Mall of Dubai opened first in the country. Much on the lines of European cities, a whole new city of Lucknow has come up on the other side of the river Gomti with eateries, cafes and clubs. The landscape has transformed. Lucknow was never an industrial town like its sister city Kanpur; it was a city of nawabs, of feudal lords of all communities and statures, of bureaucrats and administrators. So, on what does a Lucknowite fall back? Its feudal past, that is amply facilitated by the hyperconnected world of the internet and social media.
A significant population that feels alienated from the city that Lucknow has become clings to its past. They exonerate it of all fault lines and repackage it for the citizens of today as something blissful, peaceful, dignified and pristine. Really? Can any historical era be devoid of cracks and beyond critical examination? It cannot. But critical thinking is neither encouraged by global capitalism nor postmodernism.
The result is oppressive romanticizing of the “past”, packaged as “Tehzeeb”. Glorification of how people spoke, sat, ate, walked etc. etc. Old is gold that needs to be protected from the onslaught of the mall and multiplex culture for its perceived greatness, which is neither examined nor questioned. And that is a huge problem, but it works well for one and all. The assertion of the romantic past stays in conflict with the newer generations consumed by global capitalism, the divide widens, and both survive. One feeds on the other.
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What Is Authentic?
Imagine if globalisation had not happened, Lucknow would largely have remained a sleepy, lazy town of ruins of the past. But today the past has been adequately commodified, packed and peddled on social media. The exotic thrives most when threatened or forgotten. Most so-called old Lucknowites can even today spend a whole day talking about a vessel that is not used anymore or a building that stands in ruins; what makes it even more deficient is that they define culture as something of the past, and authentic, without defining each of these terms.

What is authentic? And why is only the past considered to be culture? Why not the present? Why do I not see most people making any connections between the times gone by and now? The past needs to be re-examined and recontextualized for it to remain relevant, instead of being sold as a museum piece to the modern-day generation.

Lucknow is throbbing with life today, no doubt about it, a big achievement for a city that never believed in spending money on art and cultural activities and has now become a Mecca for music, theatre and cinema; it is unfortunate that a substantial population is ONLY living in the past, relexifying it as a postmodern commodity in the process.

Lucknow Culture, City Of Lucknow, Avadh, Awadhi Culture, Tehzeeb, Cultural Identity India, Urban Transformation India, Postcolonial Cities, Nostalgia And Modernity, Feudal Legacy, Globalisation In India, Capitalism And Culture, Social Media And Culture, Instagram Reels India, Authenticity Debate, Commodification Of Heritage, Digital Culture India, Gomti River, Lulu Mall Lucknow, Small Town India, Urban Aspirations, Cultural Memory, Postmodern India, Indian Society Today.