ABSTRACT
India’s status of the youngest country is fast receding, and by 2050, the rich demographic dividend will subside. With this concern in mind, this book revolves around the most important, but under-researched social class of India: youth. The book has nine chapters, each of which deals with important themes like attitudes, anxieties, and aspirations of youth, through which we address how youth is making sense of the fast changing realities around them. Their anxieties around jobs – employability, job quota benefits, joblessness, willful unemployment and ‘passing of time’ for better opportunities – tell a lot about their constant concerns. Besides these concerns, the other thing that is negotiated constantly is their attitude towards modern ideas and traditions. The pointers to a modern lifestyle, like watching movies, food and wearing modern dress, are positively present among the youth. The clash of modernity with tradition is very sharp in issues like acceptance of homosexuality, arranged or love marriage and science versus religion. Their political reflections on the turnout in elections and their identification with the political parties, their vocal opposition to the death penalty and cinema censorship and their informed opinion on the discrimination faced by them, varies. As a comparative, a similar study on youth carried out in 2007 is a useful cross-temporal tool to understand the ensuing changes among today’s youth.
