Growing old in India

PhD candidate Manja Bomhoff spent eight years studying the social relations of middle-class elderly people in the Indian state of Kerala. Discipline and duty appear to be core concepts. She could not altogether avoid the question of whether elderly people are better off in the Netherlands or in India.

What is better?

To begin with the ‘Holland or India?’ question: Bomhoff does not know the answer. What does ‘better’ mean? Both the closer social structures in India and the looser Dutch connections have both a sunny and a shadowy side. But in the end, growing old always brings a loss of functions and increasing dependence.

Explicit versus implicit

Manja Bomhoff, MA: 'In India, people are better prepared for old age.’

Unlike in the Netherlands, discipline and duty play a strong role in India, and they are closely linked: after all, you need discipline to carry out your duties, one of which is growing old ‘in style’. This can only be achieved through living a disciplined life. And that is not all: relatives, friends and neighbours are expected to visit and support each other, and they are allowed to explicitly remind each other of these obligations. In the Netherlands, too, such obligations exist, but they are for the most part implicit; people do not appreciate being reminded of them, which makes it easier to avoid them altogether.

Positive association

In India, the older a person is and the more discipline he or she has displayed in carrying out obligations, the larger the network on which he or she can fall back. Elderly people are also positively associated with discipline because, if they are retired and have grand-children, they can show that they have fulfilled their most important obligations in life. But there are also escape routes: neglect of duty is acceptable if another, more important obligation arises. Children are expected to visit their parents as often as possible, but if the care for their own children or the support their children need in their schooling gets in the way of this duty, this is considered acceptable.

Prepared for old age

Bomhoff made an interesting observation. She observed that elderly people in India are better prepared for growing old and for old age than their counterparts in the Netherlands. The reason, according to her, is that young people have a positive association (discipline!) with elderly people and because elderly people fulfil respected roles in official ceremonies. In the Netherlands, growing old and old age have mainly negative connotations, which is why the motivation to prepare for this inauspicious state is much less clearly present.

Following the development

Bomhoff spent three periods of time in the capital of Kerala, a city with the difficult name of Thiruvananthapuram. She attended many meetings of organisations for the elderly and spoke to many dozens of elderly people. In addition, she spoke with a number of individuals and married couples on many occasions, at intervals of several years, in order to follow their development.

Heterogeneous group

In the Netherlands, public servants and politicians are only interested in counting the numbers of elderly people, acquiring a consistent image of this group, and then devising policies to deal with the elderly, says Bomhoff. But the truth is that elderly people are a heterogeneous group. Both in India and in the Netherlands, large groups of elderly people are remarkably active and lively. In addition, researchers have prejudices (internationally): they portray the elderly as a problematic, and somewhat boring, group. This is not true, concludes the anthropologist. The elderly are definitely not problematic by definition, and they are most certainly not boring.

Last Modified: 25-01-2012