Globalisation of popular culture has shaped the reading habits of Indian youth. Critically analyse.

Globalisation of popular culture through publishing, OTT and social media has made global bestsellers as familiar to Indian youth as home-grown writing. One columnist's bookshelf, with Jeffrey Archer next to Sidney Sheldon, Michael Crichton and John Grisham, sums up this generational taste [1]. Its influence is real but uneven, and it increasingly runs both ways.

How globalisation has shaped reading habits

• Genre shift: thrillers, fantasy, romance and self-help from Anglo-American markets now lead youth reading, often through screen adaptations.
• Author as brand: book tours, metro launches and literature festivals turn writers into celebrities. Archer promoted Best Kept Secret, the third Clifton Chronicles novel, in Chennai in 2013 [1].
• English as aspiration: English commercial fiction is linked to social mobility and a global identity.
• Digital access: e-books, audiobooks and online reading communities make global titles instantly available.
• Indianised bestsellers: Indian authors have adopted the global commercial-fiction format, with simple prose and campus or mythological plots, and this has widened youth readership.

Concerns

• Homogenisation: Indian-language literature is crowded out, and translation between Indian languages remains limited.
• Shallow reading: short-form screen content competes with sustained, deep reading.
• Urban–rural divide: global titles reach mainly English-educated urban youth, while rural readers depend on weak library networks.
• Market-led taste: publicity, often managed by PR professionals, decides what is read more than literary merit does [1].

Correctives: making the exchange two-way

• NEP 2020 calls for engaging books in Indian languages, along with rural, children's and mobile libraries and book clubs [2].
• Rashtriya e-Pustakalaya, implemented by the National Book Trust, offers free non-academic books in English and many Indian languages to learners up to age 18 [3].
• PM-YUVA 3.0 mentors authors below 30 to promote book culture and take Indian writing to global readers [4]. It selected 43 young authors writing in 22 Indian languages and English [5].

Globalisation has widened youth reading in genre, format and reach, but it has also tilted that reading towards English, urban and market-driven choices. Translation missions, well-stocked public and digital libraries, and global promotion of Indian-language writing can turn one-way consumption into a two-way exchange. That balance would fulfil NEP 2020's vision of a joyful reading culture and advance SDG 4 on quality education.