Age of Optimism: Unraveling Indian Youth Images of the Future

This paper places Indian youth images of the future in the global context of the early twenty-first century. This period appears to be ‘post-normal’ from a Western perspective but not from the perspective of India and other developing countries. The paper presents some significant surveys of Indian youth in recent years and discusses the results of these surveys, including images and perceptions of the future. It tries to analyse the factors that influence the attitude of optimism, enthusiasm and confidence of the Indian youth towards the future. These factors relate to India’s objective situation in the world as well as to the cultural traits deriving from India’s long-existing civilization. The paper concludes by reminding that serious challenges exist for creating a bright future, which will have to be addressed by India’s leadership as well as by its youth, today and tomorrow.