With the advent of man on earth, his struggle with nature to ease his life started. Subsequently, several independent civilizations had evolved in various parts of the world. And there evolved two different life style broadly –First, the spiritual Indian life style and The Second, Western. The Western life style once again diverted in two – First, the Capitalistic way, and the Second communistic way.
The Indian life style was focused on the metaphysical rather than the materialistic way of living, where as both the western styles related to the control and distribution of the income and sources of production. The object of all the styles had been to obtain high standards of life cultivating the human life, although the definition of the standards of living had been different among them.
This blog seeks to evaluate the relationship between the happiness (traditional and modern) with Income. In the context of different epochs of history and both the eras after independence (Pre-economic liberalization and Post-economic liberalization), the broad analysis of the change in standards of Indian people’s life-style is done on the basis of secondary sources. For the purpose, the information is collected from research papers, historical books and various magazines and journals.
It becomes clear on the basis of analytical study of the information obtained from various secondary sources that the definition of the life-standards in Indian society had been different in different ages and there is no unanimity on the issue even today. The relation of social happiness and progress in standard of living with the income has never been explicit. The effect of western and American interpretation of the standard of living seems to be gaining in contemporary Indian society, but a new concept of MODI incomes has been in circulation by the present central government along with it. Thus, India is passing through a transitional phase, where the material progress is, on one hand, considered as the basis of reform in living standard, and on the other hand great efforts are being made to re-establish education, cleanliness, honesty, dutifulness, courtesy, respect and service of old people, ladies, sick and all creatures as sublime of life.