Although focusing on two different aspects of global economy, Joseph Stiglitz and Lizzie Collingham both hold with the same view on globalization. While Collingham makes a digressive inquiry about the introduction of Tea in India, Stiglitz argues about the economic flaws resulting from the introduction of free markets and global policies.
Trade and Globalization
Tea trade over the last centuries is a relevant illustration of the globalization process. In fact, international trade and cooperation, of all kind, serves globalization. Tea was slowly integrated in the Indian economy thanks to advertising and marketing and gradually spread to become a common drink. Imported in India by the British, the first motive was of economic nature but tea was also the vehicle of globalization and the introduction of Western countries (here Great-Britain) in India. In his analysis of globalization Stiglitz points out that free trade has had many positive consequences even if it is often criticized. The main motive is, according to the institutions, the same that was serving the western countries at the beginning: Common policies were then seen as a collective action. Moreover, market economy and free trade does not automatically lead to identical blandness everywhere but it shows how communities interact.
Syncretism
The introduction of tea in India illustrates how habits are shaped by foreign influence but the adaptation made by the mixing of new practices and traditions creates a syncretism of culture and leads to differentiated habits. The interactions of different countries both at the cultural and economic level have led to hybridized behaviors. Stiglitz illustrates this association by presenting the East Asian countries’ situation after embracing globalization under their own terms. The adaptation of a foreign model is also observed in India through the sharing of tea as an intercommunal relation tool but was initially used as an instrument of communal separation by the