Backpacking Armies and Their Local Influence

A few years ago, I was surprised when a friend who came back from a trip to Hampi told me that they had to live on pastas and pancakes and not Idli-Sambar. I then did not understand how a remote place like Hampi ended up in dishing out trans-continental cuisine. Unknowingly, that was my first ever encounter with the world's backpacking masses on the move, armed with lonely planets and off to cheap destinations to spend the extra money they have earned(or received on dole) back home.

As I changed from an idler to traveller over the years and explored the country, often meeting these backpackers, staying in their dens and eating out in restaurants that dished out croissants, mueslis and humos to satiate their palate, my opinion about them changed from initial awe to respect to ordinary, and eventually nothing positive to speak about.

It is often said that travel helps to expand your mind and enrich your life. To travel is to indulge in the experience of new locales, feel the pulse of new places and cultures, learn, understand and absorb the goodness. But a considerable portion of the backpacking crowd appears only interested in firing away with their digicams and camcorders and go back to boast about their Round-The-World trip at home. I would rather ignore such travellers, but can't help notice how they have changed the economies of tourist locales and subtly influenced the cultures.

It is an article rumbling about impact of this influx in South East Asia that put me to some serious thoughts. How are the five million and growing in number of tourists who arrive in India impacting the local mindset?

Changes in Hampi were very visible. An army of enterprising locals had adopted to suit the needs of backpackers who arrived in large numbers every winter. Restaurants served from a menu that read like that of a place probably in Israel. Even a few who displayed a South Indian dish or two in their menu said they no longer make it. Unlike many years ago, a white man was not stared at and failed to surprise people even at places far away from where the action is. Children carelessly surrounded them and locals comfortably spoke to them and were sometime eager to please them to extract the maximum.

Even when businesses adjusted to their customer, there was hardly any evident cultural change. Inside their homes and within their mind, people remained the same, followed the same practices and worshiped the same gods. The way of living of most people hardly suffered from any external influence.

But the most important change came in terms of profusion of crime. I was never a witness or was not subjected to it, but guidebooks warned of dangers of wandering alone or staying out late into the night. Newspapers often screamed of penetration of drugs and ease of their availability. And crime usually follows where the drugs go. Of course, the moral brigades did make plenty of talk on our culture getting ruined and spread of ‘immorality’, but there was nothing apparent to those claims.

Everyday life in Hampi was largely not influenced, but things were much different in Pushkar. A town that is known for hundreds of temples around it was now crowded by hundreds of backpackers' dens all around the lake, nearly killing the charm of the place. The feel of the temples was gone and it looked like a ghetto, packed densely with shops selling colorful cloths, ethnic jewellery, trinkets, books and internet centers. Nearly every house around the sacred lake was converted into guesthouse that let in travellers. The charm and essence of the original temple town was completely lost.

There were clues that helped me imagine a time when Pushkar was not a tourist center. The hundreds of temple that surrounded the ghats remained, but were now overwhelmed by shops and restaurants that around them. The ghats were intact too but there would have been more place to breath easy and relax. Without all the construction, it would have been a picturesque location with the lake nestled between sandy plain at one end and nag parvat range on the other, and a few fields of mustard scattered here and there. Camels and marwari men with wide moustache and cushy pagri would have roamed the streets that are now crowded with backpackers.

Even when the atmosphere has changed considerably, Pushkar has been guarded from any kind of cultural corruption. Ghats are strongly protected by the association of local priests to retain their ancient essence. Footwear is banned anywhere near the ghats and so are cameras. There are signs all around the ghats telling ‘foreigners’ to ‘behave’ and respect the local tradition, and it has been followed scrupulously. Men and women on pilgrimage bathe in the lake in comfort without worrying about camera touting strangers, and perform their pooja without becoming exhibits to curious onlookers. With cameras not allowed around the ghats, most backpackers arriving at Pushkar spend no more than a few minutes at the ghat and while away rest of their day hanging out elsewhere.

The most bothering change that has happened over the years is the attitude in the travel industry. It being easier to squeeze more from the purse of a foreigner, most services prefer to keep the less generous Indian traveller away.

Waiters at restaurants often ignore the Indians deliberately and expect that they do not come back. Once entering an internet center in Jaisalmer, I was turned away saying that the connectivity is down even when a foreigner was sitting right there browsing. Some small hotels in and around Goa do not entertain Indian visitors in peak seasons. I have heard of a Canadian visitor of Indian Origin looking for a room in Majnu Ka Tilla near Delhi, who was rudely told on his face that they don’t give out rooms to Indians, but was welcomed when he showed his Canadian passport.

I have seen a few signs in Jodhpur’s restaurants that read ‘tourists only’, it probably meant they do not want Indians inside. A friend I know could not make a planned trip from Port Blair to Havelock Island in Andaman on the new year eve because it was the high season and the limited boat tickets were sold to foreigners in ‘black’, at a higher price.

But the increase in number of backpacking foreigners arriving in India has effectively helped the local economies in tourist places. The holidaying Indian middle class prefers resorts and mid-range hotels built by professional organizations that bring employees from cities and far away places, but backpackers bring money to low-budget guesthouses usually run by locals. They eat in small restaurants, buy from tiny shops owned by local artists and tribes and use local guides. All this has served good for the economy of the rural population in popular places like Goa, Sikkim and Himachal.

Speaking of cultural changes, India has weathered many assaults on its heritage in the past and has survived without much change. A globalized economy is far bigger threat to culture than the changes that tourism can bring in. Environmental degradation is a serious issue, but domestic and foreigners tourists contribute to it alike. The most bothering changes that come with the flood of backpackers have been the increase in crime, penetration of drugs and change in attitude of the service industry. Scarlett Keeling case may be an extreme example of what could happen, but crimes of smaller proportion are more common. With inflow of tourists to India growing at double digits for many years now, all these things are probably here to stay and expand.