9 - Negotiating with autonomy and relatedness: dialogical processes in everyday lives of Indians

Summary

This chapter explores the specific nature of dialogical relationships in the Indian self and society. Relationships among members of any group are guided by cultural, social and historical orientations that develop over centuries. In Indian communities, there exists a deep sense of relatedness with other people. Among Indians, reality itself is believed to be contingent upon context. Conversational interface among Indians is usually multiparty. Whether it is in childcare or social gatherings, there is a tendency to use strategies of multiparty discourse. The chapter presents ten illustrations which indicates how deeply (and differently) other people construct everyday conversations in the lives of Indians and one prevalent format for discourse is what can clumsily be called to everyone in general and no one in particular. It shows how social interactions guide the developing person towards active engagement with cultural reality while retaining individual agency.