One can go on enumerating the advantages of globalisation and there will be no end to the list. What people often tend to ignore is that the onslaught of globalisation more or less washed away a large part of the indigenous culture. It wiped away languages — snatching away the cumulative identity of its speakers — and eroded local traditions to a point where they are now gasping for breath. There is no denying the fact that the ‘shrinking’ of the world has been of paramount significance for humanity, but should that prevent us from asking the question whether the essence of local cultures and traditions could have been safeguarded in the process? Does globalisation necessarily have to be unidirectional — leading towards adoption of a dominant culture? A village in Kinnaur District’s Hangrang Valley in Himachal Pradesh — Sumra — has stirred these questions once again by moving a resolution at the gram panchayat level, which seeks to abandon Bollywood weddings in favour of their tribal culture. Globalisation didn’t necessarily have to be directly aligned to Westernisation. However, it generated a trend where ‘dominant cultures’ engulfed less-dominant ones, with the Western culture standing at the top of the hierarchy. In the present case, the people following Kinnauri tribal culture apprehend the subjugation of their marriage traditions by the Bollywood culture which, in turn, is directed towards the Western culture. When Marshall McLuhan coined the much-celebrated phrase of the world being a ‘Global Village’, he, without explicitly stating it, kept the Western culture at the nucleus. Indigenous cultures have been at the receiving end of this trend, almost passively, losing all that was part of their culture — better, worse or just suitable to them. Culture, it may be noted, is the mother of civilisation, and defines the entire way of life of communities, and not selected aspects of it. By aligning with an alien culture, a community makes forced adjustments in each walk of life, most of the time without realising it. Against this backdrop, the sentiments of people of Sumra need to be acknowledged. Marriage is one of the most prominent and emotive social institutions, and perhaps this is the reason that the residents of the village have gathered courage to question the relevance of a more dominant culture. In effect, everything, from local clothing to snacks and whatnot, has conceded to dominant alternatives, not always for good. One must not err to see these things as a nostalgic recollection of the fading past because these not-so-optional transitions affect the lives of local communities in practical ways that are least documented. In the Constitutional scheme of things, the entire episode in Sumra can be viewed through the lens of diversity and group identity. The entire chain of dominant cultures engulfing the less-dominant ones is directed towards uniformity, contrary to the concept of diversity. More worrisome is the fact that this uniformity is irrational and doesn’t represent all cultures proportionately. Over decades, Indian’s have blindly followed the unidirectional path of globalisation without questioning it, because it came with a bounty that is irresistible. But in the process, indigenous communities and groups lost their languages and way of life, hence identity as well. The contrarian voices from the communities have been feeble, and even absent in most cases. The governments, too, cared little about the fading diversity, and the media didn’t find enough spice there. Indeed, what is lost already cannot be regained, but the attributes of the indigenous culture that are still in the process of dying can be saved. The collective move by Sumra village is an outpouring of subdued sentiments. However odd it may seem; it is an expression of a general sense of loss that has been in the process for quite a long time. The fact is that the people of Sumra have little tools at their disposal and not much legal or administrative backing. Perhaps the state administration can take some interest and harmonise the resolution with the law of the land so that individual choices are not harmed through the collective will. Claims are that more villages in the neighborhood could be in the process of passing similar resolutions. It is the state's responsibility to understand their concerns and, at the same time, make sure that laws are not breached upon in the process.