Today, westerners and many people from other cultures are living life styles that are completely different from that of the people in India. Indian people have adapted different means of socializing to survive and thrive in this fast paced world. Although some of them might be a little dull and slow compared to others, still Indian cultures have given way to various types of socializing like art, dance, cuisine, costumes, music, literature and so on. Every part of the Indian social life is related to food. For instance, every dinner party is incomplete without the dessert course.
Indian people have been known to adopt new eating habits with each changing cultural condition. In earlier times, people used to eat meat and cereals. However, they later shifted to a more vegetarian diet as they found it much easier to control their energy and weight.
When we talk of Indian Americans, they generally refer to the immigrants from various states of United States. However, there are a number of groups of people who identify as Indian American. Most of them have adopted a western style of living but at the same time, they have also adopted a variety of Indian customs as well. The major difference between the Indian American and the Indian socializing is the influence of western culture. Indians in India have adopted a lot of western food and even some of their traditions. In fact, the American Indians were really influenced by the lifestyle of the British.
They were used to wearing sarees, jewelry, chain link trousers, etc. Unlike the people in India, the westerners developed a taste for expensive clothes, jewelry, chain links, etc. These things gradually replaced traditional clothing. Some of them even changed their names from being identified with the caste or religion to just wearing clothes. They thus developed a totally different eating habits from that of their forefathers.
There are a few people, especially among the Bantus and Brahmins in India, who actually eat western style foods. They do so because they believe that it enhances their status of being an Indian. But this is not necessarily a wrong belief. It may just be that, over time, the western eating habits of the Bantus and the Brahmins started to disappear along with the rise of western power. But recently, some of them have started adopting western eating habits again.
There are also a few other groups of people in India who identify themselves as Indians first and westerners second. These people are the ones who adopt Indian cultural traits but still practice western culture. The Brahmins and the Kolis are examples of such people. The Brahmins are mostly located in the upper regions of India where they still preserve their Indian culture. The Kolis, on the other hand, mostly dwell in the lower regions of India where they still practice Indian cultural traits, though they mostly identify themselves as westerners.
One of the many reasons why there are still a number of Indians who reject western lifestyles and eat western food is because they think that their lifestyle is still dictated by the Hindu codes and beliefs. It is also believed that as they are not Brahmins and neither are they Kolis, they cannot be part of the western culture. This is partly true. Although there are some instances where Indians like Javed Akhtar and Shah Rukh Khan have adopted western lifestyles, they are usually exceptions.
The main reason why Indians reject western lifestyles is that they are bound by the Hindu codes and beliefs and are not allowed to adopt any of the western eating habits or lifestyles. So in essence, Indians living in the cities with western cosmopolitan neighborhoods are forced to live as if they are Brahmins or Kolis. However, this has been changing lately and more Indians are slowly adopting western ways of living, including eating out and adopting western lifestyles.