These days, it’s tough to scroll down Indian news channels’ carousals without one of two ubiquitous narratives popping up: the Great Indian Economy breaking the world-wide glass ceiling; and, Indian tourists staging a hostile takeover of the Global Embarrassment Olympics.

When you conflate the two, the bottom line is mystifying: why do swathes of people hailing from an ‘emerging superpower’ not know how to behave like decent human beings?

Surely, it should be a given — the fact that you behave like responsible global citizens when you want to be taken seriously on the global stage?

Sadly, no.

With India’s growing trajectory in business outlook, a burgeoning middle class, a stable stock market, and (overall) increasing disposable incomes, the outbound travel sector is set to witness unprecedented highs. But the attendant good form — much needed when one becomes a globe-trotter — continues to plumb new depths.

It’s a generally accepted truth that, earlier, many travellers from South Asia were not well-versed in international etiquette; lack of awareness/education and ethnic insulation were quoted as two reasons.

Now that the world is flat and we exist in an open market, atop a high-speed information highway, the newer crop of Indian travellers have a different problem. They have swag. They believe it’s absolutely alright to behave in inappropriate ways and indulge in cultural colonization. “We are like this only” is the new national anthem.

“Indians going abroad have a typical mindset, ‘I have paid money for this, I will do whatever I wish’,” claimed one social media post that’s now gone viral. “These tour groups all of a sudden start shouting ‘Mera Bharat Mahan’ at any random place while visiting abroad.”

“…A lot of these so-called ‘travellers’ are an embarrassment. Many come with zero respect for local customs,” stated another. “And then there’s the sheer cheapness. Not the kind where you’re being cautious about getting overcharged as a tourist, but the kind where they expect everything dirt cheap and act entitled when it’s not. They bring their worst habits with them, trying to impose their norms on an entirely different culture.”

The striking thing about the recent case of Indian tourist Anaya Avalani (she also goes by the alias Jimisha Avalani) who was arrested after she shoplifted merchandise worth USD1,000 from a Target store in the US is how unfazed she was. “But I’m not from this country,” she kept repeating to law enforcement officers like it’s a passport to wriggle out of a criminal charge, while displaying zero signs of remorse — or shame.

Interestingly, the most severe backlash is coming from compatriots. On social media, an Indian wrote, “Shocking behaviour that emerges from lack of education and manners and ignorance about personal space and a kind of vulgar hubris that shouts ‘I am an Indian’. When I was in Hungary, on a beautiful quiet street in Budapest having breakfast, suddenly 6 or 7 Indians came like some weird force shouting and talking on top of their voices and singing and acting out Bollywood scenes in the middle of the street at 8.30 in the morning. It was surreal and very disturbing. You wanted to shrink and say I am not them, I am not an Indian.’’

Someone else responded (cheekily) with: “This is New India. We are the Tigers. Just see our GDP… Bharat Mata Ki Jai.”

The Indian Tourists Horror Trail segues within the borders as well. A few years ago, when I was in Goa on holiday, a local tour operator went straight for the jugular when he told me, “We hate toxic tourists from elsewhere in India who are ‘polluting’ Goa… especially those from north India — those guys are uncivilized and obnoxious.” The once-pristine hill stations of Darjeeling and Kurseong, in my state West Bengal, are now loud and littered. Popular beaches resemble war zones, littered with plastic corpses, echoing with Bollywood remixes blasting from Bluetooth speakers at all odd hours.

Within India, the overriding feeling badly-behaved tourists rack up is anger. When the all-too-frequent “incidents” take place outside the home turf, that feeling devolves into head-hanging shame. You begin to wonder whether India’s pathetic rank on the passport index (it’s among the lowest) has something to do with the “perception” the rest of the world has about us based on our footloose tourists’ behaviour.

The same tourists who are giving India’s reputation a masterclass in how to fail at soft power. – Sushmita Bose is Consulting Editor, NRIFocus.com