A while back, Glenn Reynolds put up an article on how Pop culture in the US served as a lightning rod for absorbing energies from young men & women that could have otherwise fueled a Nazi-like totalitarian mess and the current psuedo-totalitarian mess we see in the Arab world.

One of my favorite memes that I've been trying to infect into many of my Indian friends is the idea that Bollywood will be a driving force in modernization and social integration of India into the brave new world order.   Bollywood will contribute more towards providing the social groundwork towards future economic mobility than almost any NGO, foreign aid program, govt initiative.

Why?   Because it creates a new, shared, horizontal experience that touches individuals from the far Northern reaches of Kashmir all the way down south to Kerala.  There's a new social norm, and a truly indigenous standard of behavior for young folks to align themselves with (although NOT necessarily replicate whole heartedly  ;-) which makes 'em all a little less alien to each other.   And you've gotta be "neighbors" before you can be customers, vendors, and business partners.