Before We Dance, Can We Read the Room?

If you are an avid social media user (X addict) like me, you’d have come across the viral video of a group of Indian tourists gathered around a parked VietJet aircraft in Vietnam, performing the traditional garba dance native to the Indian state of Gujarat.

In fact, newswatchers would have surely noticed the recent surge in such impromptu dance performances at iconic tourist spots around the world. From the Great Wall of China to London’s Tower Bridge, from the Burj Khalifa in Dubai to the World War II Memorial in Washington DC, these days Indians seem to be shedding their inhibitions and bursting into dance the first chance they get.

Some would say this is an effect of Indian tourists travelling more, spending more, and becoming more visible globally.

However, if you are like me and cringed inside while watching those videos, you would also argue that such visibility comes with a sense of responsibility. The problem is not that Indians, as a people, are loud, expressive, festive, or proud of their culture; the problem occurs when cultural expression becomes indifferent to location, local culture, and the mood around such performances.

India’s outbound travel market is growing rapidly. Reports peg the total number of international trips from India in 2026 at 40-44 million, up from around 39 million in 2025. India has, in recent years, become Asia’s largest source market for outbound travellers, so we are not talking about a few thousand travellers anymore; it is about a new class of tourists who are eager to occupy global public spaces but do not seem to know how to go about it in a way that does not upset the locals and even a few fellow Indians.

The behaviour has, in fact, evolved. An earlier generation of Indian tourists abroad was often visibly uncomfortable and out of their element, loud in the way that people are loud when they are uncertain, seeking safety in numbers and noise.

That boisterousness came from anxiety. What we see today is different in character. It comes from confidence, but of a particularly different kind: the confidence of the paying customer. Somewhere in the journey from aspiration to affordability, a transaction-driven sense of entitlement has crept into the mind of the Indian tourist. The person who has spent significantly to be somewhere feels, consciously or not, that the spend confers rights: over the space, the moment, and the attention of everyone around them. The destination is no longer a place to encounter; it is a service that has been purchased. That shift in mindset, more than anything else, explains how a war memorial becomes a dance floor.

Earlier generations of tourists took pictures to remember a place. We’ve all seen photos of parents posing in front of tourist sites, marking the moment as a quiet achievement rather than a performance. In this age of social media, such restraint does not make for viral content, and tourists who double as content creators are increasingly pushing the boundaries of acceptance in return for likes, comments, and shares. The destination becomes a backdrop. The local context disappears. The tourist becomes the main character.

Perhaps this is why these videos will find their fair share of apologists. “What is wrong with Indians having a little fun?” a friend asked me, before conceding the safety issue with the VietJet performance and the deeper cultural problem with turning a site of mourning into a stage.

A rising Indian middle class is travelling abroad with confidence. That is a good thing. But confidence untempered by awareness is just a louder version of the old anxiety. Global mobility requires global manners: an instinct for when to celebrate and when to hold back, when your presence adds to a place and when it takes something away from it.

India does not need to become quieter to be respected. It needs to become more aware. The best cultural ambassadors are not those who perform everywhere, but those who know when to perform, when to participate, and when to simply observe. Each traveller must ask themselves one question before the music starts: have we learnt to carry our culture with grace?

* Avinash Bhat is a Bengaluru-based communications professional and former journalist. His columns examine culture, technology, media and the changing habits of modern society.