Rising in a Flat World

Edward Luce makes a compelling case to show why the 21st century is India8217;s to lose

WHEN YOU ARE ASKED TO review a book on the rise of India written by a foreign correspondent, it is easy to predict the mix. There will be a bit of the li-cense permit raj and the dead hand of India8217;s bureaucracy, the continued emphasis on the caste system and the politics of patronage, the Hindu-Muslim equation and the tensions between the secularists and religious hardliners, the juxtaposition of the laptop with the bullock cart as a metaphor for the modern and the medieval, the dominance of the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, the obliga-tory bow to Bollywood, and the emerging role of India as a super-power and a bulwark in the US-China relationship.

Ed Luce has all this and much more. The only thing he has glossed over is our obsession with cricket! Through his several years of living and working in India, Ed has put to-gether a penetrating and compre-hensive story of a country that is shaking itself from its slumber and making its first darting forays into the world. As Ed travels the length and breadth of the country, his keen eye and facile pen have put together a compelling story and he does a heck of a good job of explaining why and how it all happened.

In Ed8217;s book, India is not a land of a million mutinies, but a thousand mental models. These could range from activists yearning for the vil-lage republic to ardent neo-liberals who preach untrammeled globali-sation. It could range from atavistic religious leaders to those who play identity politics. All these protago-nists, each with his or her mental model, are shouting and jostling for attention and mindshare, hoping to leave their imprint and impact on the destiny of a nation.

As Ed says rightly in the end, quoting Vijay Kelkar, 8220;The twenty-first century is India8217;s to lose.8221; What is perturbing is not the challenges that need to be overcome, but the complacency of the elite in believing that India has already arrived, and its obsession with short term trivial is-sues rather than focusing on the once-in-a-millennium strategic op-portunity for achieving greatness. If Ed8217;s book can even in a small way convince the world of India8217;s poten-tial and Indians of India8217;s perils, his job is done.

In the final analysis, In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India is an insider8217;s tale. It is not a book by someone who has been born and brought up in India. Nor is it the hur-ried quickie of an itinerant journal-ist. Ed brings an extraordinary deep understanding of India and all its strengths, weaknesses and complexi-ties to bear on his book. It is a tale by someone who has lived for years in India, who is married to an Indian who has travelled the length and breadth of the country. It is written by a Cartesian mind sometimes be-wildered and sometimes bemused but always affectionate. It is a tale well told and a great read both for those who know India and for those who don8217;t.

Nandan Nilekani is CEO, president and managing director, Infosys