‘India has accomplished high growth without any tools of an autocratic state. India’s growth potential is even more striking
if you consider how much has been achieved with so little. It lacks the modern infrastructure projects that have helped propel China forward. It lacks foreign direct investment and universal literacy as in the case of other prospering nations yet its economy is growing rapidly!’ Such are the views expressed by Edward Luce a graduate from Oxford University and a commentator with Financial Times in Washington in his book titled ‘In Spite of Gods – The Strange Rise of Modern India in 2006’. The author has taken a fancy for India over a period of years by merely watching the developments the
country has made since independence, his interaction with India watchers and a stint of four years in the country.
Prof Amartya Sen has rightly summed his opinion on Luce’s work as an introduction to contempory India which will definitely interest the outsiders. The reviews of the book rave on the simplicity with which the author has portrayed India as a generation next super economies of the world.
The book encompasses India’s rise from the Nehruvian era to its present day and along its path Luce has dwelled upon all the landmarks which feature in the history of the Nation that is the aftermath of English rule, Hindu nationalism, politics, religion, international
relations and the many layered character of Indian modernity.
Nehru’s strategy was essentially capital intensive; aimed to develop India’s technological capacity, rather than employ the maximum number of people. Whereas today Nilekani of Infosys talks of improving the quality of urban governance and to provide the poor with real jobs. Such explicit views do arouse a debate in the minds of the reader on the government’s nationalist policies.
‘Just as it is impossible to know when a swimming fish is drinking water, so it is impossible to find out when a government servant is stealing money’ a quote by Kautilya aptly summarises Luce’s chapter on burra sahibs that is our bureaucracy. Notwithstanding the quote, Luce appreciates the high calibre of officers and their motivation to uplift the lives of ordinary people.
In the third and fourth chapters he dwells on the caste and religious upswings the country has had and is still brewing under. The author has wisely avoided judgmental statements but has boldly put forth the facts and figures duly substantiated.
The subsequent chapters seem disjointed since it covers the political dramas of the Nation to include dynastic rule of one of the major nationalist party and thereafter jumping to the religious divide of Muslims.
In the seventh chapter Luce has elucidated the gamut of international relations live in the region with China and US as the major influencing players. The genesis and opportunities of cooperation between India and China have been explained at length. The author assumes that China will have to maintain peaceful relations with India if it has to achieve its ambition of becoming a global power. In passing the author has covered the nuclear impasse and the birth of Indo – US nuclear understandings.
The final chapter of the book puts forth the image of a modern India with a myriad of culture and character - yet a country unique to the rest of the world.
Overall the book is makes an interesting reading to understand various facets of India and the narration is quite lucid thus making it very simple to comprehend the author’s viewpoints. The book is recommended for general reading and a collection in the libraries.
Write your abstract here.