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India: A Portrait
A monumental biography of the subcontinent from the award-winning author of The World Is What It The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul .
Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative.
Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities. He reveals how a nation identified with some of the most wretched poverty on earth has simultaneously developed an envied culture of entrepreneurship (here are stories like that of C. K. Ranganathan, who trudged the streets of Cuddalore in the 1980s selling sample packets of shampoo and now employs more than one thousand people). And even more remarkably, French shows how, despite the ancient and persistent traditions of caste, as well as a mind-boggling number of ethnicities and languages, India has nevertheless managed to cohere, evolving into the world’s largest democracy, largely fulfilling Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of a secular liberal order.
French’s inquiry goes to the heart of all the puzzlements that modern India Is this country actually rich or poor? Why has its Muslim population, the second largest on earth, resisted radicalization to such a considerable extent? Why do so many children of Indians who have succeeded in the West want to return “home,” despite never having lived in India? Will India become a natural ally of the West, a geostrategic counterweight to the illiberal rising powers China and Russia? To find the answers, French seeks out an astonishing range of from Maoist revolutionaries to Mafia dons, from chained quarry laborers to self-made billionaires. And he delves into the personal lives of the political elite, including the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, one of the most powerful women in the world.
With a familiarity and insight few Westerners could approach, Patrick French provides a vital corrective to the many outdated notions about a uniquely dynamic and consequential nation. His India is a thrilling revelation.
Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative.
Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities. He reveals how a nation identified with some of the most wretched poverty on earth has simultaneously developed an envied culture of entrepreneurship (here are stories like that of C. K. Ranganathan, who trudged the streets of Cuddalore in the 1980s selling sample packets of shampoo and now employs more than one thousand people). And even more remarkably, French shows how, despite the ancient and persistent traditions of caste, as well as a mind-boggling number of ethnicities and languages, India has nevertheless managed to cohere, evolving into the world’s largest democracy, largely fulfilling Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of a secular liberal order.
French’s inquiry goes to the heart of all the puzzlements that modern India Is this country actually rich or poor? Why has its Muslim population, the second largest on earth, resisted radicalization to such a considerable extent? Why do so many children of Indians who have succeeded in the West want to return “home,” despite never having lived in India? Will India become a natural ally of the West, a geostrategic counterweight to the illiberal rising powers China and Russia? To find the answers, French seeks out an astonishing range of from Maoist revolutionaries to Mafia dons, from chained quarry laborers to self-made billionaires. And he delves into the personal lives of the political elite, including the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, one of the most powerful women in the world.
With a familiarity and insight few Westerners could approach, Patrick French provides a vital corrective to the many outdated notions about a uniquely dynamic and consequential nation. His India is a thrilling revelation.
416 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2010
100 people are currently reading
1283 people want to read
About the author
Patrick French
19 books45 followersPatrick French was a British writer and historian, based in London. He was educated at the University of Edinburgh where he studied English and American literature.
French is the author of several books including Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (1994), a biography of Francis Younghusband, The World Is What It Is (2008), an authorized biography of Nobel Laureate V.S Naipaul which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States of America, and India: A Portrait, an intimate biography of 1.2 billion people.(2010)
During the 1992 general election, French was a Green Party candidate for Parliament. He has sat on the executive committee of the Tibet Support Group UK, and was a founding member of the inter-governmental India-UK Round Table.
French is the author of several books including Younghusband: The Last Great Imperial Adventurer (1994), a biography of Francis Younghusband, The World Is What It Is (2008), an authorized biography of Nobel Laureate V.S Naipaul which won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the United States of America, and India: A Portrait, an intimate biography of 1.2 billion people.(2010)
During the 1992 general election, French was a Green Party candidate for Parliament. He has sat on the executive committee of the Tibet Support Group UK, and was a founding member of the inter-governmental India-UK Round Table.
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April 7, 2015
India: Connect-the-Dots (or not)
French divides the book into three neat parts - Rashtra (Nation, i.e., The Politics), Lakshmi (Wealth, i.e., The Economics) & Samaj (Society, i.e., The Sociology). He attempts to sketch a comprehensive ‘portrait’ of the country by using this eminently scientific approach. Hard to fault the ambition. Except that India refuses to be divided into such easy compartments. Nor are these sciences ones that can be easily examined without reference to each other. They are not the hyphenated-sisters for no reason. Much of the pleasure in reading the book comes from the tension generated by French trying to wrench and force fit his stories into his compartments, religiously avoiding cross-references (as much as possible). The fact that he keeps the whole thing coherent is an achievement in itself.
Rashtra
Appropriately the first section is politics which is the fountainhead of much that follows. French here attempts the herculean task of trying to compress the byzantine complexity of Indian politics into a third of a book. He keeps it light and funny and does not lack in insight when it comes to history. But his telling is slightly biased in favor of the current government - lavishing praises on Mr. Singh, Soniaji and on her son, even as he dishes out excessive criticism on almost everything else concerning Indian politics. It must be an embarrassment for the author if it were pointed out now how he was praising Rahul Gandhi as the possible savior of an increasing decadent Congress system while so insightfully highlighting the worst aspects of the party politics.
The best analyzed chapter of the book (Family Politics) comes in this section and deals with the minutiae of Hereditary Politics that has plagued India. With the help of some (almost) ad-hoc calculations and excel-plugging, French arrives at a picture of how deep-rotted the problem really is. This depressing analysis points out how low a proportion of non-hereditary political leaders, i.e., people who made it on their own merit are there in the higher (and even lower) echelons of power. As opposed to the ones who didn't need merit - He calls them H-MPs/H-MLAs (Hereditary-MP/MLA). Can’t think of a more stinging slap on the face of ‘democracy’.
French ends the chapter with a stirring warning that the route India has taken of entrenched hereditary politics is taking her rapidly back to the era of Kings and Princes.
Lakshmi
As with any Indian Economic history, French dives with great relish into criticizing the early planning economy, especially Mahalanobis - he even points out how this damaged not just India but the rest of the newly independent countries as well since they looked to India (Calcutta in lieu of Chicago) for economic wisdom and adopted Mahalanobis’s elaborately concocted fantasy as theory.
But the fact is that the steady stream of economists who poured into India in that period of exceptional enthusiasm (which Das elaborates in his book) had all certified the plan as faultless, Friedman being one of the few voices to cry foul and that was probably more because it was against his ideology than because of any specific objections to the theoretical framework.
Thought experiment: India as an early Keynesian vs Monetarist battleground. Almost, but not to be. Sigh.
In addition to the standard fare of criticism of early policies and the run up to the much hyped turning point of the 90s, some interesting flashes stand out in this section to interest even the informed reader - such as:
How Keynes’ early career and theoretical synthesis was shaped by India;
How the at-first-glance stunningly socialistic and idealistic ‘Bombay Plan’ was as in fact politically motivated and was a shrewd move to outflank the left-wing;
How Mahalanobis was obsessed with the science of skull measurement and concocted dreamy theories on the racial superiority of Bengalis, etc.
Samaj
Fittingly, this concluding section about Indian Society is the most amorphous and yet most coherent part of the book. He uses it to highlight some of the everyday concerns of the Indian media and the everyday fears of the Indian ‘common-man’ - all of which seem mundane but are of stunningly tragic proportions if one could only take a step back and see the extent, depth and sheer depravity of it.
The topics he takes on in this section ranges from caste issues, societal disconnects such as the urban-rural divide (where he follows up on the Kafkaesque Aarushi story, in great detail.), religion and its discontents, customs - their origins and current forms, ancient science, philosophy etc and even some tasty anecdotes such as how Mahalanobis (yes he does seem to have an unhealthy obsession with Mahalanobis - just as he can never talk of Keynes without commenting on his sexuality within the same sentence) saved Ramanujam from chilly nights by teaching him the engineering dexterity necessary for manipulating a blanket.
Being the manifestations arising out of the Politics and Economics outlined in the first two sections of the book, this final section finds French at his poignant journalistic best. Tracing out moving stories and making almost a travelogue of this, one gets the feeling that this was what French originally wanted to write about and the run up/introduction in which he wanted to show some of the underlying causes to the societal ills of India ended up turning into a two-thirds-of-his-book-long introduction.
French should probably have stuck to the original plan. It might have meant that we could have had a profoundly moving portrait, without being asked to do a connect-the-dots puzzle all the time before being shown the stark reality of the picture for a flash and then being blind-folded again. Left alone with the confounding puzzle, most dots still left hanging.
November 11, 2015
Narrated by Walter Dixon. 17 hrs and 12 minsDescription: A monumental biography of the subcontinent from the award-winning author of The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul.
Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories to explain a larger national narrative.
Melding on-the-ground reports with a deep knowledge of history, French exposes the cultural foundations of India’s political, economic and social complexities. He reveals how a nation identified with some of the most wretched poverty on earth has simultaneously developed an envied culture of entrepreneurship (here are stories like that of C. K. Ranganathan, who trudged the streets of Cuddalore in the 1980s selling sample packets of shampoo and now employs more than one thousand people). And even more remarkably, French shows how, despite the ancient and persistent traditions of caste, as well as a mind-boggling number of ethnicities and languages, India has nevertheless managed to cohere, evolving into the world’s largest democracy, largely fulfilling Jawaharlal Nehru’s dream of a secular liberal order.
French’s inquiry goes to the heart of all the puzzlements that modern India presents: Is this country actually rich or poor? Why has its Muslim population, the second largest on earth, resisted radicalization to such a considerable extent? Why do so many children of Indians who have succeeded in the West want to return “home,” despite never having lived in India? Will India become a natural ally of the West, a geostrategic counterweight to the illiberal rising powers China and Russia? To find the answers, French seeks out an astonishing range of characters: from Maoist revolutionaries to Mafia dons, from chained quarry laborers to self-made billionaires. And he delves into the personal lives of the political elite, including the Italian-born Sonia Gandhi, one of the most powerful women in the world.
1: Accelerated Progress
2: There Will Be Blood
3: The Centrifuge
4: Family Politics
5: The Visions of Keynes
6: Dismal Prospect
7: Falcon 900
8: A Quarry near Mysore
9: The Outcasts Revenge
10: 4ever
11: Solace of Religion
12: Only in India
Gawd, I don't know which is worse - this reportage of bombs, bigotism, guns, class prejudice and nepotism, or the newspapers full of rape, and fundimental Hindhuism. This is a painful biography about an amazingly complex country, yet there is such hope for the future as the population is just so damn intelligent.
NONFIC NOVEMBER 2015:
CR White Mughals
5* A History of England from the Tudors to the Stuarts
3* Rome and the Barbarians
4* Field Notes From A Hidden City
3* The King's Jews: Money, Massacre and Exodus in Medieval England
CR A History of Palestine 634-1099
3* Charlotte Brontë: A Life
3* The Alhambra
5* A Long Walk in the Himalaya: A Trek from the Ganges to Kashmir
3* Buddhist Warfare
4* A Gathering of Spoons
AB A Brief History of Roman Britain - Conquest and Civilization
4* Victorian Glassworlds: Glass Culture and the Imagination, 1830-1880
3* Food Safari
CR She-Wolves
3* India: A Portrait
2* The Archaeology of Ancient Sicily
February 15, 2018
Ask me for some off-the-top-of-your-head associations with the word 'India', and I'd probably stammer something about Slumdog Millionaire, wacky gods, poverty, exotic food and Mahatma Gandhi. Maybe pad it out by adding a few things gleaned from reading RK Narayan; think about mentioning Indiana Jones And The Temple Of Doom and then - quickly - come to my senses. Although I knew a little about the author's previous work - including his excellent biography of V.S. Naipaul - I knew next to nothing about his subject.
In a way, the very sub-title is a tease ('an intimate biography of 1.2. billion people'), operating out of the zone between ignorance and knowledge. Telling the truth about any nation depends, quite literally, on where you stand. So how do you tell the story of a nation as massively diverse and contradictory as India? French's answer - and a successful one - is to admit the messiness. Many worlds exist in parallel, each shedding light on the other.
French studies the 'small' up close, and cuts away to the bigger picture: using the soliloquy to explain the play. The daily life of the dabbah-wallas of Mumbai metamorphoses seamlessly into a study of Indian customs and codes regarding business, and India's entrepreneurial spirit.
'Although India is home to a higher number of illiterate people than any other country in the world, which is in part the consequence of having more than a billion citizens, many of those who travel overseas are well-educated and motivated. It is estimated that Indians are responsible for one in six Silicon Valley start-ups, and that 30,000 graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology live and work in the US. [...] Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems, Sabeer Bhatia started Hotmail and Ajay Bhatt [the architect of the the USB] became a rock star.'
Making politics and economics readable and thickly larded with human conflict - particularly in the chapter concerning the making of the Indian Constitution - is one of the book's major achievements.
India's poverty, religious conflict and caste-cruelty are never glossed over. Casteism, French suggests, is worse than most other prejudices. An anti-semite will let it slip that he envies how well 'they' do in business, just as a white supremacist lets it slip that he envies black athletic prowess. But prejudice against an 'untouchable' is built on the idea that to even share a room with one is to be physically contaminated, at serious risk of literally becoming an insect.
Nor, however, are the above presented as the whole story, as if further enquiry is somehow unnecessary. Before, India was regarded as 'exotic, eternal, to be admired and patronised, but incapable of helping itself. It needed the pump-priming charity of outsiders, and was certainly not a competitor, not a country that might take off and revitalise itself.' Yet 'at the very time Westerners were travelling to India in search of suffering and spirituality, and writing replica accounts of it, a more interesting shift was taking place.'
That shift saw a country that nearly went bankrupt in 1991 rebound so successfully its economy is predicted to overtake the Japanese by 2032. That prediction may frighten some. I find it fascinating. I will be looking up French's previous book on India, (Liberty or Death) without delay.
In a way, the very sub-title is a tease ('an intimate biography of 1.2. billion people'), operating out of the zone between ignorance and knowledge. Telling the truth about any nation depends, quite literally, on where you stand. So how do you tell the story of a nation as massively diverse and contradictory as India? French's answer - and a successful one - is to admit the messiness. Many worlds exist in parallel, each shedding light on the other.
French studies the 'small' up close, and cuts away to the bigger picture: using the soliloquy to explain the play. The daily life of the dabbah-wallas of Mumbai metamorphoses seamlessly into a study of Indian customs and codes regarding business, and India's entrepreneurial spirit.
'Although India is home to a higher number of illiterate people than any other country in the world, which is in part the consequence of having more than a billion citizens, many of those who travel overseas are well-educated and motivated. It is estimated that Indians are responsible for one in six Silicon Valley start-ups, and that 30,000 graduates of the Indian Institutes of Technology live and work in the US. [...] Vinod Khosla co-founded Sun Microsystems, Sabeer Bhatia started Hotmail and Ajay Bhatt [the architect of the the USB] became a rock star.'
Making politics and economics readable and thickly larded with human conflict - particularly in the chapter concerning the making of the Indian Constitution - is one of the book's major achievements.
India's poverty, religious conflict and caste-cruelty are never glossed over. Casteism, French suggests, is worse than most other prejudices. An anti-semite will let it slip that he envies how well 'they' do in business, just as a white supremacist lets it slip that he envies black athletic prowess. But prejudice against an 'untouchable' is built on the idea that to even share a room with one is to be physically contaminated, at serious risk of literally becoming an insect.
Nor, however, are the above presented as the whole story, as if further enquiry is somehow unnecessary. Before, India was regarded as 'exotic, eternal, to be admired and patronised, but incapable of helping itself. It needed the pump-priming charity of outsiders, and was certainly not a competitor, not a country that might take off and revitalise itself.' Yet 'at the very time Westerners were travelling to India in search of suffering and spirituality, and writing replica accounts of it, a more interesting shift was taking place.'
That shift saw a country that nearly went bankrupt in 1991 rebound so successfully its economy is predicted to overtake the Japanese by 2032. That prediction may frighten some. I find it fascinating. I will be looking up French's previous book on India, (Liberty or Death) without delay.
August 10, 2012
I have a complaint about this book that I predict not many people will share: it's too anecdotal. At first the anecdotes are an asset but after reading about half the book they become a detractor. Too often does the author deviate from the big picture of India to tell the story of some person who there's no way I will remember. It becomes annoying. I mean it's okay to tell me that there was an entrepreneur in India who revolutionized shampoo but to spend 4,5,6 pages on him is simply too much.
Too often did I get the feeling that I was being overwhelmed with information about someone who's life had little to no consequence on the country as a whole and too rarely did I feel that I was absorbing information about people who really shaped the country, such as Ambedkhar.
However, the book has plenty of positives as well. I especially enjoyed the parts that focused on political and economic history. For example, the stuff about the Permit Raj, which I had absolutely no knowledge of before, was extremely interesting.
Too often did I get the feeling that I was being overwhelmed with information about someone who's life had little to no consequence on the country as a whole and too rarely did I feel that I was absorbing information about people who really shaped the country, such as Ambedkhar.
However, the book has plenty of positives as well. I especially enjoyed the parts that focused on political and economic history. For example, the stuff about the Permit Raj, which I had absolutely no knowledge of before, was extremely interesting.
April 19, 2011
Patrick French's portrait of India was a great refresher on various topics from India's past and present most of which were lost on me, having been raised on an information diet of textbooks and media that are heavily biased towards removing the unpleasant and ugly facts about political leaders and the more grimy aspects of how our country has been governed.
The book is divided into three parts, Rashtra, Lakshmi and Samaj, which deal with the formation of the nation, its economy and finances and its society. Reading about Nehru, Gandhi, Patel, Prasad and Ambedkar in terms which treats them as humans and not the exalted super beings that we have been led to believe they are is a refreshing change. This probably was the most interesting part of the entire book for me, except the final few pages where a detailed albeit rudimentary statistical analysis of MPs in India only serves to confirm common knowledge.
The section Lakshmi paints a fascinating picture of the early nation state of India, with exalted ambitions and noble aspirations which fail to translate into real world pragmatism and led to our economy being stunted and slow for the better part of a half century.
Samaj is the most contemporary section of the book as attempts are made to understand our varied society which at times seems to completely lack the quality of compassion.
The book is divided into three parts, Rashtra, Lakshmi and Samaj, which deal with the formation of the nation, its economy and finances and its society. Reading about Nehru, Gandhi, Patel, Prasad and Ambedkar in terms which treats them as humans and not the exalted super beings that we have been led to believe they are is a refreshing change. This probably was the most interesting part of the entire book for me, except the final few pages where a detailed albeit rudimentary statistical analysis of MPs in India only serves to confirm common knowledge.
The section Lakshmi paints a fascinating picture of the early nation state of India, with exalted ambitions and noble aspirations which fail to translate into real world pragmatism and led to our economy being stunted and slow for the better part of a half century.
Samaj is the most contemporary section of the book as attempts are made to understand our varied society which at times seems to completely lack the quality of compassion.
September 9, 2020
I felt the book delivers a mini crash course in the economics, politics and castes of India, the observations are clinical yet some of them are very insightful which even I, as an Indian, failed to notice in all these years. Overall, I found it to be a useful read.
Want to read
February 28, 2025Dewey 954.04
March 3, 2012
Does what it sets out to do: cover a complex country's politics, economy, and culture. If you don't mind slightly intellectual writing and want to get a briefing on the country before a work trip or vacation you could do a lot worse.
Politics: Breezes through the end of the British and partition too much probably but I liked the overview of the dynastic power of the (Indira) Gandhi family and how Congress Party being the primary power for so long kept the country stagnant institutionally (reminded me of the PRI in Mexico). Perhaps a little too generous when talking about the rightist identity politics of the BJP. You can only take so much political stuff as an outsider so I'm glad this section didn't go on too long.
Economy: I didn't realize how socialist the country's economic policies were. Not as intense as Eastern Europe and the culture sounds very merchant-like but there was a long time when the government used the precautionary principle for most economic activity and it sounds like really kept people in poverty. Now the entrenched corruption has made it hard for the freer market to be fair but I think the author does a good job of talking about the tradeoffs of economic growth and income inequality. Puzzling amount of time discussing Keynes' personal life in this section.
Culture: As an outsider, this was the hardest for me to gauge but I found it a little undercooked given all of the time he spent on Keynes in earlier chapters. This section talks about how the attempts of the government to end caste prejudice is working or not working but this, nor the religious and linguistic divides weren't made palpable enough for my taste.
Politics: Breezes through the end of the British and partition too much probably but I liked the overview of the dynastic power of the (Indira) Gandhi family and how Congress Party being the primary power for so long kept the country stagnant institutionally (reminded me of the PRI in Mexico). Perhaps a little too generous when talking about the rightist identity politics of the BJP. You can only take so much political stuff as an outsider so I'm glad this section didn't go on too long.
Economy: I didn't realize how socialist the country's economic policies were. Not as intense as Eastern Europe and the culture sounds very merchant-like but there was a long time when the government used the precautionary principle for most economic activity and it sounds like really kept people in poverty. Now the entrenched corruption has made it hard for the freer market to be fair but I think the author does a good job of talking about the tradeoffs of economic growth and income inequality. Puzzling amount of time discussing Keynes' personal life in this section.
Culture: As an outsider, this was the hardest for me to gauge but I found it a little undercooked given all of the time he spent on Keynes in earlier chapters. This section talks about how the attempts of the government to end caste prejudice is working or not working but this, nor the religious and linguistic divides weren't made palpable enough for my taste.
August 12, 2011
Great analysis of India -- where it's come from & where it's going. My favorite quote: Integration is welcoming; it says join us. Multiculturalism says, go to your ghetto. (p 322). Fascinating discussion of the differences in western (judeo-christian) culture. The Christian idea "it's harder for a rich man to get into heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle" is absent. The pursuit of wealth isn't shameful. The idea that people are punished in this life for sins in past ones -- leading to a lack of distress in the face of human suffering. Interesting political analysis on 'hereditary democracy' for lack of a better term -- the practice of inheriting your family spot in the legislature (and the disasters of the Nehru family!). Fascinating discussion of the caste system & the history of the muslim community.
February 11, 2015
Reading 'India: A portrait' by Patrick French is really a good experience, you can sense all the changes happened before and after independence in political,economical,Industrial,community and cast sectors. Few pages, similar like reading day to day news.
Patrick tried to give a statistical info about our Member of Parliamentarians since 1947. In recent years, more than half of them are HMPs(hereditary MPs), they are getting power as Inheritance. Slowly Parliament doors are shutting down for new raising leaders who are not having any political back ground.
If you like to read democratic India's political background and modern trends, this book is a must read.
Patrick tried to give a statistical info about our Member of Parliamentarians since 1947. In recent years, more than half of them are HMPs(hereditary MPs), they are getting power as Inheritance. Slowly Parliament doors are shutting down for new raising leaders who are not having any political back ground.
If you like to read democratic India's political background and modern trends, this book is a must read.
June 21, 2014
Decent book that covers the breadth but not the depth. It can be a good intro to someone completely new to the idea of India. It successfully covers most of the major issues that are dear to and define Indians, but like many others before completely ignores the northeastern states. Heavily interspersed with anecdotes to convey broader ideas, the author does a decent job though misses the forest for the trees. The book could've done well with much sharper editing especially the final chapters. The book starts quite strongly at the beginning but flounders by the end. All in all, it's decent and entertaining.
September 22, 2012
It is well structured book and touches on many interesting issues and themes of the modern India. But it reads more like a set of articles rather than coherent whole. It did not raise my curiosity and interest about this unique country further. I liked very much the one of the last chapters about the role of religion. I wish all the book would be on such level. But definitely interesting worthwhile read overall.
Read
March 10, 2017Nice book. A deep understanding of India in the eye of a foreigner.
April 30, 2020
Although published in 2011, before the rise of Hindu nationalism under President Modi and resultant surge in the persecution of Muslims which Patrick French could not foresee, this book remains worth reading as a clear, informative and wide-ranging introduction to a fascinating and complex country.
With many anecdotes, he creates a strong, authentic sense of place, starting with the old man in his apricot orchard, recalling how when Nehru visited the newly independent northern border region of Ladakh, there were no roads, so he had to land by plane, something the locals had never seen before, so they simply put their hands together and prayed to it. At the other end of the scale are the computer whizz kid Indian graduates who have made such a contribution to Silicon Valley in the US, some claiming that their early grounding in abstract Hindu philosophy has helped them to make “mental leaps in the virtual world”.
Commencing with a useful potted history of the creation in 1947 of what was initially meant to be a secular democracy, and an explanation of the complex politics, with MPs now increasingly determined by family links, French moves on to the early problems caused by a well-intentioned but over-bureaucratic socialist system of central planning, with enterprise often stifled by the need to obtain permits to import or manufacture products.
The benefits of the subsequent liberalisation have “lifted large numbers out of extreme poverty” but the rise in population has left about the same number of poor people. There seems to be a widening gap: “By 2008 four of the eight richest people alive were Indian”, there is a “dynamic middle class, but “people….still die, finding that eating rats or ground mango kernels does not save them from starvation”.
The issue of caste in all its complex degrees of exclusion runs through the text: the Chuhras who have had to do “hereditary work sweeping, cleaning, dealing with dead animals…” then scraping up the leftover food after weddings, the “joothan” to boil and store for late. In the unconscious insensitivity of his much vaunted personal sacrifice, Gandhi wished to be reborn an untouchable “to share their sorrow, sufferings and the affronts levelled at them”. With the perhaps questionable observation that “compassion is not a Hindu concept” French describes the plight of a “Dalit” (low caste) worker who, for seeking to leave his job with an unpaid debt, was fitted with heavy metal fetters, forcing him to spend years breaking stones in a quarry, until he was saved by some activists during a political campaign.
French covers relations with Pakistan and the position of Indian Muslims, who are surprisingly almost as numerous as Pakistanis. They are described by one of their own leaders as the most backward community in India “economically, educationally and socially”, largely because the most disadvantaged were left behind in the 1947 Partition. Yet, this self-same leader defended the persistence of archaic Muslim codes in India which supported his personal power, even at the cost of feeding resentment among conservative Hindus that they could not enjoy similar “separatist privileges”.
Occasionally the book gets bogged down too long in one issue, and the final chapter seems a somewhat rushed catch-all for all the outstanding points the author wanted to include, but overall this is highly recommended.
With many anecdotes, he creates a strong, authentic sense of place, starting with the old man in his apricot orchard, recalling how when Nehru visited the newly independent northern border region of Ladakh, there were no roads, so he had to land by plane, something the locals had never seen before, so they simply put their hands together and prayed to it. At the other end of the scale are the computer whizz kid Indian graduates who have made such a contribution to Silicon Valley in the US, some claiming that their early grounding in abstract Hindu philosophy has helped them to make “mental leaps in the virtual world”.
Commencing with a useful potted history of the creation in 1947 of what was initially meant to be a secular democracy, and an explanation of the complex politics, with MPs now increasingly determined by family links, French moves on to the early problems caused by a well-intentioned but over-bureaucratic socialist system of central planning, with enterprise often stifled by the need to obtain permits to import or manufacture products.
The benefits of the subsequent liberalisation have “lifted large numbers out of extreme poverty” but the rise in population has left about the same number of poor people. There seems to be a widening gap: “By 2008 four of the eight richest people alive were Indian”, there is a “dynamic middle class, but “people….still die, finding that eating rats or ground mango kernels does not save them from starvation”.
The issue of caste in all its complex degrees of exclusion runs through the text: the Chuhras who have had to do “hereditary work sweeping, cleaning, dealing with dead animals…” then scraping up the leftover food after weddings, the “joothan” to boil and store for late. In the unconscious insensitivity of his much vaunted personal sacrifice, Gandhi wished to be reborn an untouchable “to share their sorrow, sufferings and the affronts levelled at them”. With the perhaps questionable observation that “compassion is not a Hindu concept” French describes the plight of a “Dalit” (low caste) worker who, for seeking to leave his job with an unpaid debt, was fitted with heavy metal fetters, forcing him to spend years breaking stones in a quarry, until he was saved by some activists during a political campaign.
French covers relations with Pakistan and the position of Indian Muslims, who are surprisingly almost as numerous as Pakistanis. They are described by one of their own leaders as the most backward community in India “economically, educationally and socially”, largely because the most disadvantaged were left behind in the 1947 Partition. Yet, this self-same leader defended the persistence of archaic Muslim codes in India which supported his personal power, even at the cost of feeding resentment among conservative Hindus that they could not enjoy similar “separatist privileges”.
Occasionally the book gets bogged down too long in one issue, and the final chapter seems a somewhat rushed catch-all for all the outstanding points the author wanted to include, but overall this is highly recommended.
March 8, 2021
(Audiobook) This work is a combination modern history/personal account from an outsider trying to get a sense about the vast and complex nation of India. Neck and neck as the most populous nation in the world with China. India is about a complex and difficult a nation to define in simple terms. There are old religious and socio-economic norms that still haunt a nation trying to rise into a major player on the world scene. For many, India is a mysterious and complex place, one that is both filled with classic artifacts and glory and a nation fraught with problems and conflicts.
This work will not demystify India in one fell swoop. That is almost impossible for any one work to do so. Yet, the author does offer some decent insight, especially for those not all that familiar with India. The work starts off analyzing India’s political leadership in the years after Ghandi’s death and the Partition of 1947. Yet, after the chronological discussion of Indian politics, he moves into the complex social-economic side of India, noting the various caste and religious differences that still haunt the nation.
This work is now ten years old, so a number of things have changed. In particular, the Hindu Nationalist Party BJP was on the outside of power in Indian politics then, but it is the main political force for the nation now. Yet, the various divisions and conflict points for India still remain. It is both an emerging world player, but also a nation enslaved to its past traditions, with just as many backwards-living and illiterate people as brilliant students making their mark on the world stage.
While not totally able to define India within its pages, this work can complement those wanting to try to learn more about this critical nation. Perhaps there are better works, but this book can serve the purpose of inspiring further reading about the nation and its people. The audiobook rates the same as the e-copy/hard copy in my opinion.
This work will not demystify India in one fell swoop. That is almost impossible for any one work to do so. Yet, the author does offer some decent insight, especially for those not all that familiar with India. The work starts off analyzing India’s political leadership in the years after Ghandi’s death and the Partition of 1947. Yet, after the chronological discussion of Indian politics, he moves into the complex social-economic side of India, noting the various caste and religious differences that still haunt the nation.
This work is now ten years old, so a number of things have changed. In particular, the Hindu Nationalist Party BJP was on the outside of power in Indian politics then, but it is the main political force for the nation now. Yet, the various divisions and conflict points for India still remain. It is both an emerging world player, but also a nation enslaved to its past traditions, with just as many backwards-living and illiterate people as brilliant students making their mark on the world stage.
While not totally able to define India within its pages, this work can complement those wanting to try to learn more about this critical nation. Perhaps there are better works, but this book can serve the purpose of inspiring further reading about the nation and its people. The audiobook rates the same as the e-copy/hard copy in my opinion.
June 19, 2025
Patrick French passed away recently and in his time he served as a terrific journalist and in his book "Liberty or Death" a great political historian, someone good at tracing the minutaie of back-and-forth political moves, and power-plays. In "India A Portrait" he lapses into the worst trait, writing a book with "India" in its title and then adding a "portrait". The actual book is a Studs Terkel type collection of interviews from people in different walks of life in India, often affecting portrayals but where Terkel only lightly editorialized and interjected, French is constantly at hand offering his opinions and bon mots and in the final few pages he comes to the second biggest sin after writing a book with "India" in the title, that is he tries to extol the national character of India and then settles on the idea that India is fundamentally animated by inner religious feelings and proceeds to then punch at historical research that has sought to insist on large scale social structures and academic deconstructionists. The latter is uncalled for, especially since he doesn't understand the stuff he's critiquing, and he ends up essentially validating a regressive viewpoint of essentialism, one that is definitely not borne out of my experience.
Throughout this book, French extends a lot of space to presenting people with contrary views fairly, everyone that is, except anyone vaguely left of center. The result is a work that is informative but not at all illuminating, and a sign of French spending too much reading up Naipaul for his own good.
Throughout this book, French extends a lot of space to presenting people with contrary views fairly, everyone that is, except anyone vaguely left of center. The result is a work that is informative but not at all illuminating, and a sign of French spending too much reading up Naipaul for his own good.
April 11, 2019
French's interesting examination of this most diverse of states is a fun romp through modern India. French is a journalist, and this work combines both a history of India along with personal stories that French gathered as a journalist. The history is interesting, though he focuses almost exclusively on modern India, giving the reader only snippets of India before 1948.
The stories from his journalism work are hit or miss. Some of them, like the story of the murder of a middle-class Dehli families only daughter and how the police tried to frame the father because they could not come up with a better supsect, are compelling.
Others are boring and feel like they were just tacked on to the end of the book just to add filler. The book ends with just a bunch of short weird stories that do not fit anywhere, and they feel like they were just placed here because he did not know where else he could put them. This causes the ending to be a damp squib, dissappointing since a book that is a portrait of an important and gigantic nation deserved a better finale.
Still, it is worth a read.
The stories from his journalism work are hit or miss. Some of them, like the story of the murder of a middle-class Dehli families only daughter and how the police tried to frame the father because they could not come up with a better supsect, are compelling.
Others are boring and feel like they were just tacked on to the end of the book just to add filler. The book ends with just a bunch of short weird stories that do not fit anywhere, and they feel like they were just placed here because he did not know where else he could put them. This causes the ending to be a damp squib, dissappointing since a book that is a portrait of an important and gigantic nation deserved a better finale.
Still, it is worth a read.
March 19, 2018
Part one is concerned with the political landscape of India in recent times since independence and gives us a fairly comprehensive account of the multifarious manifestations of such and shows by way of conclusion how nepotism seems once more to be rearing its ugly head.
Part two is about the economic life with a multitude of anecdotal sketches and episodes in French`s usual style which give the spice to the pickle and enable a vivid sensorial reading experience.
Part three attempts to convey a little of what it is different about Indians and their culture. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the book and there are areas which would appeal to readers looking for some access in to Hinduism. The chapter entitled `Only in India` is particularly engaging.
A really interesting read; I was left with a feeling of having encountered this fascinating culture in a meaningful way.
Part two is about the economic life with a multitude of anecdotal sketches and episodes in French`s usual style which give the spice to the pickle and enable a vivid sensorial reading experience.
Part three attempts to convey a little of what it is different about Indians and their culture. This is perhaps the most interesting part of the book and there are areas which would appeal to readers looking for some access in to Hinduism. The chapter entitled `Only in India` is particularly engaging.
A really interesting read; I was left with a feeling of having encountered this fascinating culture in a meaningful way.
October 27, 2021
This is an unbiased, honest and colorful collection of unrelated things/ incidents/ people and observations. Reading the book is like wandering into a forest on a pleasant day and bumping into various things that you find in a forest. Some pleasant, some not so pleasant, some scary and some folklore/ myths.
There is a saying about India that everything you hear is true and the opposite is also true. I agree with most of the things that the author says. I learn something new and I feel happy and sad sometimes about Forster's observations. One thing that I can't agree is his quotes about EV Ramasamy (a couple of times) that he was a revolutionist who fought for equality. EV Ramasamy is the worst thing that could have happened to Tamil Nadu.
There is a saying about India that everything you hear is true and the opposite is also true. I agree with most of the things that the author says. I learn something new and I feel happy and sad sometimes about Forster's observations. One thing that I can't agree is his quotes about EV Ramasamy (a couple of times) that he was a revolutionist who fought for equality. EV Ramasamy is the worst thing that could have happened to Tamil Nadu.
September 13, 2022
Author is fairly neutral when it come to Congress but is strongly against BJP, focused on ridiculing and criticizing them and instead of even attempting to understand their popularity.
Adherents of a certain religion tend to do no wrong according to this author.
Outside of politics the book is reasonable, but cannot be in anyway called a portrait of it's massive subject.
Far from definitive but is worth read if knowledge of Indian political history is lacking, especially from 70's onwards.
Many of the anecdotes he shares are well worth listening to but his understanding of casteism is horrid.
It's not a surprise if you listen to him explain reasons behind racism.
Adherents of a certain religion tend to do no wrong according to this author.
Outside of politics the book is reasonable, but cannot be in anyway called a portrait of it's massive subject.
Far from definitive but is worth read if knowledge of Indian political history is lacking, especially from 70's onwards.
Many of the anecdotes he shares are well worth listening to but his understanding of casteism is horrid.
It's not a surprise if you listen to him explain reasons behind racism.
July 2, 2024
i mean it was really interesting but it was almost comically disorganized. like i get that he was trying to show the complexity and diversity of the country but you have to have some sort of guiding roadmap. also, he spent way to long on discussing how keynes was bisexual?? how much more off topic can you get?? also he came in as such an outsider and i felt like he could’ve been way less judgey than he actually was. there was some interesting and useful knowledge about politics, how the economy has developed, and caste , but it just wasn’t organized well and there were so many extraneous details
February 11, 2020
Integration is welcoming; it says, join us. Multiculturalism says, go to your ghetto.
Many places could be called a land of contrasts, but India seems to take it to the extreme. This is by no means a comprehensive history of the country, as it only covers since independence and even then is just a portrait or snapshot as the title suggested. I found the above quote from the book very striking, considering the current political and religious tensions India is experiencing. Worth reading up on a place that will be an economic power for quite some time.
Many places could be called a land of contrasts, but India seems to take it to the extreme. This is by no means a comprehensive history of the country, as it only covers since independence and even then is just a portrait or snapshot as the title suggested. I found the above quote from the book very striking, considering the current political and religious tensions India is experiencing. Worth reading up on a place that will be an economic power for quite some time.
April 21, 2023
While most of the book felt like an unstructured summary of historical facts and day to day customs that most of us are already aware of, there were some personal interviews that shared unknown details around popular events, and a number of places where the perspective of an outsider looking at our way of life threw some unsettling insights. All in all, a fairly good read for people who want to get to know India a shade beyond the surface level and with just enough details to hold the interest of those who think they know enough already.
October 27, 2025
This book is a depiction of modern India, focusing on the country after independence. There are three sections: nation (politics), wealth (business), and society (religion and culture). The author combines research with his own experiences and interviews in India.
I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. I’m not an expert so can’t judge the accuracy of the information. Although the book was divided in sections, politics appeared in all three, and there wasn’t as much about culture, popular culture, or food. There were some strange generalizations made at scattered times in the book.
I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it. I’m not an expert so can’t judge the accuracy of the information. Although the book was divided in sections, politics appeared in all three, and there wasn’t as much about culture, popular culture, or food. There were some strange generalizations made at scattered times in the book.
March 28, 2020
I’m glad I procrastinated reading this until after I returned from my trip to India.
While initially skeptical of a British person writing about India and the colonial gaze likely to be exerted upon my motherland, I was blown away by the stories and un-imperial insights into Indian history, culture and psyche.
It helped me put words around what I already knew and felt, as well as taught me more about the ridiculously complex and diverse place I’m lucky to have my roots in.
While initially skeptical of a British person writing about India and the colonial gaze likely to be exerted upon my motherland, I was blown away by the stories and un-imperial insights into Indian history, culture and psyche.
It helped me put words around what I already knew and felt, as well as taught me more about the ridiculously complex and diverse place I’m lucky to have my roots in.
October 13, 2018
I bought this book for learning more about the history of India, but after listening for 10-15 minutes, i realized that the book is more of a commentary over the current situation in India than the history. But anyways, i enjoyed the book. This books provides the glimpse of technology, politics, society and culture of India.
October 24, 2019
This book was very interesting. It made me understand life in India from the perspective of individuals (through many anecdotes) and also gave me an overview of the many cultural and political forces that are shaping this country. It made me ask myself: What does it mean to be Indian in the twenty-first century?
July 2, 2021
A comprehensive take on India's socio-economic and political dynamics. The only complaint I have with this book is that it's too centralised. However, French addresses that issue, in the beginning, itself explaining how India's diversity in another way becomes an impediment in spreading the focus to the margins.
February 28, 2025
A book j have been meaning to read for a while. Finally got around to reading it. Liked the segregation of Indians portrait into the three components . Some unheard stories , some unknown facts but most importantly a well researched outlook of India. Having said that , the pace of the book and the flow of the story telling seemed random at the end .
January 3, 2021
An amazing exercise by Patrick French to capture the India with all her extremes in the book well narrated with the help of true stories, references, historical events and expert assessments. I don't think he would have shown the same optimism if the book was written now.
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