Games Indians Play Why We are the Way We are 2007 edition by V. Raghunathan (2007) Paperback

by V. Raghunathan

Excellent Book

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Business, Psychology, Indian Literature, Sociology, Economics

Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

Reviews

[Santhosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

This paragraph from the book sums up the author's central argument:
When I jump a queue or a red light, or throw that garbage on the sidewalk, I am taking a rational 'squeal' decision, since it seems to get me ahead of others or make life easier for me. Here I am being privately smart.
But then, as others are no less rational, intelligent and smart, they too start squealing for the same reason and before we know it, we have unruly traffic, filthy streets and stinking urinals. So collectively we are all worse off, just as the two prisoners in the dilemma.

How could I resist a book that supposedly combines game theory and behavioural economics? The trouble is, I admit I had expectations, the book has neither prodigious extrapolation on game theory over daily behaviour nor the level of insight and analysis that a Malcolm Gladwell gives us. It ends up as a lesson on the Prisoner's Dilemma and a set of related observations of what we do as a society, with superficial analyses on the causes and the results and no real experiments or research.

Something that could have been done without is the way the author keeps repeating the entire set of explanations for every single case he takes. He could have also cut back a few times on hackneyed statements of how intelligent a class of people we Indians are because 1) we're good at math and 2) how innovative we are at finding loopholes or bypassing systems. The thing is, math in India is more often than not, not related to intelligence - it's just a well practised art, like language, cooking or blogging(?) is. The second part also has nothing to do with intelligence and is but an example of the basis of transactional interaction a la Games People Play.

Still a very good book, mind you. Just that my expectations ran away with me, what with the author being one of the better known academicians and all. I'd not be lying if I said I'd not have been disappointed if the book had been marketed as just something with the author's thoughts and ideas and not with the sort of research & analysis that a Malcolm Gladwell gives us. A must read for most, simply because being educated doesn't necessarily translate to emotional and social intelligence.

[Aryan Prasad · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author uses Game Theoretic Framework to answer the questions on why Corruption is so wide spread in India, why we are not much interested in public cleanliness etc.

While parts of the book was entertaining, I did not like the Author's looking down attitude towards his fellow countrymen.

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firstly, this is not about games but game theory. The author uses game theory to explain why Indians lack civic sense and he does a good job of it - for beginners atleast !
Have read a bit about game theory earlier in “The Selfish Gene” by Dawkins and we all know the problems of and in India. What about solutions that work ?

[Sundar Raj · Rating 5 out of 5]

one word about this book ,' Enlightening'. I was a little bit not so sure how one can do the job explaining why India/Indians are this way. Why do we have filthy cities,chaotic traffic where everyone flouts the rules, etc..,
This book explains, using Game theory, how we are ruining ourselves by thinking selfishly. don't get me wrong, this is not a preachy book, which preaches you to act noble. no,this book clearly shows how a small change in how we behave can make a whole lot difference.
There is a part in which, author explains the basic difference between way Indians think and the way their counterparts in the western world. I always attributed our lack of hygiene and disregard for rules to the poverty that exists/existed here.But clearly i was wrong, rich and poor act alike in India when it comes to doing something for common good. which reminds me "money cannot by class".
Only negative point about this book i felt was that the book could have been a little bit longer. The author could have included many more issues in the book. nevertheless, this is a wonderful book. kudos to the author. i really feel enlightened by reading this book. .

[Aditya Patil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having studied game theory in my first term of MBA made this book an exciting read. V Raghunathan has done a quiet detailed research on the reasons of Indians breaking rules, though I must say, the author, at times takes a very defensive stance, about his views not being the only right view, which again is a sign of modesty as well as badgering off any possible controversies. I admired how he connected Gita with game theory. Any Indian can connect with the examples author has given in this book about rule-breaking that takes place publicly. I remembered times when I had broken rules very casually, not even feeling wrong about it. Author has kept the language very simple making numbers appear as minimally possible. Overall, this book, a concoction of logic, satire, irony, critic and traditions is an orgasmic read for any intellectual.

[Bhumil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Attempts to explain "Indianness" (of people living in India) using game theory/behavioural economics. Every sentence, feeling, complaint is VERY relatable as someone who grew up in India. Was a good, engaging read.

Although I must add that it does serve as a little depressing reminder of our state of affairs (and if you are someone who thinks that writing negative things is harmful to India's image, let me save you some money, don't buy it, it's not for you).

[Rishi · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book takes a shot at the behaviour of Indians. But it also gives a logical reasoning to why Indians are like that.The author does that with the help of Game Theory.Using concepts like Prisoners Dilemma, the author gives a insight of how human beings make a decision, and why the decision has a profound effect on Indian's ,thereby affecting the whole system.

[Kuljinder Singh · Rating 1 out of 5]

a big bore my total waste

[Chandar · Rating 2 out of 5]

An Indian take on game theory. Interesting theory, pedantic.

[Amit Bagaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Though this book makes a lot of interesting points about how we Indians are selfish and uncivilised, and is very well written by the author who has obviously done a lot of research, it's not for the average Indian reader, as there are too may references to all kinds of GAME THEORY tables and equations that the Aam Aadmi (or Aurat) will definitely not understand.

Also, quite a few typesetting/editing errors from Penguin Books. Here are some examples:
Page 21, Bullet 1: Indents are different from other 5 bullets.
Page 21, Bullet 6: There is an open bracket/parenthesis which does not close.
On Page 32, a para saying "The bird flu epidemic ..." is in inset, but on Page 33, the same para is not an inset.
Page 89: India's reference as the "world's/planet's largest democracy" is repeated in the same para.

On Page 145, the author (this is not the publisher's fault) talks about the CRPF providing security at Indian airports. This is not a typo as he has used the full name Central Reserve Police Force. Surely, Dr. Raghunathan knows that it is the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) that provides security at airports, and not the CRPF.

I had heard so much about this book and expected it to be much more ...

[Srawan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Raghunathan talks about 'How We Are' more than '"Why" We Are the Way We Are'. His usage of Game theory to explain the benefit of mutual cooperation at all times to be better than defecting on someone/something is good.
Also good is the concept of 'Tit for Tat' which tells one to never be the first to defect on someone but give it back to them if they defect on you, and hold no personal grudges against them so that you can cooperate with each other the next time on (after you defect on him for his defecting on you) for mutual benefit. This reminds me of India's stand on 'Nuclear Weapons Usage' Policy where we chose the path of 'not-the-ones-to-start'.

[Salil · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had this book with me for quite some time but always postponed reading it. I was under the wrong impression it will talk about office politics . NO. This book is not just about office politics but about us Indians and why are we very selfish in a group and rarely think of group's benefit which can maximise satisfaction for all. Author has explained this with the help of Game Theory and prisoner's dilemma ( that's where the name comes from)/ I could really identify with "break the queue at any cost and at the first opportunity" syndrome. Now I am trying to see Lose, Lose games we all try to play in our day to day public life.

[Jamuna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting analysis of the psychology of the contemporary Indian. Must read for anyone trying to understand Indian society. It also tells us why the utility maximizing mentality of Indians may not be all that good in the long run - both for individual and the nation. Also helps us understand why many Western societies, which are not culturally modest like us, still managed to develop quickly by maintaining some basic standards. This is all explained with the help of Game Theory.
The first step to understand any problem is accepting, then dissecting it. V.Raghunathan does the dissection splendidly - now it is up to us to accept the way we are, and take steps to fix ourselves.

[Alok · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is my current favorite due to the author's absolute neutral evaluation of Indians using game theory. It definitely answers the question of "why we are the way we are!"
It changes your views on Indians forever, and suddenly ignites a flame of changing our defect-defect behavior in as many Indians as we meet.
A must read for any Indian or people who deal with Indians in general.

[Sachin · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book.
I know now why so many folks try to cheat me :)

[Ramkumr · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must-read for anyone, especially Indians. The book provides eye-opening insights through game theory and prisoners dilemma.

[Malhar Lakdawala · Rating 3 out of 5]

Okish book without much of a depth
The concepts are very briefly and vaguely discussed.
Last chapter on 'Game Theory and Gita' was a bit insightful. Else okish

Skippable

[d w · Rating 3 out of 5]

Regarding the aspect of game theory with Indians, the author is spot-on. I searched for a book like this due to repeated selfish incidents with my work, which appeared to be disproportionately enacted by Indians. I wanted to see if there was a rationale in the culture, and apparently, there is.

I just wished there was a section that focused on how to combat or deal with these types who lack self-regulation and, at every step, take advantage for selfish gain at the expense of all others. One can "turn the cheek" or take the "high road." Still, I see that approach as analogous to the description in the book as a trashy society because one cannot bother oneself to dispose of one piece of trash properly, and how it becomes multiplied, thereby eroding the society as a whole. If each confrontation is dismissed, our society will have a selfishness problem en masse. From experience, calling them out peacefully or even aggressively shaming them does nothing to correct this bad behavior. Even cornering them in their actions, whereby they have no way out but to concede results in them shaking their heads and learning nothing. I would love to know how to counteract these actions for self-protection and the betterment of society as a whole. The ocean starts with one drop. For reference, I am speaking about Indians outside of India who fail to adapt to local cultures, such as queuing up, etc.

One major glaring issue I have with the book is the overflowing outpour of the author making sure the reader understands that "Indians are the smartest race." Not only do I, as a non-Indian, find this racist and offensive, I view it as factually inaccurate. I'm not sure of his intention. Was it to "butter up" Indian readers in preparation for the impending slap of reality to follow? Or was it narcissism/solipsism? My take is that the author suffers from classic Dunning-Kruger. Even though he is pointing out the shortcomings of Indians in Indian culture, he is completely blinded by that very Indian culture he speaks of to the point that he honestly believes that the race/culture is the smartest in the world despite it clearly showing its failure on basic societal compacts most of the world has already figured out and adopted decades, even centuries prior. Let's not forget that for 190 years of British rule, it seems zero of the world-renowned "British etiquette" had been adapted, despite other commonwealth nations successfully adapting societal courtesies, even after their respective independencies. I'm not saying that colonization was a positive thing; however, it did change cultures, which cannot be denied. The question, though, colonization or not, is if these traits are a net positive on society, such as common courtesy, queuing up, not giving someone an uncomfortable death stare, or even going as far as not sexually assaulting women on the subway, which happens at a much higher rate in India vs. the UK.

Any book recommendations on an active counteraction of these traits would be appreciated.

[Srinivas Naik · Rating 3 out of 5]

Picked this book on a visit to India.
"The Way We Are" headline to the book was more than intriguing and Narayana Murthy's forward was also encouraging. The book purports to explain our Indian-ness (in this book the pejorative sense of the term) based on game theory principles. Well so far, so good.
The first couple of chapters actually had me rapt as the author so very accurately described the various characteristics of Indians that I at once felt connected with and ashamed at. He also discredits popular explanations for such behavior (we are a poor country, we have a high population, the Mughals and the British looted us, etc.). At this point I was mesmerized to learn more. The author then goes on to form some fundamental basis of Game Theory (Mostly the Prisoner's dilemma (PD)) and the iterative version of PD. He also talks about research conducted in the past through simulations that talk about effective strategies in iterative PD. All well and good and very informative. In fact, it also made me question some of inherent assumptions that business cannot be run 100% scrupulously.
At this point however, I was eagerly waiting to see how game theory goes on to explain the "way we are", but it is here that the book falls flat and "defects" on its promise. The rest of the chapters uses small snippets to just describe the way we are without putting the game theory framework to use. If it is used, it is only a weak version of party A defects, so party B defects, etc. Still, reading the various snippets of our junta generally defecting in our societal games made for a decent, if frustrating and fatalistic read.
All in all, I would still recommend this book - the author's writing making up for the lack of game theory related rigor he promises at the beginning.

[Prasad Rao · Rating 4 out of 5]

The singular thread running through this book is the classic 'Prisoner's dilemma', a core concept in Game Theory, that the author uses to answer the question of why do Indians behave the way they do -
Creating chaos out of order, bending (if not outright breaking) rules and regulations, and demonstrating pure self-serving behavior that leads to a lose-lose situation in the long-term that leads to a sub-optimal living environment for society at large.

Raghunathan uses examples and posers throughout that asks the reader to make a choice between doing the 'right' thing and the self-serving option, that seems most advantageous to you. This forms the basis of attempting to look beyond the typical 'we are like this only' fait accompli and trying to ascertain why Indians are privately smart and publicly dumb. We keep our homes squeaky clean while blithely littering the neighborhood; Spilling over to the wrong side of the road in a traffic snarl-up resulting in a gridlock and adding hours of non-productive time; and plenty of more such behaviours that typify the ugly Indian who attracts scorn from the rest of the world.

A must-read for everyone who aspires to understand the social and moral drivers of Indians in general. Be it the hassled 'foreigner' who wants to do business in India and with Indians, or for the minority of those Indians who make a conscious effort to steer clear of the stereotype.

[Aniket Patil · Rating 1 out of 5]

I selected this book with the excitement. Excitement was an outcome of the book title. However, this book has nothing to offer. There are general talks and issues. Author tried to discuss them with some theoretical references. "Any daily newspaper reader, news follower will consider it as a sheer dumb book, written with very uninteresting way. I don't know, but author seem to be having lowest self confidence. He keeps on comparing India with other countries, how they are doing things efficiently and we are not, how this chapter is, what to expect from it?...I mean, don't you have confidence in what you write? why are you giving instructions and reasons about how to perceive it?

Content is common sense. Probably his targeted readers are those who do not care about reading newspapers, neither books, those who are not even concerned about what is going on around us. But then it is of no use, considering their hobbies.

For newbies who want to give a try, try reading it, you wont be much happy due to presentation and style of the book. For experienced readers: Better avoid this one. This one written randomly (author himself justified it on various occasions)

[Abhay Garg · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is a good reflection on the psyche of general psyche of Indians while taking everyday decisions and smartly draws parallel from game theory. However , beyond a point and having already made a point , it becomes too much of rant. You will feel comfortable in skimming through large parts of the book for the same reason. Also , the book is more an observation and does not even attempt to get into historical reasons of 'Why we are the way we are' so the title can be misleading. All in all, you won't regret skimming through this but at the same time, you won't miss anything if you don't read this one.

[Sachin · Rating 2 out of 5]

An interesting topic with a lot of scope but poor analysis and lack of real experiments especially statistically proving the difference between indian and global behavior. Most of the book ends up being a repetition of prisoner's dilemma and tragedy of commons with superficial marks on Indian behavior from time to time with repetitive examples. You start off real excited expecting to gather new insight to an interesting topic but the book loses you halfway through it. To better understand the same one must try reading Daniel k directly

[Aniruddha Loya · Rating 3 out of 5]

The use of game theory to explain what is usually not explained but left as “this is how we are” at least provide a framework to understand and therefore possibly correct as more people understand their imbibed decision making and become more self aware.
However the book, though small, could be further reduced as by the time you have reached the half you would have read the same examples 20+ times. And perhaps jump straight to the final chapter where the author draws parallels with some portions of Gita (if you have some idea or inclination towards those teachings) and then the conclusion.

[Ankur · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good, smart collection of our die-hard habits as Indians.
But it went into too many of them and may be a tad too negative.
My expectation from the book was matching my own thoughts on how we could change the mental models of Indians. Partially discussed in the book but a whole left still left on the table for all of us to brainstorm and make the change. Overall interesting anecdotal way of understanding what we do, and why we continue to do it as Indians.

[Vikas Goyal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Overall, "Games Indians Play" offers a thought-provoking framework for understanding Indian behaviour. However, its focus on negatives without a corresponding exploration of positive aspects and solutions leaves the reader with a somewhat incomplete picture. The book might be more effective if it offered a more balanced perspective and explored pathways for positive change.

Read the full review at https://vpgoyal.blogspot.com/2012/08/...

[Romil Bhat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I knew most of things if not all, so from “learning something new” perspective it was a waste. However the way author correlates game theory to describe the generic Indian mindset and the larger issues that we have, is something for which one can rush through this book. That said, for most people this alone might not be the reason enough...

[Pratik Kothari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of the concepts mentioned in the book like “tit for tat” is really good and gives a new framework to think along. But loads of examples (specific to Indians) are not based on scientific testing and mere output of surveys done at a party! Shouldn’t rely on it. Author draws attention to all the right shortcomings we have as Indians, but carries a very pessimistic feel to it.

[Ankit · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book mostly complains about what is wrong with behaviours of Indians, and once in a while applies the lens of Prisoner's Dilemma to situations.

Light read, don't expect much insight, the book reads like a typical evening conversation with friends where you discuss what's wrong with the country and why

[Bharathi Kannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book and a very good way of objectively analysing Indian behaviour.

After the objective analysis come the rants about Indians which is quite understandable and most part true.


I love the wit of this guys I have laughed more than I can count at many ture, dark and the humour nature of humans has a whole.