An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions

by Jean Drèze, Amartya Sen

When India became independent in 1947 after two centuries of colonial rule, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech, and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced the economic stagnation of the Raj. The growth of the Indian economy quickened further over the last three decades and became the second fastest among large economies. Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world.

Maintaining rapid as well as environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achievable goal for India. In An Uncertain Glory, two of India's leading economists argue that the country's main problems lie in the lack of attention paid to the essential needs of the people, especially of the poor, and often of women. There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions. There is also a continued inadequacy of social services such as schooling and medical care as well as of physical services such as safe water, electricity, drainage, transportation, and sanitation. In the long run, even the feasibility of high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of social and physical infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the Asian approach of simultaneous pursuit of economic growth and human development, as pioneered by Japan, South Korea, and China.

In a democratic system, which India has great reason to value, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy rethinking by the government, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of social and economic deprivations in the country. The deep inequalities in Indian society tend to constrict public discussion, confining it largely to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent. Drèze and Sen present a powerful analysis of these deprivations and inequalities as well as the possibility of change through democratic practice.

Genres: India, Economics, Nonfiction, Politics, History, Indian Literature, Sociology

442 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Publications
Dreze, Jean "Patterns of Literacy and their Social Context", (originally written 199?), in Veena Das (ed.), 2004, Oxford Handbook of Indian Sociology, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Dreze, Jean, 2002, "On Research and Action", Economic and Political Weekly, March 2, 37 (9). New Delhi.
Dreze, Jean and Haris Gazdar, 1997. "Uttar Pradesh: the Burden of Inertia", in Jean Dreze and Amartya Sen, (eds) Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Dreze, Jean and Amartya Sen, (eds), 1997, Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives, New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Drèze J. and Sen, A.K. 1989. Hunger and Public Action. Oxford University Press.
Drèze J. and Sen, A. (eds.). 1990. The Political Economy of Hunger. 3 volumes, Oxford University Press.
Drèze, J. 1990. Famine Prevention in India. In Drèze J. and Sen, A. (eds.) The Political Economy of Hunger. vol 2. Oxford University Press.
Stern, N. and Drèze J. 1991. Policy Reform, Shadow Prices and Market Prices. Journal of Public Economics.
Ahmad E, Drèze J, Hills J, Sen A K (eds.) 1991. Social Security in Developing Countries. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Drèze J., 1991. Public Action for Social Security: Foundations and Strategy. In Ahmad E, Drèze J, Hills J, Sen A K (eds.). Social Security in Developing Countries. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Drèze J. and H. Gazdar. 1992. Hunger and Poverty in Iraq, 1991. World Development.
Drèze J. and Sen, A.K. 1995. India: Economic Development and Social Opportunity. Oxford University Press.
Drèze J., M. Murthi and A-C. Guio. 1995. Mortality, Fertility and Gender Bias in India. Population and Development Review.
Drèze J. and P.V. Srinivasan. 1997. Widowhood and Poverty in Rural India. Journal of Development Economics.
Drèze J., M. Samson and S. Singh. 1997. The Dam and the Nation: Displacement and Resettlement in the Narmada Valley. Delhi: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-564004-7.
Dreze, Jean and Naresh Sharma, "Palanpur: Population, Society Economy", chapter 1 in Peter Lanjouw and Nicholas Stern, eds., Economic Development in Palanpur over Five Decades, 1998. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dreze, Jean, Peter Lanjouw and Naresh Sharma, "Economic Development in Palanpur, 1957-93", chapter 2 in Peter Lanjouw and Nicholas Stern, eds., Economic Development in Palanpur over Five Decades, 1998. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dreze, Jean and Naresh Sharam, "Tenancy", chapter 8 in Peter Lanjouw and Nicholas Stern, eds., Economic Development in Palanpur over Five Decades, 1998. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Dreze, Jean, Peter Lanjouw and Naresh Sharma, "Credit", chapter 9 in Peter Lanjouw and Nicholas Stern, eds., Economic Development in Palanpur over Five Decades, 1998. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Drèze J. and Sen, A.K. (eds.) 1997. Indian Development: Selected Regional Perspectives. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Baland, J-M. Drèze J. and L. Leruth. 1999. Daily Wages and Piece Rates in Agrarian Economies. Journal of Development Economics.
A. De and J Drèze. 1999. Public Report on Basic Education in India. The PROBE report. Oxford University Press. 0195648706
Drèze J. (ed.) 1999. The Economics of Famine. International Library of Critical Writings in Economics. London: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Dreze, Jean and Naresh Sharma, 1996, "Sharecropping in a North Indian Village", Journal of Development Studies, 33(1):1-40.
Drèze J. and R. Khera. 2000. Crime, Gender and Society in India. Population and Development Review.
Bhatia B, J. Drèze & K. Kelly. 2001. War and Peace in the Gulf: Testimonies of the Gulf Peace Team. London: Spokesman Books. [published on the tenth anniversary of the Team's attempt to stop the Gulf War through non-violent occupation].
Drèze J. and G.G. Kingdon. 2001. School Participation in Rural India. Review of Development Economics 5(1), 1-24.
Drèze J. 2001. Fertility, Education and Development: Evidence from India. Population and Development Review.
Drèze J. and Sen, A

Reviews

[Trevor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I wish this was one of a series of books written on many, many countries. I would love to read books just like this one on Brazil, China, Iran, Argentina, Japan, Germany and Nigeria... I feel I know so little about so many countries and really do wish I knew more. But I would particularly like a way to choose books that makes it clear how the country’s history has impacted upon it present, how public policy choices have shaped various economic and social particularities of these nations, and which pathways might help in addressing long standing issues for the nation – although, I would want to make sure I don’t come away feeling that I have been given a one-sided account, and one that hides more than it reveals. For instance, who would trust a book on the history of Palestine written by an Israeli? And, that is just an extreme example, often the biases authors have are precisely what they spend the most time trying to hide.

I’m keen to learn more about India – I’ve started reading ‘Inglorious Empire: What the British Did to India’ immediately after this – but I’m so glad I’ve begun with this one. It presents many of the problems India faces: you know, poverty, environmental catastrophe, illiteracy, women’s rights and violence against women, inequality, and the media focus on the upper middle class as if they were the ‘average Indian’ and the consequences of this. The book is referenced to within an inch of its life with government and international statistical indicators, and often the authors appear to go out of their way to present what I take to be an even-handed account of the issues they are discussing. Now, a cold shiver always goes down my spine when I say something like that. As I said at the start of this review, a large part of the reason for me reading this book is my remarkable and near complete ignorance of India, so, for me to say someone is even-handed in their account of something I know next to nothing about, well, it all smacks a bit of the Dunning-Kruger effect, where I get to be confident only when I know next to nothing about the subject at hand, and just a little knowledge directly diminishes all of my confidence.

The main advantage that is presented about India is that it is the world’s largest democracy. But what I found particularly interesting about this is that the authors, while clearly very proud of this fact, pointed out the many problems that India continues to face and which other nations (such as socialist ones – the Soviet Union, China – or Imperial ones, Japan) were able to overcome or even avoid because they were not democratic. The most striking of such problems discussed here are literacy, economic equity, and health care.

India has witnessed some remarkable economic growth rates over recent decades, and yet, the benefits of this economic growth have been grossly uneven in their distribution. The authors refer to India as being appropriately characterised as consisting of economic regions that most resemble sub-Saharan Africa with interspersed pockets of California. In terms of literacy, while Japan, the Soviet Union and China achieved truly stunning transformations of their populations from illiterate to literate (I had no idea Japan at the start of the 20th century was printing more books than the UK, for instance) – the Indian caste and class systems are presented here as having been terrified of the changes that might be wrought if too many from the lower classes were educated. The effective policy position has amounted to keeping large proportions of the population illiterate, although this have never actually been the openly stated policy – the inexcusable is rarely stated quite so boldly as this, but illiteracy continues to plague the sub-continent and is attributed as being a major reason why nations, such as. Bangladesh or Nepal, have caught up and even surpassed India on so many indicators.

To me, the issues associated with health care in India can be summed up in perhaps one phrase – there are people in India who are in power and are arguing that the nation should adopt a health system based on that of the US. It would be nearly impossible to think of a more obvious example of a democracy dominated by the rich and powerful than is so eloquently expressed in that one policy position (at one point in the book they discuss a movement that originated from companies to replace school lunches – where children are given food – with school lunches of biscuits – i.e., not food. This is a pretty eloquent example of the same problem). The only time the US health system could ever be useful as an example would be if you were arguing, ‘what should you only ever do if you hate the majority of your population enough to be prepared to sit back and watch them die from preventable illnesses?’ The only thing more stupid would be for a nation to seek to emulate the second amendment – give lots of privileged, but socially disconnected, white boys machine guns so they can mow down ever greater numbers of their school friends. Presumably, one reason this doesn’t happen is that the rich in India can’t find a way to make lots and lots of money out of it in the same ways the rich in the US can make money out of the death of their children.

This book certainly does not present the or even a situation to India’s problems, nor of the future as being devoid of hope, although, like the rest of the world, India is using its resources by the metre where sustainable usage would dictate using them by the centimetre, and this is made all the worse by the fact that too those who face the immediate costs of the degradation of the natural environment (and virtually every other policy positioning) are certainly not the ones who benefit from intensifying that degradation. Finding ways to increase access to democracy in this, the world’s largest democracy (and ultimately this is framed in terms of literacy and other forms of public sphere engagement), are mostly proposed as the key ways to overcoming the existing issues and problems the nation faces. Nevertheless, the sense of urgency is perhaps not as keenly felt as it needs to be. But look, that’s just me speaking, someone terrified we are watching the world die as we (all of us) rush it towards its fate.

I can’t pretend to be happy that India has nuclear weapons, but then, the idea that Trump has his finger on the button that ends all life hasn’t particularly improved my ability to sleep at night either. The danger, as always, is that a nation having such a weapon appeals to its jingoism while further distracting the poor from addressing the real issues that keep them in their poverty.

Like I said, I really liked this book – and I wish I could get my hands on a series of them and they could do what this one did in regard to many more countries. The internet and globalisation could have (should have) made us all so much more aware of what occurs in other countries, but mostly all we really see are shows of the spectacular but meaningless presented to us so out of context (historical and economic) that we have little to no idea of what it was we just saw anyway. The result is that we in the West, and I’m going to speak for the reader of this review as well as myself (unless you are from India) think of India as a place where people spend all of their time either throwing multi-coloured powder at each other or where (and I’ve been told this by Westerners who have been there) even the dirt poor are so intensely spiritual that they barely notice their own poverty. This book goes some why to making it clear neither of these visions of India are sustainable.

[Steve Greenleaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Two things drew me to this book. First, the co-author, Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel Prize in economics, whose work goes far beyond mere economics into history, political theory, and a good deal about his native India. He’s co-authored works with Jean Dreze before. (And, he's the keynote speaker at the Jaipur Literature Festival this year!) But even if the authors hadn’t captured my attention, the sub-title would have: “India and Its Contradictions”. Sometimes a subtitle tells us more than the title, and this is such a case. As an extended visitor here in India, nothing has impressed me so much as its immense contradictions.

When talking with friends and family back in the U.S. about India, I usually preface my remarks by saying that within sight of any trait that I identify is a counter-example. Extreme poverty, opulent wealth; beautiful buildings, collapsing buildings; bright capable individuals, ignorant masses (ignorant as in unschooled)—I could go on, but you get the idea. In all, India holds huge but largely unrealized potential. Compared to its neighbor China, which I visited this fall, India lags far, far behind. Why?

Both India and China entered the post-World War II era with similar states of deprivation. China, of course, went through hells of famine, The Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution. India, a democracy since its birth, did not suffer such calamities. Yet today, China has entered the modern economic world at rocket speed while India remains at a plodding pace similar to the speeds of the animal carts one still encounters on the roads. Did India make a mistake opting for democracy?

Sen and Dreze address these questions and others. They note the impressive rates of growth of the Indian economy in the last decade and more (now significantly slowed). Despite these growth rates and other markers of success, India lags behind many of its peers in the arenas of education, healthcare, inequality, and other markers of social well-being. China, on the other hand, performs much better in almost all of these areas. Indeed, Sen and Dreze note that China’s lead in education and health came long before the market reforms beginning in 1979 with Deng Xiaoping. Mao’s regime established basic standards. Indeed, within India the authors find significant gaps between many of the states, with Kerala (where we now live) and Tamil Nadu performing much higher on many of the measures of performance. Both have competitive elections with Communists and other left groups having held power.

Toward the end of the book Sen and Dreze address the need for political action in India. Indeed, this book seems to bolster the contentions of Acemoglu and Robinson in their book, Why Nations Fail: The Origins of Power, Prosperity, and Poverty. My one line summation of the Why Nations Fail: it’s all about the politics. Sen and Dreze seem to arrive at the same conclusion: a different direction of the political body politic would have taken India in a better direction, and it still can. Overcoming old mindsets, clientism, corruption, caste and class loyalties, and so on, won’t be easy. But until India decides to take a very different course, it will remain toward the back of the pack, all of the new billionaires notwithstanding.

Anyone familiar with Indian politics might despair at this point. Both Congress and BJP seem wedded to the status quo. However, there are rays of hope. The Aad Adami (Common Man Party), running primarily on an anti-corruption platform, ran very strongly in Delhi recently and has now formed the government there. This may be the middle class political uprising that India needs. I’ve contended that until a politically motivated middle class takes the helm of politics, governance here—which remains poor—will continue to lag, and with it, the whole nation. In addition, the outcry from women’s groups after the ghastly rape and murder in Delhi last year suggest the political agenda may move away from the status quo, client-driven politics that mark the current climate. Some political leaders should be able to establish an agenda that provides the poor with both protection and real opportunities, while providing the middle class with a better quality of life. (The rich can take care of themselves.)

India should exist as a beacon of hope as the largest democratic nation in the world, not as a laggard compared to its authoritarian, non-democratic neighbor China. An Uncertain Glory should serve as a bucket full of icy water in the face to wake-up Indian elites and the middle class to their current plight. A successful government isn’t one that will simply see a successful mission to Mars or focus on diplomatic tit-for-tat, but one that strives to provide a billion plus people the potential that can be theirs, one where disease, ignorance, and poverty aren’t driving forces in their lives and where those who’ve made into the middle class can enjoy a better quality of life.

[Anil Swarup · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brilliant, as expected. The diagnosis is brilliant despite visible fault-lines in analyses. The faults occur on account of inherent bias that Dreze carries for NREGA for obvious reasons. The faults occur also on account of failure to understand schemes like the RSBY (it has been erroneously equated with something akin to what is happening in the insurance sector in the US). Consequently, the prescription (whatever little) is perfunctory. There is hope, wishful thinking. However, despite such infirmities, the book makes for a very very interesting reading, specially for those that are keen on understanding the malaise that afflicts the development process and the deprivation amongst the masses left untouched by the "phenomenal" growth. And for those that are interested in the future of the country

[Athan Tolis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Half the book, roughly, is data. Cold data, that paint an unmistakable picture: India might be enjoying the second highest GDP growth of any country on the planet, but across a vast number of measures it is scoring no better than sub-Saharan Africa.

Social indicators not only lag countries of India's GDP per capita level, but are simply abysmal. Here's an example: outside of sub-Saharan Africa, India is the sixteenth poorest country per capita. The authors turn the stats on their head by defining those sixteen countries as India's peer group. Among them, to be clear, India is the richest. Regardless, there are barely any measures, from life expectancy at birth, to child immunization, to access to a toilet (55% of Indians have to defecate outdoors, if you must ask) where India can hold its head up high compared with earthly paradises such as Vietnam, Moldova, Uzbekistan and Laos, not to mention how backward it's made to look by much poorer Bangladesh and three times poorer Nepal.

Moreover, India seems to be rapidly falling behind. The authors rank India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka on 12 measures, including per capita GDP, life expectancy, infant mortality rate, under-5 mortality rate, etc. and compare 1990 figures with 2011. India's average rank has only improved on a single measure (it has gone from fourth to third in GDP per capita) and has regressed or stagnated across the 11 remaining measures.

The numbers themselves make you cry:

43% of children are underweight
26% are never immunized for measles
26% of young women (15-24) can't read

It gets worse than that. India is far from uniform. There are states that look almost like the rest of the world, such as Kerala (human development index 0.97) and states that don't bear looking at. In Bihar, female literacy is 37%, a mere 44% of children can pass a simple reading test, 84.8 out of 1,000 children under 5 will die before they reach that age, in part because only 32.8% are fully immunized, and more than half the population is below India's unfathomably low poverty line.

What's to be done?

Education is a good starting place. At the time of India's liberation from the British, very few could read. The literacy rate was 18%, quite unbelievably. So the task was momentous, but India did not prove up to it. Much poorer Nepal (adult literacy rate 9% in 1960, versus 28% in India) has caught up, for example, with a 60% adult literacy score in 2011 versus 63% for India. Even today, some 20% of kids in India never attend school and in many of the schools (12% to be precise) there's only one teacher. He is a state employee and earns on average three times more than their parents, but often as much as six times. Half the teaching hours go wasted on average due to 20% teacher absenteeism and 33% student absenteeism. And in a study quoted by the authors, half the schools visited by an inspector did not have a head teacher at the time of the visit.

The authors blame Gandhi and Nehru, who allegedly believed it was more important for the youth to learn a craft than to acquire an official education. Whatever the case might be, those leaders have not been in power for decades and there's something that needs to be done. The authors note that there is enormous divergence between states. Therefore, studying what the states have done that have the good results ought to be an excellent starting point. No surprises, then, those are the states where the government has taken seriously the task of educating the young. Places like Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh. The authors have nothing against private education, but follow basic economic theory, which states that for goods with high positive externalities and high incidence of market failure, there is a strong case to be made for government intervention. Other important contributions come from the hot meal that both nudges pupils to attend and helps them concentrate, on top of forcing pupils of all backgrounds to mix and offering work to the women who prepare it. Standardized evaluation, famous for all its sundry drawbacks, is in the authors' opinion entirely appropriate for the current state of Indian education.

Healthcare is another important issue that needs to be addressed. The current healthcare situation is a crisis. The authors don't mince words here. They lay the blame squarely on the American-style private healthcare system. India only spends 1.2% of GDP on healthcare, less than half the percentage China spends, for example. In numbers, 39 dollars per citizen per annum. This evidently does not go a long way. 74% of preschool kids in India suffer from anaemia, 61% from Vitamin A deficiency. 46% are more than 2 standard deviations lighter in weight than they ought to be. The list goes on. When it comes to healthcare, the authors are downright categorical as to where the answer lies: with the much-maligned Integrated Child Development Services and equally maligned Primary Health Centres. Yes, they often deserve all the criticism they get, and more. However, the statistics could not be more clear: where these services are taken seriously by the state, the standards of healthcare are head and shoulders above the rest of the land. Getting these two already existing programs to work should take first precedence. However, this will entail a fight against the business interests of private medicine. Should these interests prevail, the authors believe that it will be a one-way street to an American style health system which (uniquely for this book, which is jam-packed with data) they reject pretty much in principle as inappropriate for this stage in India's development.

Poverty, Inequality (across class, caste and gender) and corruption are the three other big problems the authors identify. Again, they mostly see the state as the first line of attack on all these fronts (for example through the monthly distribution of the 35kg of rice to poor families), but their arguments are more nuanced and subtle here than for healthcare and education. They don't see how things can change overnight, but they observe very happily that attitudes are changing. Practices that used to be normal are now frowned up.

The book sometimes drifts into philosophy, which I found fascinating. Consider, for example, how democracy served India better than dictatorship served China in the fifties and sixties. Mao let millions starve during the Great Leap Forward. This was impossible to do in democratic India. These days, on the other hand, China's more efficient dictatorship can be credited with delivering its subjects from poverty, bringing them education and assuring them healthcare, while India's democracy has spawned corruption and to a great extent failed its citizens.

The authors choose to emphasize two further issues above all.

First, progress relative to the survival of girls versus boys is being reversed. Depending on how hot it is in a country, babies conceived are anywhere between 900 girls for 1000 boys and 960 girls for 1000 boys. Girls are better survivors, so at birth they're typically doing better. Call it 940 girls per 1000 boys on average. By age 6 in older days when medicine was not advanced, the numbers would totally even out. Not in India. Girls suffer at every step of the way. More so in the upper classes, too. And more so today than ten years ago. In 2011 there's 914 girls age 6 for every 1000 boys in India, down from 927 in 2001. While the poor states are improving (so Punjab has improved from 798 to 846, which represents great improvement) in West Bengal (where you'll find Kolkata) the presumed use of selective abortion among the rich has brought the number down from 960 to 950. The authors struggle to propose a solution to this awful problem.

Second, and equally disturbing, none of the topics discussed above seem to be part of the public discourse. While India enjoys a genuinely free press, which the authors are proud of and, indeed, celebrate, it is very uncomfortable discussing the problems that afflict the vast majority of Indian citizens. The authors believe that the top echelons of society live in a parallel world where the plight of the poor majority is a taboo that never gets discussed. As with every argument they make in the book, they provide the full set of statistics

The result is that the wherewithal of the state is wasted on subsidies to the lower strata among the affluent. Subsidized fuel for their automobiles, subsidized fertilizer etc.

So the book has three purposes:

1. To air in public all the issues that never get discussed
2. To suggest that the newly found GDP growth is an opportunity that needs to be harnessed
3. To expose that the tax take from this newly created GDP needs to be funnelled from the state to those who really need it.

I believe it succeeds at all three levels.

[Manas Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

First things first: the book is well-written and is quite insightful.

Sen and Dreze begin by acknowledging the fact that how successfully India adopted the democratic form of governance after its Independence; how it became the first non-western country - and also the first poor country in the world - to do so. They also recognize the rapid economic growth that India underwent in the last 20 years and hope that it recovers that path after a slump in the growth rate.

All of that is fairly commendable for a country like India.

But why do the authors call India an 'uncertain glory'? What are its contradictions? Why are Sen and Dreze saying that the country looks more like islands of California in a sea of Sub-Saharan Africa?

Social indicators like education, healthcare, infant and maternal mortality rates, etc.do not present an optimistic picture; public sector is marred by inefficiency, ineptitude, unaccountability and corruption; delivery record of basic public services like PDS, sanitation, drinking water, etc. is poor; and the interests of media are biased and unaligned. This, they claim, represents India’s contradictions.

“The contrasting picture of rapid economic growth and slow progress in living standards points to the necessity for an intelligent understanding of the importance of economic growth,” write Sen and Dreze in the book.

Not only they have managed to put an enlightening picture of India’s ills but have also managed to put them all in a comparative perspective with other South Asian and developed countries around the world. Historical trajectories and evidences have been used convincingly by them to put across their point. For example, they assert that the socialist countries – China, Cuba, Vietnam – prioritised education for their public as a basic goal. America, Europe and Japan gave heavy priority to education when they were industrializing while India was - and continues to be - extremely sluggish and unconcerned about the importance of education for its public.

The book provokes you to think about questions such as: What is development? Is GDP the only criterion to measure development? How important is transparency and accountability in the delivery of public services? What issues should media press upon? What should be the role of corporates other than making profits?

All of such questions have been discussed keeping in mind the central argument of the book about which Sen and Dreze write that “Development is not merely the enhancement of inanimate objects of convenience, such as a rise in the GDP (or in personal incomes); nor is it some general transformation of the world around us, such as industrialization, or technological advance, or social modernization. Development is, ultimately, the progress of human freedom and capability to lead the kind of lives that people have reason to value."

Throughout the book, the authors have tried to nudge and warn the government to think about the kind of development that India needs and to realign its priorities; have advised urgent state intervention in certain important areas; have attempted to urge the media and the privileged people to give a thought about the poor who, they claim, keep a low profile fatalistically; and have requested people to be more politically active and demand accountability from the government.

The criticism often labelled on the book and its authors is that they are making a case for India to revert back to its pre-reform period and to go back to socialism. Nothing can be far from the truth and the reviewers in the media have openly shown their bias and incompetence while reviewing the book.

"...maintaining a high-growth economy is an important objective, along with ensuring good use of the public revenue generated by economic growth. It is also essential, of course, to pay attention to the character of the growth process, including its equity and sustainability..", write Sen and Dreze.

At another place in the book, they write: "India's potential for high economic growth is certainly a major asset for the country's development, and efforts to enhance its performance must remain an important priority, along with making sure that growth is used to improve people's living standards."

They have called for high economic growth throughout the book and have admitted that India indeed benefitted hugely from the reforms. All they are concerned about is the distortion of opportunities that have taken place and the inability – or the deliberate neglect – of the government and the media to focus on the majority of the underprivileged population and their issues.

There is one more thing I would like to say. Lately, I have realized how important it is to be political and that most of the people are extremely apathetic to politics, which is extremely disturbing.

Raghuram Rajan, the present Governor of RBI, in a recent speech, said: “As India strives to regain its place in the ranks of prosperous nations, we must remember that what set poor nations apart from the rich is not people or resources or even luck but good governance, which comes from strong frameworks and strong institutions.”

I could find no reason to dislike the book and hence recommend it to anyone who wants to know about what India and its people should do to make it healthy, wealthy and better.

[Kaushik · Rating 5 out of 5]

I think every Indian, irrespective of their political inclination must definitely read this book. Most Indians want India to be a economic powerhouse with high economic growth. However, this itself is an extremely warped perspective as no more than a fifth of the country's population actually sees the benefits of this. Should growth not be more equitable?

As the authors explain - there is a huge imbalance between economic growth and the slow progress in living standards - think healthcare, education, public services such as PDS/electricity etc. You don't need to look further than the coronavirus pandemic and the effects of the lockdown on Indians to see this skewed imbalance.

Written during UPA-II, the excoriating criticism still applies, eight years on. Aside a few states, there are extreme imbalances and our HDI remains abysmal. The authors use Amartya Sen's welfare economics and human capability approach and combine it with social justice, environmental protection and an evidence based approach. This makes for a great reading on what precisely ails India right now.

Higher growth must be accompanied by demands for participatory growth, say the authors, and the resources created by it must be used to remedy the deplorable lack of public services and basic amenities that are holding India back. Contrary to public perception - the government's excessive spending is on ill-thought out subsidies rather than on public services like healthcare. There needs to be a rethinking of where our budgets are going and who they are serving. Simple.

Despite the authors being a little too appreciative of MNREGA and the like (for obvious reasons), I think even those programmes can be reformed or salvaged in one way or the other. I wonder how they would feel about UBI, which has gained large traction these past few years.

This is sure to become a classic on development economics in India, and is a must read for anyone who cares about the state of India's people, and want to know how to make them better.

[Ankit · Rating 2 out of 5]

An agonizingly disappointing book - seems like its solely written for international readers who enjoyed watching slumdog millionnaire ...

Yes, I understand India has glaring inequalities, severe problems with primary education, healthcare, public distribution system and the caste system. But hello .. i have been reading about these issues in my social studies classes since school. Repeating the same rhetoric and throwing some numbers and comparisons with countries like Nepal, Bangladesh or Sri-Lanka hardly qualifies as a masterpiece from a nobel laureate. I expected some concrete suggestions, an action plan, a vision, and instead i kept of stumbling upon the repeating lament of the failure of the Indian system in primary education and healthcare over 250 long pages.

The issues raised are the same everywhere, albeit in a different form. The primary education system in US is not fault free, the healthcare system in brazil came at a cost, the russians are still paying the price for too much government intervention etc etc... A big picture analysis of what could have been done and what may be done in future would have helped, least the leading eminent economists can do !

The ideas in the book are good for writing school board examinations - but are useless for someone endeavoring to get a clearer picture of the Indian economy and hunting for any fresh perspectives ...

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Disappointed. Any1 can easily describe the problems. Where r pragmatic soluions ?
Their only solution is to simply increase public spending without detailing measures of accountability, which is disastrous.
Edited in 2021 to add a sidenote - I have always wondered how HDI of Saudi Arabia is very high. Almost at par with the developed West. Do liberty , secularism , rule of law, equality count for nothing in the "development" of humans ? (Saudi Arabia is just one example).

[Venky · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although the underpinning intentions are noble, the execution seems to be surprisingly lukewarm and at times, even insipid. However, this is a provocative offering that makes one sit up, speculate and simmer over the many probable avenues, employing which raging cultural, social and economic disparities plaguing the largest democracy in the world can not just be addressed, but alleviated.

[S.Ach · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book is like looking at the boil on your back with a mirror, the itchy and painful presence of which you always knew, but were devastated nonetheless when you saw yourself the rot and spread.
Sigh!!!

[sidharth Gurjar · Rating 1 out of 5]

Waste of time. This could have been a long essay. A book was a bit much

[William Leight · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's not that this book is entirely uninteresting or poorly written, it's just that it's not really a book, but rather a white paper that describes the prospects of a set of reforms designed to improve the lot of the hundreds of millions of Indians who are desperately poor even by sub-Saharan African standards. It touches on a number of interesting points but couches everything in an extremely dry and often technical language that is only one step (if that) above that of an academic paper (and even an academic paper would occasionally allow you to rest your eyes on a plot or graph, but not this book, which just has endless tables of statistics). Dreze and Sen stick throughout to description through statistics, which is scientifically unimpeachable but results in something that works better as a reference then as a layman's introduction to India's problems. If you're an academic economist or policy technocrat interested in Indian poverty issues -- especially one who happens to employed by a moderate-left Indian political party -- then this is the book for you, but the general public will probably want to steer clear.

[Bubesh Kumar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives a lucid exposition on how India's economic growth and per capita contradicts with the poor social and human development indicators. Consider these data.. While India's GDP has grown faster than any other South Asian countries, other South Asian countries have grown much faster than us in terms of HDI. In 2011 half of all Indians defecated in open while it is less than 10 percentage in Bangladesh and 1 percent in China....there has been a near stagnation of real wages in last 20 years...our record of child immunization is pathetic.. Our female literacy rate (between 15 and 24 yrs) grew 49 to 74 between 1991 and 2010 while that of Bangladesh grew from 38 to 78... These and many more... The authors also lament that the media and political discourse are focused only on the middle class or those who are privileged... The silver lining is that the Indian democracy, with all its short comings is capable of addressing all these issues

[Leong Yi Juan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Well I started reading because I thought the book will identify the elephant in the room for India's economy stagnation - lack of industrialization, but I was very disappointed. India's economy couldn't take off because manufacturing sector never exceeded 20% in any point of its history which is a waste given the country's population and potential. The book never discusses this at all.

[Hrishikesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a very good book. Statistically and factually very sound, but not a lot of new ideas. Biggest take away has been a greater insight into the minds of two of India's biggest intellects. Turns out that a large part of the Sen-Bhagwati debate is media hype.

[Srishti Misra · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nothing new in this book.Any avid reader would be knowing most of the things.Reasoning used is compelling.But that's about it.Disappointing from Mr.Sen and Mr Dreze :(

[Asheesh · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very well researched but heavy reading and pedantic in outlook. The book is partially relevant today.

[Israt jalil · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Amartya Sen is such a privilege and pleasure. He breaks the chapter into small fractions, keeping the language easy but weighty to create the precise sense. Authored by two powerful writers the book focuses on India and It's problems. The problems are fractioned into small parts and talks almost exhaustively about the subjects covered. I loved the book but mostly I loved the last two chapters about 'The Grip of Inequality' and 'Democracy, Inequality and Public Reasoning'. These chapters retained the focus on the truths about discrimination and political disparity that needed highlighting which it got.

[Riad Azam · Rating 5 out of 5]

An extremely well-researched book. The richness of data and the vast array of themes that have been covered here related to various public policy issues like healthcare, education, social support, etc. is outstanding. Most importantly, the authors discuss these themes in a very easy manner that is easy to understand for non-experts. Also, Sen's breath of knowledge is outstanding which is shown when he cites examples of healthcare policies like Bolsa Familia in Brazil or similar ones in Mexico. A must-read.

[Ipsita · Rating 4 out of 5]

"India is full of inequalities of various kinds. Some Indians are comparatively rich; most are not. Some are fairly well educated; others are illiterate. Some lead easy lives; others toil hard for little reward. Some are politically powerful; others cannot influence anything outside their immediate sphere. Some have substantial opportunities for advancement in life; others lack them altogether. Some are treated with respect by police no matter what they have done; others are treated like dirt at the slightest suspicion of transgression. These diverse contrasts reflect different kinds of inequality, and each of them individually requires serious attention."
("An Uncertain Glory: India and Its Contradiction.")

"An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradiction" speaks of growing India's inequality across states, despite the growing figures of India's per capita GDP. The book was published dated back in 2014. When India's GDP growth rate was surging at a very steady pace, and it was bagging the title of being the "second fastest-growing economy in the world." Even India's record in pioneering democratic governance in the non-Western world is a widely acknowledged accomplishment, as its success in maintaining a secular state, despite the challenges originating from its thoroughly multi-religious population and the hugely disturbing history of violence around the ending days of British colonial rule. Although, these remarkable achievements are the glories of today's India, albeit they are deeply uncertain.

Sen and Dreze thus try to address and evaluate both the achievements and failures that characterize India today. They narrate to what extent India's old problems have been eradicated and what remains to be done. And are there new problems that India has to address?

The authors have drawn a vivid picture of where India stands today in terms of socio-economic indicators, gender and caste-based discrimination, democratic rights, and so on.
"India is not doing well at all in many respects even in comparison with some of the poorest countries in the world."

Outside of sub-Saharan Africa and even in South Asia, though India is performing much better concerning per capita income, its developmental indicators stand only ahead of Pakistan, a country with a perpetually disturbed political situation. The author has repeatedly pointed out the reason behind the abysmal state of India's socio-economic and living standards is the lack of accountability and credibility. They urged this requires a change sooner or later to embark on the journey of a much-balanced society. And, if required we can look into the progress report of states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Himachal Pradesh for reference sake!

I would highly recommend this well-researched, thought-provoking text to anyone remotely concerned with India's development journey.

Read my other reviews on my BLOG

[Rick Sam · Rating 3 out of 5]

From 2022, In Tamil Nadu, India -- Economic narrative is being pitched to grow into $1 trillion dollar.

How?

To Figure out, I've been exploring works, writings.

Do I know the answer?

No

Does this work give me the answer?

Probably one piece of the Puzzle - Metrics

If you looking are for Economic Metrics of India?

Yes, this work is good for navigating & how to find sources.


Deus Vult,
Gottfried

[Rahul Adusumilli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The debate in India is being hijacked by the so called middle-class, people who actually lie well above the median, and are much more privileged than the vast numbers of the deprived. The media too does its bit in keeping this "fog of obscurity" going by airing only the grievances of these relatively privileged and the well-off are, by consequence or by choice, blissfully unaware of the conditions prevalent among the rest. For instance, not many are aware that half of their fellow countrymen (and women) defecate in the open, and that their country is home to half of all the undernourished children of the world. (Even poorer neighbors like Bangladesh have better social indicator numbers.)

What this lack of visibility means is the public spending priorities are all wrong, and the vocal middle-classes don't really care if the government isn't providing healthcare and education and basic essential services to those in need. There's in fact even a tendency to see such expenditures as a waste of money. It is true that there is a lack of accountability in the implementation of whatever little is allocated, but that calls for bringing in accountability, not ceasing the services.

Coming back to the Indian media, it is not unique in having biases towards stories like wardrobe malfunctions of a model on a ramp. "What is special about India however is that an overwhelming majority of the people of the country would have little idea of what a wardrobe is, and what a malfunction might mean in this context."

Lots of sobering stats on the levels of deprivation are to be found in the book. The autocrats of China at least know enough to bring their citizens out of economic misery.

[Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book gives an overview of the generally "poor" state in which India finds itself in today. While holding up the achievements in terms of nurturing a vibrant democracy, Sen and Dreze decry the pitiable state of our health, education and social indicators of a large section of our population(with a lot of information and data). Large swathes of rural India and a large proportion of urban poor are being left behind by the current model of development. A must-read for young graduates and perhaps for development workers. Readable enough for a general interest reader as well, but certainly too light for people already aware of Sen's earlier work. To me, it appears that Sen & Dreze are trying to talk to a new audience with this book (cf. their earlier works).

[Umesh Kesavan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A significant work on what "growth" actually means and how public reasoning is being carried out inefficiently in India today thanks,among other things,to the elitist bias of the supposedly "mass" media. Policy formulations suggested in the book must be considered seriously by the ruling class of our country. A sobering read for vocal advocates of "India Shining".

[Manvendra Shekhawat · Rating 3 out of 5]

A decent introduction to public policy in India.

I liked ‘sense and solidarity’ more than this. But they resemble each other in many ways.

Although i read the updated edition there’s not much difference as many figures are still outdated.

[Mohit Dhanjani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really looking for a book which could give me an introduction to the development situation in India.
This is a fantastic, short and authoritative book precisely on that matter which is written by two wonderful intellectuals.
Even the Notes in this book are rich.

I wish they come up with new edition considering the new tax regime of GST has made impact on fiscal federalism in India and ultimately on the prospects of development in general.

[Abhinav Anand · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an old work, it is relatively recent, but it wouldn't be wise to form a picture of India based on the statistical figures provided throughout the book. Still, the discussions on problems which beset our nation are pertinent to current times as well. We might have improved on some of the depressing stats, but we still flounder in most of the areas as pointed by Sen and Dreze. Finally, it does help to realize the broad peculiarities and challenges of Indian democracy.

[Jithin Sam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A heart-wrenching take on the multidimensional socioeconomic inequalities in India, and the need for accountability in governance.

[Akshay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ever wondered why we India is one of the world's fastest growing economy and yet one of the poorest country? This book is filled with facts, problems and all the possible solutions. Covering all the major and minor issues that caused this huge difference between the classes in India is an eye opening work by the authors.

[Flaanza · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a rich source of knowledge about the recent socio-historic development of India. It takes a comprehensive few of Indian society and reflects on the impact of historical colonial elements on the current society.

India's inequalities - although I knew about them prior - are laid out in a clarity and precision that shines a different light on these matters. Reading this book left me smarter and more knowledgeable which is all I can hope for from a non-fiction book. On top, it is written in an understandable language and has good internal structuring. Maybe here and there a bit repetitive, but yeah, personal preference.

The reason why I give "only" four stars is the lack of critical thinking towards growth and the current economic system. While not every book needs to be a critique of capitalism, the assumption that economic growth is the only valid paradigm - especially in a context like India, where growth alone does not improve social standards on a large scale - remains unchallenged and unquestioned. India - with states like Kerala - is the perfect example to think about alternative economic paradigm in the face of failing capitalism for the incredibly large share of the Indian population that lives below the poverty line.