Satta Ke Galiyaron Se

by Sanjaya Baru

प्रत्येक युग में राष्ट्र का सामाजिक, राजनीतिक और आर्थिक कुलीन अपनी शक्ति एवं प्रतिष्ठा को संरक्षित करते हुए अपने इस महान्‌ विचार के प्रतिपादन द्वारा कि वह उसका प्रभुत्व सुनिश्चित करने तथा उसे कार्यान्वित करने में सक्षम है, परिवर्तन को नियंत्रित करने का प्रयास करता है। ब्रिटिश साम्राज्य का संचालन उसी सिद्धांत के आधार पर किया गया था। अपने विचारों को प्रधानता के बल पर अजनबियों की एक छोटी सी संख्या ने इतने बड़े साम्राज्य का संचालन किया, जिसे बहुसंख्यकों ने स्वीकार किया। स्वाधीनता- प्राप्ति के पश्चात्‌ गणतंत्र के निर्माताओं ने एक संविधान लिखा, जिसने राष्ट्र को सत्ता के कुलीनों को आर्थिक विशेषाधिकार के पदों पर बने रहने हेतु समर्थ बनाया, जबकि संविधान में सभी को समान स्तर प्रदान किया गया था। लोकतंत्र, समानता, समाजवाद, धर्मनिरपेक्षता के विचार नए थे और समय के साथ उनका तालमेल भी था; परंतु उनका कार्यान्वयन इस प्रकार से हुआ, मानो वह सत्ता एवं विशेषाधिकारों के मौजूदा संबंधों को संरक्षित करनेवाला हो। --इसी पुस्तक से भारतवर्ष में सत्ता, उसके प्रभाव, उसके सरोकार, उसके दुरुपयोग और समाज पर उसके प्रभावों का एक व्यावहारिक चिंतन प्रस्तुत करती है यह विचारप्रधान पुस्तक.

Genres: India, Nonfiction, Politics, History

222 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2022

About the author

Sanjaya Baru is an Indian political commentator and policy analyst, currently serving as Director for Geo-Economics and Strategy at the International Institute of Strategic Studies. Previously he had served as associate editor at The Economic Times and The Times of India, and then chief editor at Business Standard. His father B. P. R. Vithal served as Finance and Planning Secretary during former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's stint as Secretary of Finance. Before he became a journalist, he was a member of Communist Party of India (Marxist) when he was a student at University of Hyderabad. He became Manmohan Singh's media advisor and chief spokesperson, a role in which he served from May 2004 until August 2008. In April 2014, Penguin India published The Accidental Prime Minister, Baru's tell-all memoir about his time at the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). In it, Baru alleges that the prime minister was completely subservient to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who wielded significant influence in the running of the Singh administration, including the PMO itself. The book has sparked off a controversy, with the PMO officially denouncing it as "fiction". Baru, however, has said that he set out to show an empathetic portrait of the prime minister.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Rajat Ubhaykar · Rating 5 out of 5]

A marvelously engaging book on the functioning, composition and evolution of India's incestuous power elite spanning media, business, politics, and bureaucracy, and how this old boys' club from the same 'social set' finds itself increasingly marginalized since 2014. An unbiased, scholarly account in the vein of Pavan K Varma's Being Indian, I highly recommend this book to everyone curious about how power in India operates at the highest levels.

[Kirti Upreti · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that depicts the truth stark naked is most often denounced by those who never read any.

Hello there! If you are a victim of circumstance just like everyone else, it's highly probable that you have an abundant certitude in your right/left inclination in the political spectrum. If you are reading this on your smartphone in an air conditioned room while taking a break from your chilled out Netflix sessions, it is even more likely that you have taken jabs of financial security that protect you against any economic ailment of the time.

However, you still feel the absence of some invigorating purpose in your life and you have lately realised that - after a hard day's job followed by home delivered food while simultaneously watching TV and jealously hearting those throwback pictures of your colleagues - your country's present situation needs a few moments of serious consideration, too. It is in those moments of adrenaline rush, you see a friend sharing something online that - you believe - is going to steer our country in the wrong direction. The responsible citizen in you puts the onus of immediate course correction on your able shoulders. Aye aye, Captain!

This is when your dormant creativity bursts out from its cocoon. A few hours ago, you were struggling to write a proper email and now your words glide like a butterfly from one point to another - leaving no corner untouched. Your argumentative friends - after having watched an IPL match - come across your post. And since creativity is contagious - so - why not?! Their butterfly challenges yours in a dancing duel. The spectacle garners audience, who try to turn it into an arrythmic group activity. But it's butterflies, so they get tired soon and go back to their cocoons.

No matter what dance form they exhibit, what unites all butterflies is that they don't read - busy lifestyles, one may assume. That's why, Sanjaya Baru never writes for such lot. Having read 'The Accidental Prime Minister' in 2015, one is aware of his emotionally detached, purely objective and frightfully unbiased style of writing. If you are bored of watching butterflies dance in your timeline and whatsapp groups, this book would bring you great relief.

[Amit Bagaria · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nonfiction book after 15 fiction thrillers and clearly a disappointment. The only reason I did not give it 2-stars (instead of 3) is because there are some learnings from the book.

Anyone who reads the book will decipher that Dr. Baru hates, Modi, the BJP, and the RSS. Well, he is entitled to his views. but unsubstantiated accusations should not be made by someone who has been Editor of India's top financial newspapers, and a media advisor to a PM.

How is the Modi regime bending institutions to its will?

How are they controlling journalists? Are they preventing anyone from speaking against the regime or the BJP? Or are they targeting the fake news propaganda that many of Modi's critics are guilty of?

How are they controlling the judiciary. Are judges given plum posts after retirement on a larger scale than Congress governments have done in the past? Have any judges been blackmailed or threatened?

How is BJP a 'Hindi' party if it has been in power for almost 25 years (with a gap of less than 18 months) and continuing in a Gujarati-speaking state, almost 10 years in a Marathi-speaking state, almost 7 years and continuing in a Kannada-speaking state? The BJP is returning for a second 5-year term in Assam and has made historic (for any party in any state since 1947) gains in West Bengal? It won another historic victory in Tripura in March 2018, a state where less than 3% have Hindi as their primary language. Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, and Manipur are other examples of non-Hindi speaking states where the BJP is in power. I am shocked that a man of Dr. Baru's stature has an archaic South Indian's hatred of Hindi.

Barring a few, most of his statements are nothing but ideological/political propaganda. But then, Dr. Baru belongs to the Banjara Hills / Jubilee Hills Elite of Hyderabad, who too cannot stand an ordinary chaiwallah as this nation's PM, much like the Lutyens Elite and Leftist Media that he was an integral part of for most of his professional life. And let's not forget that he comes from a Congressi-family, his father being close to PV Narasimha Rao (who, by the way, I have rated as the best Prime Minister of India alongside Modi in my latest book, Congress-Mukt Bharat). Read that book, Dr. Baru, to see what unbiased writing is all about. And critique it as much as I am critiquing your book. But do read it.

The author choses to remain silent on Modi strengthening national security laws and the armed forces / intelligence agencies (which Manmohan Singh had all but destroyed), building infrastructure at an unprecedented scale and speed, the path-breaking new education policy and labour reforms, or the fact that J&K is limping back to normalcy after Articles 370 and 35A were repealed (no, that is not Hindutva, it is nationalism, Dr. Baru!).

He quotes diplomat-writer-politician Pawan Varma (I loved his book "Chanakya's New Manifesto" and am a proud owner of a signed copy) about the 'aggressive, selfish, insular' lifestyle of the urban rich who "secure water from bore wells ... and electricity from diesel-powered generators." Well, all I can say is that, when the governments of several decades could not provide them with water and electricity, were they supposed to stand in a line to fill buckets from municipal taps, or steal electricity by tapping from electric poles?

On the writing itself, I must comment that there is too much bias throughout the book on his home states, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. There are also too many repetitions of the same points or arguments, which make the book a tad boring.

There are several mistakes:

◼︎ On Pg.7, he refers to Amit Shah as BJP party president and (now also) home minister. He is not the party president since 20 Jan 2020, or maybe Dr. Baru missed that news.

◼︎ Also on Pg.7, he says BJP "is" implementing a uniform civil code. When did that happen? Sure, they will do it if they are able to build a larger political consensus around it, but they are not "implementing" UCC yet.

◼︎ On Pg.21, India's population is given as 130 billion. It is 1.3 billion (actually 1.31), or 131 crore.

◼︎ On Pg.22 and in many other places, he refers to an Indian state as a province. This is a hangover from the pre-Independence era. They call them Macaulay's Children, don't they?

◼︎ Again on Pg.22, he says close to 16 million Indians are living abroad. The actual 'official' number is 36 million, and the 'real' number is closer to 45 million.

◼︎ On Pg.33, he says, "by the end of Rajiv Gandhi's tenure, in the mid-1980s". Rajiv Gandhi's tenure started in the mid-1980s (the last day of Oct 1984 to be precise) and ended in Dec 1989, which was the late-1980s.

◼︎ On Pg.155, he says that Americans voted for General Dwight Eisenhower to the nation's presidency in 1953. Eisenhower was elected on 4 Nov 1952. All US presidents are elected on the "first Tuesday after the 1st of November" on the same year as the Summer Olympics, and Dr. Baru should have known that.

◼︎ On Pg.197, he refers to India TV as English media. Last time I checked, this was a Hindi channel.

◼︎ On Pg.200, he refers to the cricketing body BCCI as the "Board of Cricket Control of India" (sic), whereas the actual name is "Board of Control for Cricket in India".

◼︎ On Pg.214, he says that the fee charged by IB world schools can Ange from Rs 75,000 per month to Rs 1,50,000 per month. I know of schools that charge up to Rs 3,00,000 per month.

◼︎ On Pg.215, he gets a little lost on numbers relating to the amount of money spent on Indian students going abroad for higher studies. Let us issue that his number of 1,50,000 students going abroad every year is correct. It is firstly wrong to assume that the average length of stay is three years. An American undergraduate degree is four years (engineering, medical, architecture, law etc are 5-6 years), and many students do undergrad + graduate school (what we call postgrad in India) which means 6 years in the US and 5 years if the undergrad is in the UK. Therefore, the best guess is that the average LOS is 4.25 years. At an average annual cost (education + boarding/housing + travel + other expenses) of Rs 50 lakh (the range is Rs 25 lakh in the UK to Rs 90 lakh in the US), we are talking about an annual expense of Rs 3.19 lakh crore or $42.53 billion. RBI should sack the person/people who estimated $3 billion and Assocham should do the same for whoever estimated $10-13 billion. Couldn't the author do the simple math himself?

At 1156 words, this is the longest book review I have ever written.

[Ananta Pathak · Rating 3 out of 5]

What Sanjay Baru get right with his books is his timing. His earlier book on Manmohan Singh also came out before election time and people were eager to about it. With this book also he sets the timing right. With a clear shift towards a more nationalistic way of right wing thinking, the current time do see a change in status quo. He writes well when it comes to his anecdotes from his inside knowledge being in media Or that circle for long. But the book could have delved more into the history of class Or cultural evolution in India from early time and how it has changed or not over a period of time. Reading the book feels that one has got only a peek into the making of new power elite, it needed a deeper study than that.

[Prakhar Jain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand how India's power corridors function and the change underway.

Slight disappointment with some points being repeated over and again.

[vivek Bhargava · Rating 2 out of 5]

Seems more like a Vogue magazine for the so called 'Elite' junta. Some of the topics covered seem quite biased.
One would want to read a more unbiased and structural deconstruction of hierarchy and elitism. The book does a bit on this aspect when Mr Baru explains about rising middle class, historical background into politics and evolution of regional politics etc. I also liked his part where he covers the evolution of Indian media. However, certain topics, according to me, are not very well justified. I don't entirely agree how Mr Baru examines the case of indians living overseas and how conveniently he disguises this entire group of people as opportunistic and portrays them in a slight negative context.
Looks like Mr Baru is part of one elite camp and he wants to bitch about the other elite camp.
I am a bit disappointed because one expects more from Dr Manmohan Singh's media advisor.

[E.T. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Who is an elite ? Especially in India ?
The author starts off with a couple of light appetiser chapters with some commentary on history/current affairs. But in the next few pages he tries to define an "elite" and how "elitism" is not merely about power but about hegemony of ideas. I think this was the best part of the book.
The rest of the book takes stock of elitism in various sections - media, bureaucracy, NRIS, businesses etc I skimmed thru some useless trivia and anecdotes stopping to read the author's analysis and commentary which was quite good. The author Sanjaya Baru is known for his book The Accidental Prime Minister and by his proximity to power, he is one of the "elites". It was an insider account in some ways !
Overall, given the lack of books on this topic and its short length, worth a read. Just be prepared to skim a bit especially if you regularly read on Indian current-affairs and history.

[Nilotpal Chowdhury · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good read, but lacking references

This book, as laid down in the beginning itself, is polemical. It lays down ideas and statements. However, without supporting facts, the statements themselves are questionable.
It is laid down that the Modi regime is targeting institutions by bending them to its will. But how exactly? What is the modus operandi by which they are controlling the journalists? Are they preventing anyone from speaking? Or are they targeting the weaknesses, illegalities and fraud that the Modi governments critics themselves are guilty of? The last mentioned, is strictly speaking, not suppression.
How are they controlling the judiciary. Are judges given plum posts after retirement on government money on a larger scale than previously? Are they threatened? If examples of such, and raw numbers given, then only the criticism is on strong ground. Else such statements will remain only ideological/political propaganda.
It is in the lack of these references that the book fails. The ideas laid out in the book remain the isolated thoughts of a concerned Indian, without factual support which may convince a logical skeptic.

[Lokeshvnkatesh · Rating 3 out of 5]

heavily influenced by CW. Mills's "The Power Elite" (and a potpourri of related theories quoted verbatim). Gives Indian examples to foreign concepts, often repetitive and droning. Good, short read.

[Sharang Limaye · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a solid, scholarly work that, at times, tends to spread itself too thin. The subject chosen by Baru is vast and maybe warranted a tome. This 235-page book is good but could have been a lot better had the writer decided to delve deeper into each of the topics he explores. Still, this is rewarding reading for the watchers of Indian politics and society. Baru has worked at the very heart of India's government, and clearly knows what he is writing about. The fact that this piece is free of political bias is a major plus, and somewhat revealing, given how close the author was to the previous Prime Minister. Probably, the high point of 'India's Power Elite' is Baru's powerfully insightful conclusion about the citizens of this nation - that they are fine with gradual change till that change is in the positive direction, and are averse to rapid developments that tend to disrupt the prevalent order of things. One wonders how many Indians, hankering for China-like progress, are aware of this reality about themselves.

[Bindesh Dahal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incisive analysis of power holders and brokers in India. Modi's cultural revolution should also ensure the bridging the yawning gap between haves and haves not.

[Appu · Rating 2 out of 5]

Elite theory argues that in a democracy, although formally power is dispersed, effectively it is with a small social group, (the elite) which controls the bureaucracy, military, businesses, professions and the media. Although the group is not closed to outsiders, walls restricting entry are fairly tall.

In India, after independence, the upper-caste, anglophone wealthy section of the society constituted the elite. Thanks to the logic of numbers, land reforms, green revolution and extensive system of reservation, the social base of the elite has widened. The upper Shudras have entered the ranks of the elite. Proficiency in the English language is not a barrier to entry into higher levels of politics and bureaucracy and the hegemony of liberalism and cosmopolitanism has given way to Hindu nationalism.

Baru seems to argue that except in bureaucracy and politics, the old elite has not fully conceded ground to the new elite. An interesting point he makes is that under threat from the rising section of India, the old elite is increasingly moving out of the country in search of greener pastures, a phenomenon Baru terms, "secession of the successful".

Written in an anecdotal fashion, Baru's book is readable but inadequate theoretically.

[Harshil Mehta · Rating 4 out of 5]

India saw a change after 2014. It wasn’t just due to the change of power under leadership of Narendra Modi but was also due to how anti-elitism was used in the elections.

India’s elite class, as the author identified, was typically upper-class, upper-caste, wealthy, English speaking, St Stephen-Hindu College-Lady Sri Ram-graduated, staying in Lutyens’ Delhi.

That class - which includes bureaucrats, media professionals, politicians, public intellectuals - was alienated like never before. The book, desi version of Mill’s Power Elite precisely explain that phenomenon along with rise of a new elite class.

The book will help you in understanding how a bunch of people were - and are, in some ways - controlling the nation of around 135 crores.

Though somewhat overanalysed, it is an indeed good read for history, power politics, and elitism in India!

[Soham Chakraborty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sanjay Baru comes from the kind of pedigree that ruled the roost in old India. With a grandfather who served in the Indian Civil Service, a father who served in the Indian Administrative Service and his own role as advisor to PM Manmohan Singh firmly places him in the old power elite. This books tries to weave together a narrative, sometimes successfully - sometimes clumsily - about the rise of a new power elite in India that doesn't seek to integrate but abolish the old order. While providing a window into the transition, Baru periodically feels the need to enter the historical background of India as a nation-state, in a cavalier, opinion-editor manner that wasn't necessary for the purposes of this book.

[Jayesh Sharma · Rating 1 out of 5]

One of the few books I abandoned. A bitter journalist feeling left out of the ecosystem lashing out at the people who took away his privilege. Bitter about no longer being a middleman in the thick of it and to see the direct flow of communication that internet has enabled.

A sad sad man at the fag end of his career blaming everyone but himself.

[Rushi Jetly · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although it gives us quite a background behind some of the politics of parties and bureaucracy and acknowledges the positionality it has within the power Elites, it is not as thorough as a reader would have liked.
At the end it just posits the all knowing thesis that there is never a vacuum of power, one group of elite leaves and other fills the gap.

[Deepanshu Aggarwal · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book describes, in detail, the nature of power elite in India and the changes it has undergone under various regimes at the Centre, the most disruptive of which has been the Modi regime since 2014, for Mr. Modi has largely made the erstwhile power elite, largely irrelevant.

[Nabeel Bhattacharya · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing puts Modi's main effect on India

Amazing book as always Sanjaya Baru is the ultimate insider who spills the beans on how power and elite in India works. Anecdotes and references from history and real life are the nuggets that make the book special and engaging

[Ramdas Rai · Rating 4 out of 5]

An eye opener to the elite culture in India. Covers everything from the rich elite to land owning elite and cultural elite. A must read.

[Sriram · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good picture on the inner life of elites who turn the wheels of power.

[Arup · Rating 3 out of 5]

Power is mostly just trying to preserve itself.

[Gunjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great book analyzing the behavioral changes in the political structure of India.

[DM · Rating 3 out of 5]

Learned a lot from this book but at times it was so down in the weeds of details it was hard to follow an overall intervention/argument.

[Vineeth Nair · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just love the way this man writes. Equally impressive as Accidental Prime Minister. Such clarity of thought and ability to express with clarity is rear. Overall a great read

[Varun · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is written by a prominent insider, who has been along the ringside for quite some time. Hence, his views may appear, at times, biased, insufficient and selective. Thus reader discretion is advised to know all facts before being carried away by several sensational anecdotes.
This being said, the book also throw light on the recent wave of political changes sweeping the nation. All in all, an enjoyable reading.