In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India

by Edward Luce

An Old Country, very rich and diversified, facing new influx

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

388 pages, Hardcover

First published August 24, 2006

Reviews

[Arjun · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll be frank - each part of the book is factual and correct. Yet, it misses the mark as whole. Reading Mr. Luce's biography, I had expected he is a westerner (for want of a better word) who also understands the spirit of what drives India as a nation. After reading his book, I have realized yet again, that living in India with a mindset of a non-Indian makes you a good factual historian but not someone who can put a finger on India's nerve. Most of his book is spent on the corruption and individual egos of India's political system and very little on what makes the nation tick and continuously grow despite overwhelming challenges. If the reader is a westerner who has either not been to India, or has been to India with a mindset of assuming all things West is correct, they will enjoy this book. Its is completely factual. What is unfortunate however is Mr Luce's choice to focus 80% of the book on all the issues and less than 20% on the positives. The remainder of the book, I found, is unnecessarily full of tongue in cheek jabs of politicians or people of prominence in India - what they said, vs. what he humorously thought.

What I liked what Luce's thorough research of all facts. There were many things I learned in terms of facts. What I did not like is his book is titled 'The Rise of Modern India (Despite the gods)' but its more apt to rename it as 'I can't believe the Rise of India'. I can't accuse him of misstating facts - but do point a finger at him for not being even in their selection. A nation does not move ahead if its whole is lesser than the sum of parts.

My next book in line is Shashi Tharoor's 'The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone' - another book that talks about the meteoric yet odd rise of India, but from the viewpoint of a person who probably understands India much more than a person outside can. I haven't read it yet, but will surely comment on compared to Mr. Luce's style.

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Warning - this review contains many spoilers


In Luce’s book, India is a land of a few brilliant high flyers on the one hand, and poverty-stricken masses on the other. The high flyers have brought success to their homeland, but he barely touches up their achievements, instead the book concentrates on the wrongs experienced by the bulk of the population. I found the book quite a hotch-potch of information , but fascinating nonetheless.

Problems with the bulk of the poplulation

*There is fantastically strict employment legislation , ie it is almost impossible to get rid of a worker, however badly they perform. As a result Indian employers seldom employ people within the legitimate work sector. Instead they have concentrated on improving their machinery – so that as many processes as possible are mechanised. Their factories are sophisticated, using low manpower. The bulk of the population is unable to find properly organized, legislated and reliable employment.

*General levels of education and literacy are very low, 65% compared to 90% in China. Again this makes the bulk of people unemployable in the modern workplace. At the very top, education is excellent, but for most people it is not good at all.

*There is much less urbanisation in India than in China, yet rural agriculture( in its current form of small plots of land with low technical support) cannot support the people who farm it. There is also a lack of infrastructure (like good roads), to help the farmers get their products to market.

*There are high levels of corruption throughout India – but perhaps particularly in government services and public utility industries. Money that is earmarked to help those in poverty seldom gets to its destination. It’s is argued that up to 84% gets siphoned off by bureaucracy. Those who are wealthy on the other hand tend to work the system. “If you are rich and important you rarely pay. If you are poor, you usually pay through the nose.”

*The caste system is alive and well in India. This applies to Muslims as well as to Hindus. The untouchable castes like the Dulits are not only spurned by the upper castes, but have issues with other castes at the bottom of the ladder as well. Politics in India is hugely geared up to castes. Hindu – the top castes, The Congress Party – a sort of broad middle range of castes, and independent politicians – they represent the different casts at the bottom of society. A lot of the independent politicians have criminal records – almost 100 of India’s 545 members of parliament have been indicted in some respect. Most of all, people are loyal to their caste. When they vote – they vote for their caste party.

Caste prejudices are much more active in rural India than in the cities, but even in the cities there are still barriers between castes.

In an effort to counteract caste prejudice a large number of government jobs have been given to untouchables via a process of positive discrimination. Percentages of jobs are allocated to them - eg in Tamil Nadu 69% of government jobs are given to Dalits. As a result of this initiative it has proved very hard to reform the country’s bloated bureaucracy and instil a system of meritocracy.

All over India, every year, people are killed as a result of caste violence. At its worst it can be horrendous. In 1992 in Gujarat, 3,000 people were killed, mostly Muslims killed by Hindus, and there was little justice afterwards - only a handful of people were convicted of murder.


The high flyers

*India’s success lies in fields like softwear, pharmaceuticals, and complex manufacturing. Its current rate of growth is 7%, and if this continues, its economy will double every 12 years. At this rate, in the 2020s, it will overtake Japan, to become the third largest economy in the world.

*India is also in the early stages of an off-shore revolution in services (eg providing services in India that used to be done by other countries themselves, like long distance IT support). There are many tasks that can be remotely undertaken in India for half the price (or even less) of what they cost to undertake in the west.

America’s relationship with India

America is very supportive of the economic rise of India, and has very strong ties with India too.
* It likes the fact India is a democracy.
*It likes India’s responsible attitude towards its nuclear weapons.
*There are now two million people of Indian origin in the USA, and they now have a strong voice in American politics. They are the richest ethnic group in the States.
*India’s softwear sector gets 80% of its earnings from American customers.
* India provides the highest number of foreign students to the USA, and takes up the largest share of annual visas for foreign technical workers (mostly softwear engineers).
* One in four business start-ups in Silicon Valley are launched by non-resident Indians.
* India is seen as the only country that can possibly counterbalance China’s rise as a global power.
*The one grain of discord is that India is looking to Iran for its energy requirements, and America does not like this.

~~~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Luce also discusses lots of other issues:

* India’s relationship with Pakistan (between officials this is often hostile, but between ordinary people, very friendly).

* Kashmir – This has a largely Muslim population, but more than anything it is now just seeking peace. The “Line of Control” in Kashmir (the LOC) is the border between Pakistan-administered Kashmir and India-administered Kashmir. Both Pakistan and India have nuclear power . “The LOC is often referred to as the most dangerous nuclear flashpoint in the world”.

* Child labour (closely tied in to levels of literacy)

* Child brides (According to one estimate 15% of girls in India’s poorest states get married at or below the age of 10).

* Birth rates and gender issues; problems with a low female birth rate are often exacerbated by the extortionate costs of weddings and dowries, and the low levels of education given to many women.

* The fascinating history of the Nehru/Gandhi dynasty as leaders of The Congress Party

* The worrying prejudices of the Hindu Nationalist Party (the BJP)…luckily so far only briefly in power.

*Justice – the (poor) quality of policing, and the inordinate length time it takes for cases to appear in court (in 2006 there was a backlog of 27 million cases, and it can take 15 years for some trials to be heard).

* Politicians - these are currently of poor quality “Indian politicians often profess a passionate commitment to a subject or a cause and then do not bother to show up for the debate, the committee process or even the final vote. The Speaker of India’s parliament frequently has to adjourn proceedings because MPs are unable to maintain discipline.”

Finally, Luce describes four areas of importance for India’s success in the future.

*The challenge of lifting 300 million people out of poverty
-Modernise farming
-Improve infrastructure
-Better facilities for education and health.
-More urban employment

* Environmental good practices. At the moment both air and water quality are bad, and affecting Indian citizens. India is also set to become a greater consumer of energy, and this needs to be handled with care.

*Protecting and strengthening India’s democracy.

* Preventative health initiatives to stop the rise of HIV- AIDS. Currently only 1% of Indians suffer with this problem, but its escalation in other countries suggests it needs to be monitored.

~~~~~~~~~~0~~~~~~~~~~

This book is a best-seller in India – and what greater compliment could there be? Having said that, I found it a bit of a mish-mash, and felt it could have been better organised. To some extent this was counterbalanced by an excellent index.

My review has been its usual list of bullet points (useful for me, but it doesn’t make the heart sing). As such I haven’t touched upon the wonderful anecdotes and interviews that are scattered throughout the book. Luce is a great journalist and observer, with a wry eye for telling foibles - and I very much enjoyed his interviews. Most of all the book was a great education. My knowledge of India was pathetic, and this was a great introduction to a fascinating country.

[Nathan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Edward Luce remains obstinately superficial throughout this book, approaching India as a mass statistic or collective social trend, rather than an organic, dynamic country. It can be a little slow and, I think, reductive, though that's not to say his observations don't have any truth to them. Much of his observations, are, however, pretty obvious, or have been made elsewhere. This is a broad and studied book, but not engaging, as Luce almost completely ignores the social atmosphere of India (a shameful omission, if you ask me) in favor of stats and facts about GDP's, life expectancies, and tax rates. Useful information, but not all that interesting, delivered as it was with no human interest. This read like a slightly-embellished encyclopedia entry.

[Murugan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Here's my review on this bad book on amazon.

"I am sure at the end of this review most of you will stamp me as fanatic who 's not willing to see the shortfalls of India. However, please consider my observation before making your decision. I was disappointed in this book because it has no point! Am not sure he established why india is successful or if it was inspite of the gods. In my opinion, this was a feeble attempt by a journalist who was not qualified to comment on either one of the topics. My biggest complaint about this book is that, unless i missed it completely, not one action or effort by the hindus, politicians or indians in general was good enough. If there was a compliment, and there weren't a whole lot, it was qualified with a smart remark or it was labeled as a fluke. In addition, none of the chapters is related to one another and or to the main theme. In my opinion, this is the product of an establishment (british educational/journal) that's based on colonialism and superiority complex and one that's eagerly waiting for the fall of a democratic nation they once ruled. Nothing about this book or the author leads me to believe that he has any affection or respect for India. I think John Keay's book on India is far more objective and accurate than this. Awful book."

[Gaurav Bhati · Rating 3 out of 5]

After much coercion from my wife, I decided to finally read this one. My wife loved this book, I am, however, not impressed. The book is a shallow account of a very complex topic. Author has decided to juggle with many topics and as a result - book lacks depth. A more apt title for the book could have been 'India for Dummies'.

The book starts well and mentions some statistics which, to an informed reader, should not be new but are damning enough to force some soul-searching. Why even after ~70 years after independence India has failed to deliver social and economic justice to a large section of its population. This is a question that we should ask ourselves more often than we currently do. After setting up the problem in a beautiful manner, author than completely abandons statistics and starts a story which is devoid of statistics (& sometimes facts) and loaded with anecdotes. If you are looking for a fresh and coherent perspective on what can be done to alleviate the poverty then you would be disappointed. Whatever solutions author offer are motherhood statements like diversify the agriculture or build Iran India gas pipeline.

The book is big on anecdotes, not surprising considering author is a journalist. But what puts me off is the use of anecdotes by the author to justify the bias which I believe he harbours. In a diverse country like India, you can find 'evidence' (anecdotes) for any story that you want to tell. The author treats Sonia Gandhi with kids gloves, often justifying the dynasty rule and laying the blame at the feet of sycophants that surround her. Because he chose to build his story on anecdotes, he often contradicts himself, like in the same chapter labelling India as both a status quo power and expansionist.

The book is a more sophisticated attempt to sell Indian poverty to the western audience. The author reduces the Indian film industry to ' world famous pelvic dance moves' and deliberately uses terms that are insulting and sensationalist like instead of referring to Japanese as allies of INA, he describes them as ' Japanese overlords'. Amazingly though in all this account of misery he still finds a way to praise the British rule like finding an anecdote of a British civil servant who is still worshipped in Karnataka or describing British as docile rulers who chose to leave India instead of militarily subjugating it.

Last and most important disagreement of mine is with his attempt to validate his stereotypes. An average Indian, like everyone else, wants money and decent life. Stop reminding them how chasing money is against the principle of spirituality which the western world associate with India. Indians can aspire to make money and be spiritual at the same time. Indian movies are escapist and there is no reason for us to change just because it does not ' conform' to the western standards of cinema. There are things that need to change in India, social and economic equality being the foremost, but not the cinema and approach to spirituality. The author does a disservice to his own work by blurring the line between the two.

[Theresa Mannix · Rating 3 out of 5]

My limited view of India was of a country of Bollywood movies, curry, Indian customer service call centers, poverty, hundreds of millions of people, slums and more poverty. This pretty readable book gave me a, well, broader view of India. It's a crazy place--incredible diversity with a democracy that seems to work. Some facts just stuck with me: less than 10% of India's 1.1 billion people work in the formal work force and 80% of them work for the government. The bureaucracy is monumentally corrupt--most workers don't even show up for work but still get paid. There are more than 600,000 Indian villages--most without electricity or running water. There is only a 65% literacy rate. Most do not go to school (the teachers don't show up)but the tech universities churn out thousands of brilliant engineers. The caste system is alive and well, mostly as an economic classifier. We think our Christian fundamentalists are a threat to US civil liberties? The Hindu nationalist movement makes them look like pussycats.
In Spite of the Gods gives you an idea of the forces that have shaped India--religious, historic, economic, cultural. There are some good anecdotes, interviews and enough data to satisfy anyone. And, since India will surpass China in population this century, and it's a nuclear power, and its economy will become the 3rd largest pretty soon, maybe we should take a look at it a bit more closely. "Remember, India always wins," as the author says.

[Seth Mitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extensively researched and comprehensive book which provides some fascinating insights into the workings of the modern Indian political and economic system. The book is replete with quotes of conversations with not just local and national politicians but also judges,entrepreneurs,social activists and so on, some of these conversations in the interviews(that are sprawling throughout the book) are exceedingly interesting.
The wide ranging discussions on India's economy like it's capital-intensive nature, as compared to China's Labor-intensive nature are also quite enlightening and shows the differing trajectories that both countries have followed to achieve their varying degrees of economic success. The author also does a brilliant job at showing the alarming disparity between rural and urban India, the various issues related to caste and religion are also discussed in great detail although some of those topics could have been more sensitively tackled.
All in all, I would definitely recommend this book especially for bureaucrats and politicians who would benefit greatly from the book, if they make an honest effort to understand the true nature of the problems that currently plague the nation.

[Sumirti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of all the books which purports to portray India in its recent times, this one by Mr.Luce does a greater justice to the subject at hand and the land it intends to portray. The essays on the Indian bureaucracy(which most often than not is bureau'crazy') and the unbiased account of the plight of untouchables and the raise of middle class makes the whole reading worthy. Definitely an admirable work.

[Kaśyap · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good observational/journalistic account of contemporary India from the perspective of a foreign observer. Documents many challenges that India faces like the all encompassing corruption, rising inequality, and Hindu nationalism. A good book as far as the presentation of facts is concerned but not so much regarding some of his conclusions or suggestions.

[Wilson Tomba · Rating 4 out of 5]

Engagingly written and a very good primer for all those interested in India. If after finishing this book you feel hungry for more, I'd recommend you pick up a more scholarly account of Indian History such as this one:

[Vik · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't prefer writers who reduce vast legacy of India to absurd over mystification of India as some religious country of bag packs, Himalayas and Yoga - as if we have nothing more to offer as a diverse civilization, modern state and secular democracy. Edward Luce is among those few writers who are a fine exception to the above rule.

Edward has a flair for wit:
“Lalu Prasad put both his hands in front of the cow's face and said: 'This hand is for Lalu and this hand is for Ram Vilas Paswan [Lalu's fiercest electoral competitor]. The cow did not move when Lalu raised the hand that represented Paswan, but then something peculiar happened. When Lalu raised his other hand — the one that represented himself — the cow slowly but emphatically nodded its head. I looked in vain for an attendant who might be pulling the cow's tail or tugging on a piece of string. But the trick was authentic. It must have taken Lalu hours and hours of practice.”

He courageously exposed religious bigotry of BJP during 1998-2002:
“The NCERT textbooks (designed by BJP led govt.) said new evidence had proved that the Harappans did after all possess horses, which meant the Indus Valley civilisation must have been Aryan. In support of the contention, the textbooks mentioned the recent discovery by two academics of the unmistakable depiction of a horse on one of the Harappan terracotta wax seals. It did not seem to matter that in 2000 the discovery had been exposed as a simple case of fraud. Michael Witzel, Professor of Sanskrit at Harvard University, showed how the two men had manipulated computer-generated images of the seal to conjure up a horse. The textbooks were neither withdrawn nor amended.”

One of his characters reflected imagination of Indian middle class and exposed Hindi nationalism:
“I don't really care about Gandhi —Gandhi is retrograde, most of these people protesting against short skirts and foreign influences are hypocrites. Half of them send their children to English private schools and go abroad if they need a medical operation. These people are retrograde."

His grip on Indian social spectrum is quite impressive:
“Three most important figures of twentieth-century India: Mohandas K. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhimrao Ambedkar. The continuing influence of these men on the country's character and direction arguably exceeds that of all of India's gods. Two of them ultimately rejected Gods!...
On the many occasions when Nehru was arrested by the British and imprisoned, he would, as a rule, eat cornflakes, fried eggs, bacon and tomatoes, before submitting to his captors. Gandhi would have a drop of lime juice and some goat's milk.”

In the end, Edward was right in narrating funny observation of T.N. Ninan, one of the country's most respected editors, “India the 'one per cent society'. Which-ever indicator you choose, whether it is economic or social, India is improving at a rate of roughly 1 per cent a year. For example, India's poverty rate is declining at about 1 per cent a year: in 1991 it was 35 per cent; by 2000 it was 26 per cent.”

[Rama · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clearly a book intended to introduce the mess that is India to non-Indian audience; nothing new is to be gleaned from it.

A condescending tone permeates proceedings for the most part, with only the India-China-US relations bit having the capability to incite interest. As a financial journalist, Edward Luce tends to wear numbers as the cloak of well-intentioned objectivity - this does not mean anything other than the predictable favoring of the market economy, the population-related issues, the caste system, the contradictions between consumerism and cultural conservatism within modern India, corruption and so on.

There is a sneaking suspicion that the book is motivated more by the ease of exploiting India than by any form of Olympian objectivity - Edward Luce is even married into an Indian family.

As an aside, the author cites an incident in which he was denied entry to the Ferozshah Kotla to watch an India-Pakistan cricket match because of VIP infestation. Two years later, Arun Jaitley gives him the chance to experience an India-Pakistan match through the "influence" way - and the author accepts. Although "shamelessly" is used to describe his acceptance of the Arun Jaitley offer, one wonders if all this has to do with "when you're in Rome, be a Roman but when you're outside India, adopt market-informed secular humanism to patronize it."

[Lea · Rating 1 out of 5]

Unbearably dry collection of statistics, interviews with randoms and vaguely offensive observations on India.

[Raghu Nathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book by Edward Luce, a British journalist who served many years in India, is a very insightful study of the complexities and contradictions of today's India and its development. It doesn't get carried away by India's burgeoning IT sector or its middle class or its pharmaceutical and other sectors which are doing well in a globalized world. It balances it with disturbing facts such as the following:
that only 0.1% of India's workforce is employed by the IT sector; that only 0.7% India's workforce is involved in manufacturing; that only 3.5% India pays its taxes...
But it also gives credit to the great institution of Indian democracy in spite of multitudes of differences in religion, caste, language and class. Over all, it cautions India not to get carried away by statistics and super power ambitions but stay focussed on lifting rural India out of poverty and bring it into the 21st century, as otherwise the stability and continuity of its march towards future greatness would be compromised. Of course, he is very critical of the Indian bureaucracy which he says is a mafia-like presence in the lives of ordinary, hard-working peasants and urban people.
There have been many who have predicted India's demise in the future since independence and the country has proved them all wrong, both on the political left and the right. Edward Luce does not crystal gaze. He is just a sympathetic observer of India and just like Indians themselves, would like it to achieve its potential.
I would recommend the book to anyone who is interested in today's India and its rise.

[Andrew Daniels · Rating 1 out of 5]

Terrible book, where the author wrote done whatever nonsense he felt like it without fact checking anything or doing research. Its one of the superficial travelogue type books that people write, 'oh I went to this country and I talked to a bunch of people and this is what I heard'-type of book. Clearly doesn't speak Hindi, and didn't do a lot of book reading. Comes across like glib colourful writing.
There is a lot of anecdotes about I talked to this random Indian guy and this is what he said

He says the Indian government budget deficit is over 10% (no year given) -- New Delhi has NEVER had a budget deficit over 10% in the last fifty years (and maybe not before) and even when the states are added in, thats not true in the 5 years before the book was written, so when was it true exactly?
I felt that Bihar might have been insulted by the way he characterized them as without any industry or sources of money!
he says glib things like "Gujarat is the most globalized state"

I think there is an inordinate attention to the salacious, and not enough big picture.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

While a few years old, it's still a good read on the subject since it covers the development of post-colonial India and not just current events. If you haven't read any general history on modern India, this would make a good start.

Most of the problems in covered in this book are still there and there seems to be little change. The level of corruption mentioned in the book seems insane, but 1800's America had similar levels. On the other hand, the Indian voting system is more modern and efficient than the US with better access to the polls. While there are worries about tampering, it's probably no worse than in the US. A fascinating look at a most diverse democracy that's taken a very different modernization path from all the rest.

What's up with the title? Many of the political problems come from upper caste Hindu thinking.

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Not as funny as he (or his editor) thinks he is, and the story is strongly tipped towards why India sucks instead of finding a balance. It's easy to recognize that India has problems and I was hoping for a discussion of why the author says he learned to love it.

[Cherie · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book's thesis is that India is rising to be this capitalistic superpower despite it's strong history of being a spiritual country. The book highlights way more the rise of capitalism than talking abt the spiritual history and present.

[Nishidh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Baised writing towards BJP, Hinuds & Gujarat.

[MANU KAUSHIK · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book won't offer anything that you didn't know before. Luce is yet another westerner who tried to judge India with his western stereotypical benchmarks.

[Vijay Chengappa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luce has a distinct POV on India, and in my opinion is one of the finest contemporary commentators on this topic.

[Dr.J.G. · Rating 1 out of 5]

The official description on the site, which may or may not represent the book or the author, and might very well be an editorial comment, goes :-

"India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world 19s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods , Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power. Already a number-one bestseller in India, his book is sure to be acknowledged for years as the definitive introduction to modern India. In Spite of the Gods illuminates a land of many contradictions. The booming tech sector we read so much about in the West, Luce points out, employs no more than one million of India 19s 1.1 billion people. Only 35 million people, in fact, have formal enough jobs to pay taxes, while three-quarters of the country lives in extreme deprivation in India 19s 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the world 19s largest experiment in representative democracy 14and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption. Luce shows that India is an economic rival to the U.S. in an entirely different sense than China is. There is nothing in India like the manufacturing capacity of China, despite the huge potential labor force. An inept system of public education leaves most Indians illiterate and unskilled. Yet at the other extreme, the middle class produces ten times as many engineering students a year as the United States. Notwithstanding its future as a major competitor in a globalized economy, American. leaders have been encouraging India 19s rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance China 19s influence in Asia. Above all, In Spite of the Gods is an enlightening study of the forces shaping India as it tries to balance the stubborn traditions of the past with an unevenly modernizing present. Deeply informed by scholarship and history, leavened by humor and rich in anecdote, it shows that India has huge opportunities as well as tremendous challenges that make the future 1Chers to lose. 1D "

The underlying biases are so taken for granted that they are not clear in plain sight, and amount to biases similar to equating blond with beautiful (with opposite assumptions silent but held tacitly far more strongly).

The title for instance assumes no reaction to any insult to the many, many religions and faiths and differences of thought that are equally held reverent in the country, mainly due to the character of the traditional way of thought of majority and their religion (often denied a status of religion in western television channels, since it does not confirm to a one person one book one god imposed on all followers and attempting to convert all others sort of pattern understood more easily for its simplicity, never mind the similarity of such faiths with any totalitarian way of thought) - but also the very freedom of worship inherent in the character of the nation is blatantly ignored, or worse, heavily disrespected, in the title and the underlying assumption therein.

Often people tend to hold concatenation as causal connection, and in west this has happened with economic rise being related to a relentless imposition of authoritative mode of faith and wiping out of alternatives - even all knowledge and rights thereto - being imprisoned within the authority fences and the duel that therefore necessarily was fought for freedom of thought against the religious authorities. It is forgotten that while this need to fight for the freedom of thought and knowledge might have helped a great deal, the prosperity would be far less if not accompanied by colonial occupation of other continents and usurping of their wealth, whatever the state of the local people and the treatment accorded to them by the colonial usurping occupiers, whether in Australia or across the ocean in American continent or Asia or Africa.

If this is not believable, just think of how life would be in Europe if there were no migration possible to any other continent, if everyone who wished to travel from Europe anywhere had to mortgage a significant part of their properties and undergo humiliating experiences on arrival in the other lands. Without the migration and the loot from other continents, Europe would be very crowded with poor as it was only two centuries ago - in fact, UK sponsored migration to Australia for all her poor just post wwII, officially, just as it was done for a while towards Canada or US prior to the wars so as to free large estates of aristocracy of the poor locals.

Much more to the graphic illustrative point, imagine if Africa owned the diamonds and the firms in Europe and coffee were to be as expensive as diamonds are today to west, while diamonds cost as much as best Champagne (and I mean, Champagne, not sparkling wine from elsewhere) - which might very well happen if local people owned the lands and used it to feed their own, sparing little for export to others for luxuries.

Once a neighbour in Germany had described poverty of East Germany where she visited relatives by relating how they could not afford bananas. I pointed out that first and foremost if the thing does not grow locally it could not be good for health, much less a necessity; as long as they had apples in their back or front yards on trees, they were in good shape for health and food and fruit. Bananas in fact are suitable only for tropical consumption, where they do grow - they are good food for heat of the locales and are cold in effect as food.

But to continue the thread, here is one more - imagine bananas cost more than opium and its byproducts in lands where they do not grow, and coconuts are no less than precious metals by weight. Would that be deprivation, when a product of one's own land gets a mere fraction of that from another? That is what the ex colonial lands (and natives of occupation forgotten lands of Australia and America too) have lived through.

In short, the prosperity of west has just as much to do with the looting via colonial occupations of various lands and migration to the lands taken over for good, as to do with the science versus faith wars Europe had to fight resulting in tremendous growth in science and technology.

Relating this prosperity to the religion of the west is the false assumption inherent in the title. Relating the prosperity to virtue of every kind is the other, deeper false assumption.

Thursday, October 7, 2010.
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Luce is an extremely unfortunate person who looks at a living treasure and is too blinded by his agenda of destruction to recognise the value he is looking at, of an oppoutunity in an eternity he has found for transformation, and carries on the hacking by a sword barely disguised as a pen (or a writing instrument of whatever sort before he publishes). Extremely unfortunate, reminding one of the old proverbs about those who have nothing to receive and hold it when heaven showers blessings.

A priori the very title clears the fact that one must expect some bias, at the very least, from this author; but Luce goes much further in his determination to remain pathetically, despicably poor in matters above stomach, matters of heart and higher mind and spiritual. He deals cleverly enough with mention of all sorts of greatness of India and of those that belong to India, of the culture and people and persona, but camouflages his agenda the usual way in weightage assigned to various matters. His agenda begins to be clear pretty soon, although for a reader unfamiliar with the country - and today that can only be said of people very remote from world concerns - it is an informative book and comprehensively so. The danger is, one might assume it is a fair description. It isn't - and that is clear for anyone familiar with the country, the culture and history thereof.

For instance Luce mentions the train full of people burnt to death, prior to 2002 riots but gives it short shrift, and while he refrains from assigning or admitting where guilt lay thereof he mentions how the people on the train taunted those that have been blamed for the burning of train and the passengers locked in. He refrains from mentioning that the proportion of people arrested was 3:1 during this riots unlike any other occasion of the riots that happened regularly in the state and elsewhere for that matter, but mentions that police were not as impartial as they ought to be.

He does mention '84 massacres and calls them riots, one falsehood; does not mention the partisan role played by the party he approves of for rule, another implicit falsehood; makes no mention of the comments made openly and officially by those responsible for the nation on that occasion, or of the fact that the so called communal party had helped save lives of victims (of another community, those they were supposed to be at war with) during this - '84 - horror; nor of the fact that two of the top persons responsible those horrific days for the nation and city of the capital went on to be top office holders. This last compares ironically with the clamour for resignation of the chief minister of the state accused for 2002 riots.

It gets even more bizarre when compared with his accounts of the '46 massacres explicitly ordered by a communal leader demanding a division of the nation, which forced the division due to the horrific bloodshed the said leader commanded and made happen - thousands dead in a day or two of what was called "action day". He does not see that one man cannot massacre thousands with knives, that the community that obeyed him must then remain suspect that the very least to those that were related to the murdered a la Germans to Jews, and he lets off the said leader lightly with no blame while giving certificate of peace to those responsible for the massacre then.

This very agenda of anti Hindu attacks in the book is camouflaged with praise of the Hindu culture of tolerance and the repeated surprise at India remaining a democracy successfully, not seeing that the latter is due sheer to the very nature of Hinduism, of Indian culture rooted in Hinduism, of ancient treasure of knowledge inherent in the living nation of very ancient roots that did not fall to any conversionist onslaughts the way most of the world did. He repeatedly attacks the highest priests and teachers community of Braahmans, comparing them incessantly with the lowest and accusing them, never reflecting that in his root culture no one expects the pope or the monarch of a nation to live on par with East Enders much less with colonial citizens or ex ruled. That there is a complex net of a hundred if not thousands of communities is forgotten or glossed over for the convenience of attacking Braahmans, never questioning if a carpenter would admit a cleaner as equal for marriage, much less if an ex ruler or a rich owner of a trading house would.

His agenda of attacking Braahman community - who in fact are mostly poor or very poor, since by tradition they are not supposed to engage in money making, devoting themselves to preserving knowledge and helping teach others along with priestly duties of various kinds - is inherited from the days immediately past 1857 when colonising rulers and missionaries alike realised it was necessary to attack and destroy Braahmans in order to demoralise and disintegrate India, since Braahmans kept the roots alive and India living despite horrendous onslaughts from abroad seeking to loot wealth and rule a nation that never went out attacking others. This agenda has been since carried out diligently with every falsehood employed for the purpose, including blaming Braahmans for various acts that in fact the church and especially Rome was responsible in their own territory for, short of the inquisition or slavery.

Another falsehood is about introduction of other religions in India - Luce goes on repeatedly blaming Hindus for holding Islam responsible for attacks and forced conversions and claims that in fact Islam was introduced by traders along the coast by peaceful means, attracting lower classes with its promise of equality. The latter is true on a very small scale of the total experience with Islam in fact whether in India or in general in the world, although the promised equality is a lie, unveiled at that, in any conversionist religion for that matter. Fact is India did experience huge violence due to expansionist agenda of Islam prior to Europe taking over, and those memories necessarily take over being the largest part.

What peaceful introduction of either conversionist religion did take place made no more disturbance than that of any other such faith or community from abroad, and of those India has more than the rest of the world is even aware of existence of. That various people from Jews to Parsees (fleeing Persia at the Islamic threat to their indigenous culture and finding refuge and respite in India, nowhere else, and flourishing here for centuries) in past millennia, to Tibetans and others in more recent times, have found refuge and respite in India to sanctuary and flourishing after a stabilisation, is taken for granted in India as much as the flourishing of various branches of Indigenous faiths either separating or branching or interacting or absorbed back as a stream, including Buddhist and Jain and Sikh and many, many others, old or new.

Luce and his sorts may see it, and yet be unable to comprehend it - which is why his bias and his incessant attacks on the majority while absolving those that have an agenda to convert the world. Luce and his sorts comprehend being a jackal, but do not comprehend gratitude to those that provide sustenance and help in life, without whom life would be direly destitute. Hence his derision of those that love cows and the nation that depends on cattle for milk, farmwork, transport, fuel, and much, much more. He forgets laws of yore in out west in US, not so long ago, hanged a man to death for stealing another man's horse - since life there depended on a horse likely as not. He forgets life in India for the poor billion depends on cattle for the livelihood and food. He can afford to forget it, as can those that just as soon move on when India is torn to shreds and poor starve to death. It is another story for those that care about the land.
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[Avinash Pandey · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you want a comprehensive contemporary Indian stance among the stalwarts in the Globe, this book will fulfill the bill. However, if you are right or centre right then, as with other pampered and cajjoled Lutyens elite infatuated journalists, will end up belittling the BJP and revering the Nehru Gandhi dynasty. Having said, the author still at the end remains perplexed as to how and why the Indian Economy is booming. The rural urban, rich poor divide and rising unemployment could sore more the already fested wound which rising GDP alone often fails to make inconspicuous.

[Michael Connolly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a reporter for the British newspaper, the Financial Times, who is married to an indian woman.
Mohandas K. Gandhi was a proponent of a traditional, rural India.
The main political party in India is the Congress Party, whose most famous leader was Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was a proponent of British culture. Nehru was born a Brahmin, but did not support the caste system. His support of Fabian socialism and disdain for capitalism came in part from his dislike of the bania castes of moneylenders and traders, who are lower than the Brahmin in the Hindu pecking order. Nehru was a secularist who disliked religious ritual. Ali Jinnah, leader of the Muslim League and founder of Pakistan, was not an observant Muslim. In fact he drank whiskey and ate pork. Since its creation, Pakistan has become less secular and more Islamic.
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is a movement of Hindu nationalists that supports the theory that the Aryans, who originated the Hindu religion, originated in India. Scientific evidence shows that the Aryans originated outside of India and invaded India several thousand years ago. The original inhabitants of India were actually the Dravidians, who now live in southern India, and speak southern Indian languages such as Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam. The political wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh is the Bharatiya Janata Party. The assassin of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi came from a family associated with RSS.
Bhimrao Ambedkar was a Dalit (untouchable) who championed the Dalits and opposed India's caste system. In India for thousands of years, your caste has determined your profession and who you could marry. India has the largest affirmative action program in the world. It reserves government jobs for Dalits. One source of support for the Bharatiya Janata Party has been a backlash against affirmative action for Dalits.
Perhaps India's main problem is its bloated and corrupt government bureaucracy, which employs a huge number of people. India has produced many high tech jobs for its educated elite, but, unlike China, India has failed to produce blue collar manufacturing jobs for its peasants to move into. So the main hope for poor people is to get a government job. Government officials have a lot of income, because of all the bribes they receive. In Mumbai, because of the slowness of the criminal court system, and the fact that rich criminals can buy corrupt judges, the police have developed an informal system of assassinating the worst criminals.

[Ved Gupta · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was not very excited when I picked up this book (title hinted towards religious philosophy in India) but surprisingly this book turned out to be spell-bounding work on contemporary India. Even though Edward Luce has much of his background in financial reporting, he captured the philosophy and details of rising India quite beautifully. Edward Luce knows how India works and how the society moves here. The book is full of interviews with small and big names varying from Narendra Modi, Sonia Gandhi, Mulayam Singh Yadav to NGO chiefs such as Aruna Roy. Each episode and description is well researched and produced with stats and facts. Luce has touched upon almost every aspect of modern India ranging from 300 million poor to thriving IT Businesses, 40 years of single party government to coalition culture, India intrinsic security problems to its relation with United States and China. Luce discusses at length India’s relationship with Pakistan and enlightens his readers with India’s policy towards Pakistan. Edwards has written a lot about Hindu Nationalism in this book covering Babri Mosque demolition of 1992 and Gujarat riots of 2002 as a major turn of events in Hindu nationalism. He has not about any positive aspect of Hindu nationalism and I don’t mind that because there isn’t any. In many separate discussions, Luce has proved that much of religious talks in India are a result of political ambitions which is very true. The failure of caste politics to improve the conditions of the caste they were representing has been captured nicely by Luce, evident from his interview with Mulayam Singh Yadav, who was more interested in showing his lavishes then discussing the plight of UP population.
The books which only portray problems for readers are often incomplete and that’s why Luce took care to suggest the actions that need to be taken in order to sustain this rapidly changing democratic country. With a clear understanding of India and its society, Luce has made this book the best ever written on modern India.

[kareem · Rating 4 out of 5]

my cousin from delhi gave me this, and i read it while traveling in india.

it's a great overview of where india is and is poised to go in the 21st century. luce explains india's dynasty politics (nehru/gandhi) and religious context to help the reader understand how india's bureaucracy, system of government, conflict with pakistan, treatment of muslims, relationship with china and the US, and current economic drivers will play a role in india becoming the next great superpower.

his conclusion is that achieving greatness is "india's to lose", though there are big obstacles standing in its way. some of the biggest include unfireable gov't employees, rampant corruption, and well-intentioned policies that don't help india's massive poor population out of poverty.

a fascinating read if you want a broad overview of india's potential in the 21st century.
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242: on india's first cricket match vs. pakistan, in karachi: "every indian i met said he had been treated like a long-ost brother; shopkeepers had refused to accept their cash; taxi-drivers had declined fares; hotels were waiving bills; and people kept approaching them on the streets to offer sweets and other small gifts. 'it is overwhelming' same one among a group of indian men, all dressed in the blue shirts of their national team. 'we didn't know what to expect but we feared there would be hostility'. india won the game and received a prolonged ovation from the vast pakistan crowd.

329: laws are a modern talisman intended to bring results by the magical power of words themselves. hundreds of years ago, foreign chroniclers of india observed the tendency of Brahmins to prefer words to action, and sometimes to believe they were one and the same thing.

what appears to be chaotic on the surface is often just how it should be.

"remember, india always wins". India has a way of confounding you and still making you laugh abut it.

[Deirdre · Rating 4 out of 5]

Suppose you threw a dinner party and your guests represented the entire population of the world. You only have 22 seats at your table, so some gusts must share. Because of its dangerous nature, you decide that the US gets one whole seat to itself. India gets almost four of your remaining chairs and China takes up the next four and a half. By contrast, England must share its seat with five other nations.

Clearly when you take up that many plates, you should be paid some respect. Yet other than talking about India's foray into the service economy, including articles about outsourcing US jobs to a youthful and educated workforce, few news stories discuss India's complexities. Edward Luce offers a peak into his experiences of living, traveling, and reporting from there for five years.

Luce touches on India's non-violent struggle to break the chains of British colonialism led by Mohandas Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru through its leadership in the Non-Aligned movement that sought to unite "third-world" countries who tried to remain neutral during the Cold War. He also discusses the immense diversity of the population from the various "castes" to the relations between Muslim and Hindu religious followers (including the break off of Pakistan in 1947 when the British made a formal partition). He interviewed leaders of some of the country's strongest political parties and discussed the legacy of the British rule including a sustained bureaucracy and the economic North/South divide that characterizes the country today.

By necessity the book can only scratch the surface, but it was a pleasure to glimpse a small slice one of the most populous and important countries in the world.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm traveling to India in March and knew next to nothing about India when I started this book. I came away with a much better understanding of the conflicts and dichotomies India grapples with as exponential development continues: Hindus and Muslims, Brahmins and Dalits, rapid urban development and abject rural poverty, democracy and corruption. For the most part, I found Luce informative and engaging. The material could be dry, but I appreciated that he spiced it up with anecdotes and vignettes. I also appreciated that Luce wasn’t afraid or embarrassed to ask the pointed questions that I always wonder: really, you believe that cow urine cures cancer? Really, you’re making strides against poverty when the government eats 70 percent of the aid money? That said, those pointed questions could come off as distinctly holier-than-thou, and Luce's smugness is hard to take at points. I also would have preferred more analysis and prescription to cap off the description. But all in all, this is a very good crash course in Indian politics and culture, and it gave me much more confidence about my upcoming trip.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent book that attempts to grasp the multi-tentacled creature that is modern India. It's written in a relaxed manner, with insightful commentary on many topics, including India's challenged economy, state-approved corruption, Hindu nationalism, and the upcoming AIDS pandemic.

I especially appreciated the first chapter on India's economy. It's hard to understand India's claim to global power status when millions upon millions of its people continue to live in crushing poverty.

What is the answer to India's poverty?

Quoting the current Prime Minister and brilliant economist Manmohan Singh, "Our biggest single problem is the lack of jobs for ordinary people. We need employment for the semi-skilled on a large scale, and it is not happening to anything like the degree we are witnessing in China. We need to industrialize to provide jobs for people with fewer skills. Why is it not happening on the scale we would hope? Because we are not as single minded as China in pursuing our goals in a clear manner". p.41

Yes. Yes. And yes.

Read this book if you're remotely interested in India as a country and global influencer. I already need to read it again.

[jeanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not crazy about this book. I only got about halfway through it before giving up. It did not flow well. The author intersperses his research about and analysis of India with lots of random anecdotes of his encounters with different people. There is interesting information about India in this book if you can get through the countless anecdotes. I may try reading it again sometime, but for now, it is not capturing my attention.