Saturday, October 1, 2016

In Spite of the Gods - The Rise of Modern India by Edward Luce

This book was nice for a change in that it delivered a critical, measured look at the current state of India, from a noted English journalist who spent years living in India and is in fact married to an Indian woman.  His tone was measured and appropriately critical of a nation that has more than its share of struggles and contradictions.

And, of course, he's right.  For all of the lauding of India's leading economic growth and thousands of years of cultural and philosophic leadership (where not one but two of the world's leading religions have sprung), India has many, many problems.  India is at the same time both rich and poor.

Luce details a level of corruption throughout the government that astounded me.  It's not just that it exists and that it exists everywhere.  It's that it is assumed and almost celebrated.  Luce points out that virtually everyone in the nation, if asked about where there first choice of government would be, would in fact say "the government."  Kickbacks and paybacks and graft are in many cases how work gets done.

He also talks about India's self persecution, how society punishes its own outcasts and untouchables, women and children.  Gandhi knew this and pushed hard for India to clean up its own act before independence could even be sought.

But through it all, India shows consistent, albeit slow, progress on nearly every measure.  He talks about how many of the country's biggest problems are improving at the rate of about 1% each year.  Let's hope so.

I love India, its cultural richness, its history its people, its villages and its cities.  I want to go back many, many times and I'm sure that I will.  This critical analysis was helpful in understanding the challenges ahead, why things are they way they are and to shed some light on the future.

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