In Spite of the Gods – the Strange Rise of Modern India
Autor: Ananya Garg • August 31, 2016 • Book/Movie Report • 797 Words (4 Pages) • 965 Views
Book Review [pic 1]
Title: In Spite of the Gods – The Strange Rise of Modern India
Author: Edward Luce
About the author: Edward Luce is a British author, formerly Financial Times’ South Asia Bureau Chief based in New Delhi. He has worked with Larry Summers, the final US Treasury Secretary of the Clinton administration.
About the book: In the preface, Edward Luce says that this book attempts to capture the spirit of what has happened in India in the last five years and with the influence of the past. The most interesting thing about this book is that it explores India from all the different angles possible. Whether it be the past, present or the future and within these, it touches upon various factors like relations with neighbouring countries and the developed countries, the people that have shaped Indian economy as it is today, effect of modernity and society’s attitude, its strengths and weaknesses, the major challenges and opportunities faced by Indian economy, and various others. The fact that surprises Edward Luce is what drew me towards the book which was that India, an increasingly competitive and socially changing country, was making a great impact on the whole world, in spite of its continued problems. The author explains yet another interesting term, the ‘Triangular Dance’ – relationship between India, China and the US which is becoming central to the state of global geopolitics.
Edward Luce starts off with the introduction sharing one incident of his meeting with Dhirubhai Ambani which makes him think about Bill Clinton’s remark for US, “the economy, stupid” and in case of India it would be, “the politics, stupid” giving the first clear indication of the inefficiency of the political system of India and one of the reasons was corruption. Continuing he talks about the impact of the three most important figures of the 20th century, M. Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and Bhimrao Ambedkar which have lingered on till today. For example, Gandhi’s impact can also be seen in the way that India has badly disabled the growth of its textile industry and continued tariff bias in favour of cotton.
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