yet another BOOK REVIEW Group 6
Dec 24, 2015
THE GROUPRamesh Kumar Yadav (Coordinator) –
B09
Tamanna Sinha – D10
Anju Ravikumar – B26
Madhura Roy – C07
Vamsidhar T.V. – C25
Vanjulavalli Sridhar – D30
Tulsi Das – C33
Shankar Lal Verma – D13
Amresh Bahadur Pal – D34
Sanjay Tiwari – B11
SHASHI THAROOR Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram
Minister of State at the MHRD
United Nations: 1978 – 2007
Author and columnist
PURPOSE Highly personalized examination of
contemporary India
Descriptive analysis of WHAT has made India WHAT it is today
Holistic journey of the Indian society in this time period
POLITICS CHANGES• Dynastic - democratic rule to decentralization &
devolution of powers
• Nightmares of nascent decolonized country still haunt the matured democracy
• Indira Gandhi’s emergency policy ?– Criticizes silent spectatorship of intellectuals
• Indian political democracy : performance vs power
“In January 1980, Mrs.Gandhi, having split the Congress once more and unembarrassedly renamed her faction after herself (as Congress-Indira, or “Congress-I), was prime minister of India again.”
“Mrs.Gandhi throughout preferred to rule rather than reinstitutionalize, to control rather than reorient, to subvert rather than balance: she mastered tactics and ignored strategy, ruling the country as its democratically head but doing nothing to help strength then its democracy. The Emergency merely marked the logical culmination of this approach.”
ECONOMIC CHANGES
• Corruption ridden license raj to phase of LPG• Economic policies pre 1991• Hindu rate growth
• Political democracy needs economic content
• LPG: Boon or Bane ? Coca colonization/ Mc Donaldization
“In 1985 he(Rajiv Gandhi) introduced a “new economic policy”, which (rather like the Holy Roman Empire) was neither new nor economic nor a policy; it amounted to little more than relaxation of the old license-permit-quota regulatory system without actually abolishing it.”
“Despite this, overall growth was relatively slow, and not generally better than in the pre-liberalization 1980s.”
SOCIETAL CHANGES
• Pluralistic & diverse society that unites in times of need
• Minority status of EVERY community
“Bombs alone cannot destroy India, because Indians will pick up their way through the rubble and carry on as they have done through out history.”
“..to speak of an Indian identity is really to subsume a number of identities that vary depending upon class, caste, region and language…the singular thing about India is that you can only speak of it in the plural.”
CONTD..• Social transformation in India; Kerala in
particular
• NRIs: Identity crisis & consequences
Never
Relinquished
India
OR
Not really
Indian ?
STRENGTHS• Good language
• Variety of writing styles– Narrative– Assertive– Inquisitive– Descriptive
• Thought provoking
• Interesting anecdotes
A FINAL NOTE ABOUT INDIA
• Good one-liners & remarks
• Widespread account of events
• Sequence of chapters needs attention
• Need for updation
The Aye’s and Nay’s
• Recommended for:–people with general interest in political & social
affairs
• Not for:– people accustomed to this genre – information gatherers