In Spite of the Gods..

..The Strange rise of Modern India...by Edward Luce.


I read this book during my travel to Udhampur this vacation. I haven't read many books on India & this is one of the very few I have read. It seemed interesting to me, but it affected my mood as well. And considering the events that coincided with my reading this book, Jammu (including Udhampur) was experiencing bandh & disturbances due to fight over religion again. I don’t want to delve into whom I think was right or wrong in this case of Amarnath Shrine board Land issue.

The book touches most of the aspects of India, its government, politics, bureaucracy, culture, people, problems, progress, militancy, riots etcetera. I really boiled over the stupidity & greed of people. How can the nation progress when its people are so stupid to understand the futility of fighting & killing over trivial issues, when its people are so greedy & corrupt. Why can’t people live & let live. I mean I can’t even imagine the kind of hatred required for a human being to torture another fellow human being who hasn’t even done any harm to him!


Book started with a description of Auroville, a town in south India & is named after Sir Aurobindo. A resident there, when asked if he wasn’t affected by poverty around, says “India is a wealthy country cuz India alone can understand the futility of materialism”. Now I really liked that statement as such but I am not sure how far that holds true. Materialism sure seems permeated everywhere according to me.

According to the author, viewing India through a purely religious lens often distorts ones views about the country. That I think is correct. Nehru wrote: Religion as practiced in India has become the old man of the sea for us. It has not only broken our backs but shifted and almost killed all our originality of thought or mind. The book title is inspired to some extent by Nehru's contention that Indian's greatest strength are not exclusively or even necessarily located in its religious traditions.

Then author goes about into little history of India. He described the Caste system which dates back quite long ago & is still very much prevalent in spite of all the developments. Lower castes today don’t seek to abolish caste system, but simply to improve their position vis-à-vis other castes, by quota system & various reservations. One witty statement quoted: In India you don’t caste your vote but you vote your caste. Its really pathetic, this reservation system. As rightly discussed in the book it is just a farce!

India’s problems have nothing to do with the lack of resources. It has enough. Yet it fails to provide most basic of amenities to many of its poor. Problem is not lack of food or spending limits. It is in the mentality of Indians civil service & inability of general public to buy reform through ballot box. Seriously speaking there is so much corruption prevalent that so much of resources are going waste. Consider the example of subsidy system for poor. Is it really helping the poor as much as it claims to be helping? The truth is that most of these subsidized items are eaten away by the rich corrupt middle man.

Then there is another topic discussed regarding the government employees /workers. Mostly the scenario is such that they don’t work or even turn up for work cuz they can’t be sacked or demoted. And if anything happen there will be an outcry about workers rights. What does this do to the country’s efficiency & growth is no mystery. Many times problem is not money or technology but efficiency of government.


There was also discussion regarding how after the dismantling of License Raj in 1991, India went on the economic ascend. And India's growth has been unusual in the sense - it has embraced full democracy before even literacy came. Plus all the economic growth happened in spite of deeply fragmented & incoherent government. Author terms Indian economy n its growth as Schizophrenic economy: Modern & booming service sector in a sea of indifferent farmland. Also pointed out the dire need to modernize agriculture & provide more manufacturing jobs for semi skilled ordinary people. A quotable quote: About License /Inspector Raj of constant inspections, Gurcharan Das former head of P & G India wrote that, “In my 30 yrs in active business in India, I did not meet a single bureaucrat who really understood my business, yet he had the power to ruin it”.

Many more topics were discussed. Like the relations with Pakistan & militancy. Also how US is keen on supporting India so that its growth balances that of China. Nehru – Gandhi dynasty. Hindu – Muslims. Many incidents from India’s recent past were mentioned.

Another interesting topic which was touched upon was how RSS is trying to prove that Aryans came from India & migrated to rest of world. Trying to establish that India was the sole cradle of civilization. No proof. Trying to modify history, history books. Rewriting Indian history.

Lastly some ideas on why India has remained intact in spite of all this diversity - because of democracy. & why India has remained a democracy - because it is diverse. If something goes wrong in one part of the country it does not necessarily spread to other areas as it would in a more homogeneous society. This sounds quite logical to me. But on the other hand the highly segmented nature of Indian society makes a collective action much more difficult to carry out. So decision making is extremely slow. That is why so much Indian politics continues to be absorbed by seemingly petty disputes over social dignity rather than concentrating on economic condition.

One thing I very strongly feel [& the author seems to share my views in this book] that anything free isn’t valued & is wasted. In order to encourage sustainable exploitation of resources [water, soil, forests, air, energy, just anything] people must be made to pay for what they consume. People should work for whatever they want & not be given anything on platter, cuz anything on platter is taken for granted. But alas such a thing will never happen in India, at least not in near future, there will still be subsidies, corruption, reservations, riots, wastage & what not. I fail to understand situations are getting better or worse??