Author: Edward Luce
Publisher: Little, Brown and company
Year: 2008
Language: English
Pages: 399
ISBN/UPC (if available): 9780349118741
Description
India is booming, poised to become one of the world's three largest economies in the next generation and to overtake China as the world's most populous country in 2032.
Yet the subcontinent's spectacular growth is taking place against the backdrop of a society that has yet fully to come to terms with liberal modernity. Emerging India continues to be beset by deep contradictions: it is a fully fledged nuclear weapons state with almost 40 per cent of the world's malnourished children; a growing economic powerhouse with and enduring anti-materialist philosophy; it plays host to some of the world's most cutting-edge research and development, and yet is home to one of the most intolerant religious chauvinist movements in the world.
In this groundbreaking book, which is scholarly and entertaining in equal measure, Edward Luce draws on his extensive personal experience of India to present a compelling snapshot of a country undergoing a remarkable transformation that will increasingly affect the rest of the world. We meet the people who are forging this very distinctive rising power: politicians, industrialists, activists and ordinary Indians of every caste. Luce moves beyond the surface anarchy and apparent contradictions of today's India to present an incisive but sympathetic perspective on an increasingly nationalistic democracy that will gradually rival China—and possibly the United States on the global stage over the coming decades. For all its complexity and many-layered histories, one thing is certain: India's fate matters.
REVIEWS
In Spite of the Gods is without question the best book yet written on the new India: witty, clear and accessible yet minutely researched and confidently authoritative. Edward Luce has proved himself an affectionate and unusually perceptive observer of the Indian scene. -William Dalrymple
In Spite of the Gods is not only fun to read, it is also a deeply insightful account of contemporary India. Based on the author's rare combination of intimacy and detachment, the book can serve, remarkably enough, both as a fine introduction for unacquainted outsiders and as a mature scrutiny that is bound to stimulate insiders.
-Professor Amartya Sen, winner of the Nobel prize in Economics
REVIEWS:
Remarkable a comprehensive audit of modern India covering economics, Politics, the bureaucracy and the police, diplomacy, religion with of course caste, entertainment-you name it, it is here Nothing should detract from Luce’s achievement’
Mark Tully, India Today
Times India is poised to become one of the world's three largest economies in the next generation and to overtake China as the globe's most populous country by 2032. Yet the subcontinent’s spectacular grow is taking place against the backdrop of a society that has still fully to terms with liberal modernity. In this book, Edward Luce presents a snapshot of a country undergoing a remarkable transformation that will increasingly affect the rest of the world.
‘A deeply insightful account of contemporary India’
Professor Amartya sen, winner of the Noble Prize in Economics
‘Very thought-provoking’
A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, President of India, Books of the year,
The Times of India
‘A real corker, Luce writes with affection, humour and a great perception about India. I learnt a lot about the country from this book’
Chris Patten, FT Magazine
‘A perceptive and witty book that is set to become the definitive generalist’s account of India’s political, economic and social development and its future prospects’
Books of the year, the Economist
‘Fascinating His book is packed with bizarre interviews, entertaining anecdotes and scarifying statistics, and remains refreshingly [if cautiously] optimistic’
Peter Parker, Books of the year, TLS
‘Without question the best book yet written on the New India’
William Dalrymple
Contents
PREFACE
INTRODUCTION
Global and Medieval-India’s schizophrenic economy
The Burra Sahibs-The long tentacles of India’s State
Battles of the Righteous-The rise of India’s lower castes
The Imaginary Horse-The Continuing threat of Hindu nationalism
Long Live the Sycophants!: The Congress Party’s continuing love affair with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty
Many Crescents: South Asia’s divided Muslims
A Triangular Dance: Why India’s relations with the United States and China will shape the world in the twenty-first century.
New India, Old India-The many-layered character of Indian modernity
CONCLUSION
NOTES
GLOSSARY
INDEX