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From Publishers Weekly
A burgeoning economic and geopolitical giant, India has the 21st century stamped on it more visibly than any other nation after China and the U.S. It's been an expanding force since at least 1991, explains journalist Luce, when India let go of much of the protectionist apparatus devised under Nehru after independence in 1947 from Britain, as part of a philosophy of swadeshi (or self-reliance) that's still relevant in India's multiparty democracy. From his vantage as the (now former) Financial Times's South Asia bureau chief, Luce illuminates the drastically lopsided features of a nuclear power still burdened by mass poverty and illiteracy, which he links in part to government control of the economy, an overwhelmingly rural landscape, and deep-seated institutional corruption. While describing religion's complex role in Indian society, Luce emphasizes an extremely heterogeneous country with a growing consumerist culture, a geographically uneven labor force and an enduring caste system. This lively account includes a sharp assessment of U.S. promotion of India as a countervailing force to China in a three-power "triangular dance," and generally sets a high standard for breadth, clarity and discernment in wrestling with the global implications of New India. (Jan.)
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From Booklist
Reporting from India in recent years for the British newspaper Financial Times, Luce distills from his experiences this assessment of the country's social, economic, and international situation. Against the theme of India's anticipated ascent into the top tier of world powers, Luce sorts through facts of life that both promote and hinder that future, namely, its booming economy and the deep destitution of most of its people. Built on interviews with people from the top of politics and business to those from society's bottom rungs, Luce's presentation covers the breadth of India's billion-plus populace and its experience of economic improvement. Progress is spotty, however, and in addition to widespread poverty, it is hampered by pervasive corruption. As for caste and ethnic communalism, Luce's observations encompass both their continuing influence as social identifiers and their erosion under the forces of consumerism and relative upward mobility. Luce will accessibly acquaint readers interested in India with the country's salient contemporary aspects, from Bollywood to nuclear weapons. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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A clear eyed look at modern India, written with depth, wit, and insight, January 21, 2007 Reviewer: Yesh Prabhu, author of The Beech Tree (Perth Amboy, New Jersey) - See all my reviews This book is based on the enormous amount of research the author did when he worked in Delhi as the South Asia bureau chief of the Financial Times, in the years 2001 to 2005. An Oxford graduate, Edward Luce, the author, has gathered an astonishing amount of data to support his analysis of the social, political and economic conditions he observed in modern India. His witty comments, startling observations, broad-mindedness, and deep insight into Hindu religion and Indian culture have endowed this book with weight and depth. America's attitude towards India has changed and evolved drastically: from benign neglect in the 1950's to suspicion during the cold war period, to grudging admiration in the 1990s, to downright coziness now. Even the president of USA has been warming up to India and trying to draw it into America's sphere of influence. The author explains the reason for this remarkable change in attitude. It has an ulterior motive, says the author. India is a rising economic power. "The US would want to promote better ties with India to counterbalance China's emerging dominance and prolong American power in the coming decades." In 1967, America pressured India to devalue its currency, and in 1991 it pressured India to devalue its currency again, for the second time, stating that the large deficit created by the government was not beneficial to its economy. Writes the author about the devaluation of the rupee, "The first was in 1967, when Indira Gandhi, who had taken over as prime minister in 1966, two years after her father's death, was forced to devalue the Indian rupee under pressure from the United States and the International Monetary Fund (IMF)." "In exchange for emergency balance of payments assistance from the IMF, India again devalued its currency and was required to move much of its gold as collateral to London." Ironic, isn't it, when you look at the enormous deficit accumulated by the US government in the last six years, and the IMF hasn't even whispered a word about it? Edward Luce is an astute observer. His descriptions are vivid: "But it is at the side of the expressways in the glaring billboards advertising cell phones, iPods, and holiday villas and the shiny gas stations with their air-conditioned mini-supermarkets that India's schizophrenic economy reveals itself. Behind them, around them, and beyond them is the unending vista of rural India, of yoked bullocks plowing the fields in the same manner they have for three thousand years and the primitive brick kilns that dot the endless patchwork of fields of rice, wheat, pulse, and oilseed. There are growing pockets of rural India that are mechanizing and becoming more prosperous. But they are still islands." 400 million people are employed in India, says the author. (This figure is higher than the population of entire Europe, Canada and Australia combined.) Of these, only 35 million pay taxes. Poor people are neither expected nor required to pay taxes in India. In the year 2000, there were only 3 million cell phone users, but in 2005, the number of people who owned cell phones had risen to 100 million. (I think in 2007, the figure is closer to 250 million.) In the next few years, India is expected to attain the status of "the third largest economy" in the world. Is it any wonder, then, that the eyes of economists, businessmen, and people with money to invest round the world are now focused on India?

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful: Interesting, but Leaves Lots More to be Learned!, January 18, 2007 Reviewer: Pragmatist (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews    John Kenneth Galbraith, famed economist and former U.S. Ambassador to India is credited with describing India as a "functioning anarchy." After reading "In Spite of the Gods," I have some sense of why he made that comment, though I still feel the need to learn much more about India and wish Luce had explained certain situations better and integrated his material better. Part of the problem is that India has 24 political parties, 18 languages, and deep religious and caste divisions. Another confusing aspect is the fact that 75% of its population live in extreme deprivation - yet, it is a nuclear power; still another the fact that most of its citizens are illiterate and unskilled, yet it provides 10 times the engineering students as the U.S. Government corruption is endemic, yet here and there are upstanding examples of outstanding public achievement - eg. the new Metro in New Delhi. Given India's high level of poverty, it is not surprising that helping the poor is a high government priority - yet, its latest measure follows the same path that has already failed (paying minimum wage for minor public-works programs such as sweeping streets and sidewalks by hand, "cutting" grass by hand, and filling potholes), instead of taking a lesson from China's focus on attracting and utilizing capital investment to indirectly create jobs. Meanwhile, at the same time it retains in force laws that make it very difficult to reduce staffing, thus inhibiting corporate hiring. Despite the focus on helping the poor, examples abound where those with money are treated better. Police, for example, are reluctant to enforce traffic laws against cars because their drivers have money. New Delhi's water utility provides service for the middle-class, and allows them to pay only 1/10th the cost while staffing levels run 15X that in other nations, and the poor are not served at all. India's banking and insurance entities were nationalized in the 1960s, and are scheduled to face competition by 2009 - meanwhile, those qualifying for loans wait an average of 33 weeks and must pay bribes that make the total government-sourced loan cost about the same as those obtained through private usury. The "good news" is that the situation is slowly improving - about 1%/year reduction in those in poverty, increase in life expectancy, and literacy. Additional, positive news is the fact that very few Muslims in India have participated in any outside jihad efforts - supposedly because they have great freedom in India (what about England, Germany, and France?). The "really bad news" is that antagonism between Muslims and Hindus is increasing, female infanticide is at high levels (eg. as much as 15%), and given the fractured nature of Indian government progress in any area is likely to continue at a pace far slower than necessary. Somewhat surprising news is that one Indian company alone edits 600 American and European technical publications already for $3/page (vs. $10 being the local rate; staffers are required to have a postgraduate degree within their area of focus), and hopes to move into magazine and newspaper editing as well. Clearly India (and China) are going to be increasing forces in the American economy.

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• Subjects > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic Conditions
• Subjects > History > Asia > India
• Subjects > Nonfiction > Politics > General
• Subjects > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Political Science > International Institutions
• Subjects > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Sociology > General

21st century
Asia - India
Asia - India & South Asia
Civilization
Economic Conditions
Government - International
History - General History
India
Political Science
Politics / Current Events
Politics/International Relations
Sociology - General
Political Science / Government / International


i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...