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India Today: Economy,
Politics & Society
Broadly speaking, the book tells us that India is a successful, patronage-driven democracy stuck with a fossilised bureaucracy and an aggressive justice-seeking population where the government makes some ineffectual efforts to bring everyone on board. But even with all its problems and ineffective government the rest of the world (and this implies the USA) thinks that India, along with China, would be a country that matters in the future. "There is no longer anything like a caste system in India", inform the authors, yet India is divided into various warring segments, each seeking a greater share of the pie that constitutes the country. Each of the 15 chapters of the book can be fruitfully read as independent articles. In these days of economic gloom it is heartening to read the first operational chapter of the book that asks "When and why did India take off?" Those curious enough would have to read the details for themselves. Even while providing a simple and interesting argument regarding that question, the authors don’t lose the chance to show off their familiarity with the ancient greats of Indian economic analysis like Deena Khatkhate, Deepak Nayyar and the more contemporary Rodrik, Kohli and Subramanian. Stray references to Ricardo, Marx, Marshall, Lewis are let loose on the reader much in the style of name-dropping indulged in by graduate students. Later in the book they will also tell us of their familiarity with reports of various expert groups of the Planning Commission, as if a concurring statement by someone in authority clinches the point that the authors are trying to make. Sometimes it does but just as often it does not.
That in turn creates a unique situation. Those who are already converted to such arguments would find the book and its content repetitive and without any fresh insight. The rest are best off without wading into this text. The portions on the polity in India wonder how a weak state in India could go ahead with audacious reforms to the economy and take on a pro-business stance in the 1990s. There was no other option, say the authors. India’s version of democracy comes in for a pat on the back for having survived as long as it did and for even more encomiums for having been extraordinarily inclusive. Not that the active participation of people in the political process resulted in a more responsive state. Rather, the authors argue, the state machinery remained unresponsive to the people and thus promoted a culture of political patronage. The bug-bear of Indian politics, the authors say, remains the rise of extreme and violent forms of ethnic and religious identities. The most attractive feature of the book is reserved for the last: its bibliography. Some 51 and a half page worth of books, articles, unpublished dissertations and pamphlets listed on the history of contemporary India. But is that good enough value for a book costing over Rs 1600?
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IT takes a lot of
gumption to have a formal take on India, economy, politics and
society. It takes a lot of skill to do it on the basis of the large
amount of data and analyses that has been generated on India in the
past two decades. Corbridge, Harriss and Jeffery show that they are
skilful. But have they been skilful enough? On that the reader will
have to form a view after reading this book.
That particular style of
presentation continues in the other chapters pertaining to the economy
detailing how various social groups have fared in this surging economy
and whether the Indian state has been able to achieve the objective of
all-inclusive growth. The poor and workers have been short-changed and
the state has made some effort but not enough to ensure inclusive
growth is the simple answer that they offer. In the process they
proffer some quick comments into the working of various state
initiatives like the Right to Education, Right to Food and the Right
to Wdork in the bargain. Ideas like direct cash transfer to the people
for various services comes in for slashing criticism, but through the
writings of established critics of such ideas without any reference to
those who suggest that all other options have already been tried out
and have failed. This kind of partiality in making an argument remains
a pervasive feature of this book.