As the world's largest democracy and a rising international economic power, India has long been heralded for its great strides in technology and trade. Yet it is also plagued by poverty, illiteracy, unemployment, and a vast array of other social and economic issues. Here, noted journalist and former Financial Times South Asia bureau chief Edward Luce travels throughout India's many regions, cultures, and religious circles, investigating its fragile balance between tradition and modernity. From meetings with key political figures to fascinating encounters with religious pundits, economic gurus, and village laborers, In Spite of the Gods is a fascinating blend of analysis and reportage that comprehensively depicts the nuances of India's complex situation and its place in the world.
In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle. Learn more
 |
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||
Are you a finance, investing, economics or accounting professional? Find books, read blog posts, and discover new authors and thought-leaders in Money & Markets, a new home for finance industry professionals on Amazon.com. > Shop now |
Book Description
Frequently Bought Together
Editorial Reviews
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.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images? |
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
99 of 102 people found the following review helpful
By R. Ayyagari
Format:Hardcover
Edward Luce is a British journalist and former Financial Times New Delhi Bureau Chief. His main interests in this book are the social, political and economic arenas in India. Luce writes about several "patterns" that he has noticed in collective Indian behaviour: sycophancy, criminalization of politics, Hindu fundamentalism, the State unintentionally oppressing the poor, and so on. He weaves these patterns into small scale themes such as the fallacy (in his opinion) of the Indian nationalist perception that progress lies in developing the villages and decentralizing political power. His grand theme is the condition of the poor in India.
To shore up the argument for each of the patterns, Luce relies on interviews (with a surprising number of very prominent people), events (historical and current), anecdotes, and other cultural observations. He does all of this a trifle haphazardly, but manages to make it all very interesting. His anecdotes and event summaries are piquant and entertaining. Luce seems to have benefited from advice from people like Ramachandra Guha, a very prominent Indian historian. The bigger picture that emerges from this book is reasonably accurate. For people unfamiliar with India, the book would be great: a concise yet fairly comprehensive introduction.
On the negative side, the book is journalistic rather than scholarly. The result is that nearly everything in the book expresses opinion rather than the result of any kind of study. Some topics are the author's pet peeves rather than anything important. Others are important, but rather than report all angles, Luce often picks a side and provides a very zealous argument in its favour. This bias sometimes results in inaccuracies. His portrayal of prominent personalities seems to have more to do with his personal likes and dislikes than with their public service record. The book is an elucidated collection of existing opinions; Luce doesn't provide any new insights of importance. Luce seems partial to sensational reporting designed to shock and awe his readers. The book also seems, mostly, to follow the standard Western viewpoints on India -- so the reader isn't getting the Indian perspective.
A couple of examples:
- On child labour, one of India's biggest social problems, Luce claims that people don't want to fix it (he provides four mostly academic arguments and says people use them to justify child labour). He omits mention of the real issues. Most Indians are interested in ending it, but there are problems. First, it is very low on the list of political priorities, which is dominated by things like caste, religion, reservations and subsidies of various kinds. Second, most of the children are working so that they can eat; simply taking their labour away will starve them. Providing free food or sending them to school is hard because of bureaucratic corruption. Removing bureacratic corruption, again, is low on the list of electoral priorities. Perhaps Luce would have seen this if he had tried to suggest a solution.
- Many politicians (appropriately) get torn apart by Luce. However, he is surprisingly, inexplicably charitable towards Sonia Gandhi, the closest thing India has to a dictator. Luce's portrayal of her is adoring and reads like Congress party progaganda: that of a graceful, tearful, long-suffering widow, humble, patriotic (towards India), pure of motive and gentle of heart, yet blessed with amazing insight into the hearts of the Indian people and electoral politics and motivated by a genuine desire to protect the India her family worked so hard for. She might be some of those things, but there isn't much evidence cited. Luce's admiration doesn't seem to be based on anything she has done. To me, an Indian, it looks like he was just charmed by her Western demeanour.
To be fair, Luce covers so much ground in this book that it would be almost impossible for him to provide a complete and perfectly balanced view of every one of his topics. Overall, this is an informative and readable book that gives a good general picture of Indian life, strife and politics. The reader should just keep in mind that there may be more to individual issues than Luce lets on.
To shore up the argument for each of the patterns, Luce relies on interviews (with a surprising number of very prominent people), events (historical and current), anecdotes, and other cultural observations. He does all of this a trifle haphazardly, but manages to make it all very interesting. His anecdotes and event summaries are piquant and entertaining. Luce seems to have benefited from advice from people like Ramachandra Guha, a very prominent Indian historian. The bigger picture that emerges from this book is reasonably accurate. For people unfamiliar with India, the book would be great: a concise yet fairly comprehensive introduction.
On the negative side, the book is journalistic rather than scholarly. The result is that nearly everything in the book expresses opinion rather than the result of any kind of study. Some topics are the author's pet peeves rather than anything important. Others are important, but rather than report all angles, Luce often picks a side and provides a very zealous argument in its favour. This bias sometimes results in inaccuracies. His portrayal of prominent personalities seems to have more to do with his personal likes and dislikes than with their public service record. The book is an elucidated collection of existing opinions; Luce doesn't provide any new insights of importance. Luce seems partial to sensational reporting designed to shock and awe his readers. The book also seems, mostly, to follow the standard Western viewpoints on India -- so the reader isn't getting the Indian perspective.
A couple of examples:
- On child labour, one of India's biggest social problems, Luce claims that people don't want to fix it (he provides four mostly academic arguments and says people use them to justify child labour). He omits mention of the real issues. Most Indians are interested in ending it, but there are problems. First, it is very low on the list of political priorities, which is dominated by things like caste, religion, reservations and subsidies of various kinds. Second, most of the children are working so that they can eat; simply taking their labour away will starve them. Providing free food or sending them to school is hard because of bureaucratic corruption. Removing bureacratic corruption, again, is low on the list of electoral priorities. Perhaps Luce would have seen this if he had tried to suggest a solution.
- Many politicians (appropriately) get torn apart by Luce. However, he is surprisingly, inexplicably charitable towards Sonia Gandhi, the closest thing India has to a dictator. Luce's portrayal of her is adoring and reads like Congress party progaganda: that of a graceful, tearful, long-suffering widow, humble, patriotic (towards India), pure of motive and gentle of heart, yet blessed with amazing insight into the hearts of the Indian people and electoral politics and motivated by a genuine desire to protect the India her family worked so hard for. She might be some of those things, but there isn't much evidence cited. Luce's admiration doesn't seem to be based on anything she has done. To me, an Indian, it looks like he was just charmed by her Western demeanour.
To be fair, Luce covers so much ground in this book that it would be almost impossible for him to provide a complete and perfectly balanced view of every one of his topics. Overall, this is an informative and readable book that gives a good general picture of Indian life, strife and politics. The reader should just keep in mind that there may be more to individual issues than Luce lets on.
38 of 43 people found the following review helpful
By anavidreader
Format:Hardcover
I bought this book expecting insighful analysis on modern India and its various strengths and weaknesses. Either this book is titled wrong (in my view it should be titled "India - 1001 observations") or the writer lost the plot quite early on.
After an initial chapter or two about the rise of modern India this book went into a never ending drivel of perceived drawbacks in India's democracy, history, society, religions, infrastructure, politics, bureaucracy etc...the list is endless. However, after a while I stopped seeing what point the author was trying to make. What made matters worse was there was no logical progression throughout the book. He was either too critical .. a prime example of this was critical conclusions the author made about some religions in India with what seemed a very superficial understanding of these religions. At other times the author made statements which had little factual basis other than being his observations.
Furthermore, the lack of adequate analysis and insight shows in the concluding chapter where again (without any logical progression) we are given a list of things India should do to address its shortcomings. Many of these recommendations seem not carefully thought through and lacking in detail. When 90% of the book is devoted to India's numerous shortcomings and contradictions (according to the author), the author could have adequately thought through his recommendations on how to address these in the remaining 10% of his book.
Again, my disappointment stems from the fact that I expected the author to go a few layers deeper to make a cogent argument rather than merely present a lengthy list of observations. I expected insightful analysis rather than a mere reporting of facts and the author's observations.
After an initial chapter or two about the rise of modern India this book went into a never ending drivel of perceived drawbacks in India's democracy, history, society, religions, infrastructure, politics, bureaucracy etc...the list is endless. However, after a while I stopped seeing what point the author was trying to make. What made matters worse was there was no logical progression throughout the book. He was either too critical .. a prime example of this was critical conclusions the author made about some religions in India with what seemed a very superficial understanding of these religions. At other times the author made statements which had little factual basis other than being his observations.
Furthermore, the lack of adequate analysis and insight shows in the concluding chapter where again (without any logical progression) we are given a list of things India should do to address its shortcomings. Many of these recommendations seem not carefully thought through and lacking in detail. When 90% of the book is devoted to India's numerous shortcomings and contradictions (according to the author), the author could have adequately thought through his recommendations on how to address these in the remaining 10% of his book.
Again, my disappointment stems from the fact that I expected the author to go a few layers deeper to make a cogent argument rather than merely present a lengthy list of observations. I expected insightful analysis rather than a mere reporting of facts and the author's observations.
65 of 77 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
If you are looking for a book that tells you where India is today, where she's going and how she can get there, this is NOT the right book for you. However, if you are looking for a book that tells you where India is today and how it got here in the last century especially since independence, Ed Luce does as good a job as anyone can given the complex glob of a million entangled threads that is India. The book is not futuristic, it is introspective. The book does not speculate, it reveals.
At the time of release of this book, it is hip to write about India's growing economy and laud the unbelieveable potential that lies ahead, what with the booming IT and Biotech industry and scores of parallels one can draw with other countries that passed this phase. While those books present great hypotheses, imagination and optimism; they either focus on a section of India that is not representative of the country as a whole, or miss some fundamental understanding of the realities of the country.
The issues covered in this book are given as much relative priority as a top Indian diplomat or policy maker ought to give. In that sense, the book provides a holistic view of India in a manner that is investigative, well informed and insightful. The author's criticism is far from cynicism, and his admiration is far from adulation. For a country that incites much emotion among authors, Ed Luce's objective view is quite refreshing. The author is probably at just the right viewing distance from India: not too close to let emotions cloud his judgement, and close enough to be wise and vested (not just well informed) in the topics he writes about.
After reading this book, I have learnt about topics that I did not expect to learn about when I picked up the book. Having said that, the book does not explore the depths of all topics, though cites other works that do. Ed Luce is certainly on my watch-list of authors now.
At the time of release of this book, it is hip to write about India's growing economy and laud the unbelieveable potential that lies ahead, what with the booming IT and Biotech industry and scores of parallels one can draw with other countries that passed this phase. While those books present great hypotheses, imagination and optimism; they either focus on a section of India that is not representative of the country as a whole, or miss some fundamental understanding of the realities of the country.
The issues covered in this book are given as much relative priority as a top Indian diplomat or policy maker ought to give. In that sense, the book provides a holistic view of India in a manner that is investigative, well informed and insightful. The author's criticism is far from cynicism, and his admiration is far from adulation. For a country that incites much emotion among authors, Ed Luce's objective view is quite refreshing. The author is probably at just the right viewing distance from India: not too close to let emotions cloud his judgement, and close enough to be wise and vested (not just well informed) in the topics he writes about.
After reading this book, I have learnt about topics that I did not expect to learn about when I picked up the book. Having said that, the book does not explore the depths of all topics, though cites other works that do. Ed Luce is certainly on my watch-list of authors now.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
it helps to have been there
written by a westerner who married an indian woman, incredible insights to a culture extremely different than ours in the u.s.a. Read more
Published 1 month ago by betsy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good overview of India
I read this book in preparation of moving to India for work. This gave a good overview of modern politics, economics and social life of Indians. Read more
Published 2 months ago by J Clessas
5.0 out of 5 stars
Good background for anyone working with/in India
As someone doing business in India, this book has helped put a lot of the challenges that are perplexing on the surface into perspective. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Duane E Cramer
2.0 out of 5 stars
A reference book for studying China's rise
The author is not a real China hand who understands China's development after the end of the Cold War and its historical significance in the world.
Published 3 months ago by Xuecheng Liu
5.0 out of 5 stars
History, Politics, Relation, Culture all in one book
a fabulous narrative of history, geography, culture and religion...well written by an experienced journalist! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Sandra
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellant history of modern India
Daunting because of names that I am not use to but really appreciate reading his assessment of India and how it runs and who really runs it
Published 5 months ago by claribel Lagomarsino
5.0 out of 5 stars
Wonderful Introduction to Modern India
This is a wonderful introduction to Indian society, politics and economics from a vivid writer. Every educated Indian I have spoken with who read this book confirmed the accuracy... Read more
Published 7 months ago by James J. Halpert
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Interesting History
My reason for reading the book, which happens to be my first nonfiction/history of India, was to understand how India compares with China. Read more
Published 11 months ago by J. Calve
4.0 out of 5 stars
broad brush but it has got most of it without getting caught up ...
Just finished reading "In Spite of the Gods" by Edward Luce. The book covers a lot of crowd and while reading it, for some reason, I kept drifting to Suketu Mehta's "Maximum City",... Read more
Published 11 months ago by Prashant George
5.0 out of 5 stars
Gridlock and growth in India
Edward Luce begins IN SPITE OF THE GODS with a terrific chapter on what he calls India's "schizophrenic" economy. Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ethan Cooper
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Listmania!
So You'd Like to...
|
|
Look for Similar Items by Category
- Books > Business & Investing > Economics > Economic Conditions
- Books > History > Asia > India
- Books > History > Modern (16th-21st Centuries) > 21st Century
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Humanities > History > Asia
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Humanities > History > Europe
- Books > New, Used & Rental Textbooks > Social Sciences > Political Science > Government
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > International & World Politics > Asian
- Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Specific Topics > Political Economy
