Planet India: How the Fastest Growing Democracy Is Transforming America and the World

A Review

India is the flavour of the season, and as my father reported, the west is suffering from a collective Indomania. A plethora of books have been released, concerning the rise of India, and this book obviously belongs to that genre.

The topic of Indology has a long history, with each writer trying to understand 'The wonder that was [is?] India'. The fact is that India is a country that does not clearly lie in any particular class; it defies classification. It does not have a unifying or typical language, nor a single culture or religion. Politically, though India calls herself a socialist country, she lacks the basic features of a socialist society, viz: Universal education and healthcare. It is not a pure capitalist economy, since it has lacks a completely free market. Any parameter you try to measure India by, the results are ambiguous. Due to this, India is in a class by herself. Hence the age old need to understand and explain 'this working anarchy'

In the first few decades after Independence, India was caught [or rather preferred to be in] in No-man's land during the cold war. There was a heavy tilt toward the Soviet block, and hence India was a subject, which was not too high in the public consciousness of the west. The economic story was nothing much to write about, with India having the growth rate of about 3%, which gave rise to the term 'The Hindu rate of growth'. The south-east Asian economies with their high rates of growth were much more 'hot', and India's destiny was to be known for its spiritual power and as the land of poverty, disease, and snake charmers.

In the last two decades, first with Rajiv Gandhi's forward looking government, and then with Manmohan Singh's liberalisation, things began to look up. Things began to change slowly, and this change was almost imperceptible for the first 15 years. People began to realise that a new India was looming when, during the 2004 elections, the Government came out with its 'India Shining' campaign. BJP lost the elections, and the subject became taboo and politically incorrect to discuss. But the world at large had already started noticing the shift, not because of the advertisement blitz, but because of first hand experience with the Indian economy.

Slowly and surely India began to be placed on the same pedestal as China [It's an ironic thing. A hyphenated relationship seems to be India’s curs. Earlier the term ‘India-Pak’ was in vogue, and now India-China seems to be, the talked about phrase, in western Newspapers. A new term, Chindia, has recently risen to fill the need of a shorter name for this economic phenomena]. As the potential for Business in India increased, people began to write about the 'wonderful Economy' of India.

One of the first and the most influential book so far, has been Thomas Freidman’s 'The world is flat'. In this book Freidman talks about what he has seen in India, and how he thinks India has made most of the opportunities she has got. Another recent book has been the extremely readable 'Inspite of the Gods' by Edward Luce.

Mira Kamdar's Planet India also belongs to this category, but it is different for many reasons. Yes, it does have lots of quotes by Nandan Nilekani and Azim Premji, but it also quotes farmers from Vidharbha. She writes not only about Infosys and Wipro, but also about NGO's working in rural India. I think the cause of this major difference is that, she is of Indian Origin, and has seen India since the 1960's. Unlike foreigners, who are surprised that there aren't too many snake charmers on the street, she knows where the snake charmers are. Her acquaintance with India prevents her from being overwhelmed by the so called exotic experiences in India.

She does not write about 'The Art of Living' and Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as Luce does; Nor does she focus excessively on Infosys Campus as Freidman does. She talks of things that are rarely seen in foreign articles on India. She begins with describing the past and the present relations between Americans and Indians, which will help in providing a perspective to her main audience: The American Public.

She has devoted an entire chapter on the Indian Media, and how it is influencing the world. She talks of Shekar Kapur and Deepak Chopra. She informs us of the happenings of the Indian Animation Industry and its phenomenal growth. She talks of the huge impending change in the Indian Retail sector, which I have hardly seen being discussed in such great depth, elsewhere.

Nor does she paint an entirely rosy picture. Her writing might not be as pessimistic as some we see in our Newspapers or read on blogs; She walks on the middle path. She writes about her visit to Vidharbha, along with Dilip D'Souza, where she enquired about farmer's suicide. Her empathetic account is an eye-opener. Nor does she rest there: Pesticide Contamination, use of genetically modified crops, the impending water crisis, all find a mention. In the end her Optimism shines through, when she talks of how the corporate sector is in fact heralding the maximum change at the fastest rate.

Her sixth chapter - The Other India- is the most interesting one. Here she deals with the problems of health, disease, communal violence and sexual discrimination in India. I think she likes to end on a promising note, and that is why she places the section on a charitable hospital, which is helping in providing health care to poor people and yet making a profit, at the end.

Her last chapter is perhaps her weakest. She talks about the Geopolitical situation, and the rise of India as a regional power, but she has failed to present it in the same enlightening and holistic manner, that her earlier chapters have accustomed us to expect.

That all was her content, but how about the language? Her words flow freely, hardly ever using pedantic words, which might send a reader scurrying towards a dictionary. Her metaphors and ideas are easily understandable. I think this is possible only when the author has an intimate knowledge and love of the subject at hand. She is Inaccurate on certain Points [for example: The Prithvi missile is named after the element of earth, and not after Prithvi Raj Chauhan; The wheel in the centre of the Indian flag is the Ashok Chakra, not the wheel of the Khadi Charkha] but I believe they can be overlooked as minor.

All in all, this book is an extremely readable presentation of the situation in India today, and the problems it faces. It is up to us to look at these problems and solve them. The problems are huge and affect a lot of people, and if we don't do anything now, we'll never realise our true potential. As someone recently said, 'The world is India's to lose.