First of all a very Happy Independence Day to my fellow Indians. Now coming to the theme;
Many writers (Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Meghnad Desai, Thomas Friedman etc) have written books on India in last decade or so, and most of them have written politically correct pages in context of modern secularism and in doing so they have revised the incidents, characters and rather the history of India to suit the current "Secular" politics of India based mainly on Nehruvian interpretation of Indian history. Patrick French does impossible task in steering away from the local politics of India and his 'India A Portrait' is a great effort.
Many writers (Ramachandra Guha, Shashi Tharoor, Meghnad Desai, Thomas Friedman etc) have written books on India in last decade or so, and most of them have written politically correct pages in context of modern secularism and in doing so they have revised the incidents, characters and rather the history of India to suit the current "Secular" politics of India based mainly on Nehruvian interpretation of Indian history. Patrick French does impossible task in steering away from the local politics of India and his 'India A Portrait' is a great effort.
In this book, he has touched almost all the issues of India from economy and its problems, alienation of minorities and tribals, rise of right wing parties, dynasticism, superstitions, entrepreneurs, NRIs etc. He destroys the hype created by Indian Media about young and suave politicians of India (like Sachin Pilot, Milind Deora, Rahul Gandhi, Naveen Jindal, Varun Gandhi, Omar Abdullah etc), proves decisively that 100% of all Members of Parliament below 30 years of age come from political families and the percentage is 70 for age group 30-40. India is fast becoming 'Vansha-Tantra' instead of 'Gana Tantra' and Indians are silent and sometimes happy spectators to this farce of democracy.
The success stories of Sunil Mittal of Airtel, Dabba Walas of Mumbai, A. R. Rahman, TVS Motors, Chik shampoo etc are worth reading and repeating.
He writes about the rise of Dalits in Indian politics, the rise of Kanshiram, Mayawati etc. The elite English media does not want to write good things (or rather true things) about these leaders, the only time they write, they write on 'corruption' and caste-based politics of these leaders. Arrogance and self-righteousness run deep in English media.
He also writes about the deliberate policy of minimizing the destruction and loot caused by the Muslim invasions (of Timur, Mahmud etc) and magnifying the good stuff brought by these invaders ,adopted by Indian historians like Romila Thapar etc and its impact on the Right Wing politics of India. Almost every foreign writers have written about these invasions and the brutal destructions, killing etc caused by them starting from Al-Beruni to Will Durant. Past should not be read/analyzed by the political or ideological compulsions of the current era. On one hand Nehruvian and Marxist writers say that Invasions had not caused any major destruction in India, on the other hand Right Wing writers ridiculously exaggerate the virtues and achievements of ancient Indian like Airplane etc. Both are too far from truth and both influence the impressionable minds of kids thus perpetuating the great schism of Indian historiography and politics.
Overall its a great book and many times better than Ramachandra Guha's books.
Highly Recommended (9/10)
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