The Case for India

The Case for India by Will Durant

If you ever want to get a view of India as it existed in the early 1900’s this is the book. Its especially good because its not written by an Indian or an Englishman but by an American who has given a fairly neutral view. You will learn several things about India that you would not have read in history books. I absolutely loved the book. A neutral view on how exploited we were & how much of our wealth was looted, how all the money earned by the government made it out of the country is a real eye opener.  

The book was published in the late 1920’s & I think its only now (I could be wrong here) easily available here.

The author wonders what would happen to the people if India were to be given independence then (in the 1920’s) & goes on to say that India might find it very difficult to handle given the wretched state that the English had reduced this country to. The fact that we did get Independence (a bit 20 yrs later) & did survive is something quite amazing.

It’s a fairly small book (about 150 pages) & a must read.

Being Indian

Being Indian by Pavan K Varma

It’s a book first published in 2004 so by that is a review 6 years late :-)

The book tries to explain why the 21^st century will be India’s & in a way explains why Indians are the way they are. It explains why Indians have been overrun by invaders in the past, why democracy has succeeded in India etc. The survival of democracy is something several of us wonder I think. Until before Independence India was a constitution of several individual princely states, so how did it survive? The author’s explanation is a fairly interesting one & something people would agree too.  The author says that an Indians fear of instability made us accept democracy inspite of so many other contradictions.  Also explaining why so many invaders succeeded in this land it says that we saw the invaders as being powerful economically & also militarily & we chose to adjust rather than confront.

One another aspect of Indians pointed out & something that strikes as really true is that we are easily overawed by any thing foreign. The example cited is that while there are hundreds & thousands of Indians in the IT industry & we are considered good at it there is not a single product that has come out of India that has made it big in the world. The book says that Indians in India generally are good at carrying out instructions rather than thing & doing something on their own. I would tend to agree with this completely & feel a contributing factor to this is our education system which is study by rote. We rarely understand the basics behind what we study. Innovations & fairly open thinking should be developed from a young age, the system & society should encourage it. We are made to think solely of a degree, a job, the job security etc & the whole system is driven towards this. This was ok till a point & I hope as things improve in India this system of education also changes.

There were a couple of statements that one might not agree too. He says that we are primarily after money & adjust to situations if it means that we would benefit from it. While there is no disagreeing on this, the implication that this is primarily an Indian trait is something one would disagree to. Most people in the world are after money & would adjust their traits to suit the situation.

All in all it’s a good read.