What I'm Reading Now
"To a Western observer, [Indian] civilization appears as all metaphysics--as to a deaf man, piano playing appears to be meer movements of fingers and no music."
(Rabindranath Tagore, winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature 1913)
This quote begins the intro to this very lucid account of India's rapid emergence as a modern state. The author is the Washington bureau chief for the Financial times, who was educated at Oxford and has an Indian wife.
I'm just about a quarter of the way into the book, but so far, I'm loving it.
Chapter titles:
Global and Medieval: India's Schizophrenic Economy
The Burra Sahibs: The Long Tentacles of India's State
Battles of the Righteous: The Rise of India's Lower Castes
The Imaginary Horse: The Continuing Threat of Hindu Nationalism
Long Live the Sycophants!: The Congress Party's Continuing Love Affair with the Nehru-Gandi Dynasty
Many Crescents: South Asia's Divided Muslims
A Triangular Dance: Why India's Relations with the United States and China Will Shape the World in the Twenty-First Century
New Inda, Old India: The Many-Layered Character of Indian Modernity
Conclusion: Hers to Lose: India's Huge Opportunites and Challenges in the Twenty-First Century
11:20:30 AM 
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