The Maanga

The first post independent generation, especially the elite among it, seem to have a conception of India. Bureaucracy made of them, having retired in the past decade, has started to explain that to the rest of us. TS Krishnamurthy and Bimal Jalan have written two such accounts[1]. Both books have a fundamental and unstated assumption about the nation state: it’s inviolable and sacrosanct. Written with a reasonable understanding of how governance works in this country, they do educate the average reader about the civil servant’s role and contribution to status quo.

The books themselves aren’t very well written. To be fair to Bimal Jalan, his account isn’t as bad as Krishnamurthy’s. The chapters read like blog posts, are uneven in terms of quality of writing and lack cohesion. Possibly because both authors are quite used to praises that hail them as scrupulously honest men holding high offices, they fall into the trap of platitudes that the middle class prescribes. Another feature is the common quirk from the men of their generation: self worth that is determined by their job and since that depended on the worth of the nation, patriotism seems to follow naturally. A look at power in itself and the social equilibrium that it entails, even within the scope of their topic, would have added much to their analyses.

Continuing with quick reads, Lee Israel has given us a book that is quite remarkably unlike the previous two. A story of an unapologetic forger.

Bimal Jalan and TS Krishnamurthy probably deserve our thanks if we believe the idea of India was worth preserving. Lee Israel merely charms us. I’d rather be charmed than feel grateful for a cause I don’t believe in.

[1] — I was given a copy of TS Krishnamurthy’s Miracle of Democracy at the book launch. I can’t seem to find a copy of it online.

Wealth, like other segments of the evolutionary construct, is still largely a function of chance.  Not change.

Reading idiotic opinion on the American primaries fueled one’s interest in other countries’ politics. The Russian elections were the ideal antidote. The Putin Project, which was aired on BBC’s SW service provided a reasonably lame and yet much better coverage that helped one beat Madras’ traffic and the Americanisation of stupidity[1].

Russia always makes me wonder: did not the Soviet Union supposedly achieve great results in education? Weren’t we always told that through NCERT text books? Whatever happened to all those well educated people? Surely, a country with a smart population can’t falter this long and so clumsily.

[1] — Think Amit Varma. A person who neither lives in America nor is he a citizen of that country. I don’t even think he has lived in America for a reasonable length of time in the past. And, he pretends to be obsessed with that nation’s primaries — not even the actual elections. There was an election in Meghalaya, just in case one needs perspective.

Who coined the phrase (or used it first with respect to India) ‘demographic dividend’?

In two years’ time, when we are fighting for half a meal, we should know whom to blame.