Page 70 - EW July 2021 final

Books

Wide but home,” he writes. And true
to his interest, Baru has
not deep INDIA’S POWER ELITE written a very concise his-
— CLASS, CASTE AND A
CULTURAL REVOLUTION
tory of independent India,
Sanjaya Baru highlighting the interplay
URRENTLY A PENGUIN between class and caste
Delhi-based policy leaders who built powerful
Canalyst, writer and Rs.699; Pages 228 pp elites.
columnist, Sanjaya Baru Immediately after
has excellent credentials independence when the
to write this interestingly the author hasn’t dug deep The author fails Harrow and Cambridge
titled book. In his eventful, enough. to explain why educated Jawaharlal
and yet sure to be more This volume details independent India’s Nehru, subsequently his
productive life he has several ephemeral elites several powerful daughter Indira Gandhi
acquired rich and valuable that ruled in Delhi and the elites failed to make and the Nehru-Gandhi
insights into post-inde- state capitals and shaped sufficient impact dynasty ruled India for
pendence India’s power public policy, but doesn’t almost four decades, class
structure and establish- provide an explanation was the most important
ment as former editor of why all of them failed to be foolish to describe it qualification for entry
the Economic Times, Fi- make sufficient impact as a civilisation — and into the ruling elite. Avid
nancial Express, Business and whether the incum- especially of the vast ma- followers of Nehru and his
Standard, editorial page bent new elite that has jority at the bottom of the brand of Soviet-inspired
editor of the mighty Times emerged during the past socio-economic pyramid, inorganic socialism under
of India, media adviser to decade, will be any differ- is living proof that every which the State would
former prime minister Dr. ent. government at the Centre dominate the commanding
Manmohan Singh whom Way back in the 1930s and in the states and their heights of the Indian econ-
he outed in his best-seller in his epic eight-volume elites, failed the creativity omy, this urban elite was
the Accidental Prime A Study of History for test and severely short- obsessed with transform-
Minister: the Making & which he was awarded the changed the proletariat. ing primarily agricultural
Unmaking of Manmohan Nobel Prize, Prof. Arnold According to World India into an industrial
Singh (2014) and 1991: Toynbee traced the rise Bank data, currently over power in double quick
How P.V. Narasimha Rao and fall of great civilisa- 880 million citizens of free time, with little interest in
Made History (2016). tions and societies. In this India have a per capita per the rural hinterland which
To this impressive cur- magnum opus replete with day income of $2 or less supported 80 percent of
riculum vitae add academ- case studies, he convinc- which means they suffer the population. As a result
ic experience as faculty in ingly demonstrated that severe deficits of food, educationally neglected
the International Institute when dominant elites are clothing and shelter — rural India continued to be
of Strategic Studies, Lon- creative and improve the the essentials of civilised ruled by dominant castes
don, JNU, Delhi and the lot of the masses, civilisa- existence. Baru recounts and became a vast arena of
Lee Kuan Yew School of tions flourish and thrive. how several class, caste caste warfare for the next
Public Policy, Singapore. However when elites and combinations thereof half century, with castes
Unfortunately while cease to be creative and rose to power and domina- and combinations thereof
this book is a mile wide become self-serving, they tion, but has neglected to constituting the power
— an abridged history transform into oppressive tell us the reasons for their elite.
of free India — it is only minorities which catalyses decline and failure. All this is interestingly
inches deep. At the end, a phenomenon Toynbee In the preface, the au- recorded by Baru in this
the promise inherent describes as a “secession thor admits to fascination book of commendable
in its title is unfulfilled. of the proletariat”, setting with the study of “politics scholarship and sweep.
Although one learns that in motion a process in and power”. “My father However this opus is
the English speaking up- which civilisations become was a civil servant close to disappointing because the
per middle class remains vulnerable to “barbarians”, a succession of chief min- author fails to examine
a powerful elite in Delhi and decline and fall. isters… and conversations why the Nehruvian power
and metropolitan India, The pathetic condition about class and caste and elite at the Centre and the
and caste dynamics are of India’s post-indepen- the struggles for power caste elites in the states
dominant in rural India, dence society — it would were commonplace at failed — and failed they

70 EDUCATIONWORLD JULY 2021