In this book, Gurucharan Das tried to capture the inherent contradiction in our country and how it explains the state of economy and democracy in today’s India.
Contemporary India is puzzling to outsiders. How is it that a country with a vibrant democracy and a fastest growing economy seem to be so badly governed? The credibility of our institutions is weakened over time, corruption is pervasive, laws are ambiguous, enforcement is weak, justice is delayed, human development is appalling and infrastructure is never catching up with the economy.
How is it that we still seem to be going along when the governance is falling apart all around us?
This book tries to answer this question with a premise that we are inherently a strong society. Unlike China it is our society that keeps India together and keeps it going. India is a melting pot of cultures and religions and that made the society inherently self supporting. We do not wait around for government to do things. There is a “dharma” – a sense of right thing to do – that drives us do what we are expected to do by the society. “Dharma” brings self restraint, a sense of trust and moral obligation.
There is a limit to how far the society could take the country without a strong state. This is the reason, the author says, why our growth has faltered in the last couple of years.
The conclusion of the book is we need a strong state to complement our strong society to reach next level of economic growth.
While I liked the book and its concept there are a couple of points that I could not agree with : The concept of dharma is taken too far and applied a bit loosely to the entire society. The book ignores the compulsion of coalitions and political system which breed feeble governance.