India In Slow Motion

The book is arranged as a series of individual essays, followed by a conclusion.
Published in 2002, now almost two decades ago, and is a snapshot of Tully's thoughts at the time, but some chapters have aged better than others. For those unfamiliar with Mark Tully and wife Gillian, they are the closest thing to India Experts you can find. Tully was bureau chief of the BBC in Delhi for 20 years, and was awarded a KBE. In 1994 he resigned, but retains a full network of contacts in India, and uses these to investigate the topics of his essays.

The over-riding theme of all the essays is ‘what is effecting India, preventing it from advancing full on' (I guess like China). The answer to that question is basically corruption, politics and religious hostilities.

The first, is a little dry, but sees Tully in Ayodhya, Uttar Pradesh, the traditional home of Rama in 1992 as a supposed peaceful announcement ends in rioting and the destruction of a mosque. The mosque is on the site of a Hindu Temple, and the announcement was just to be a symbolic start to this process. The chapter covers Tully's return to Ayodhya seven years later to take part in the Panch Kosi Parikramer festival - where pilgrims walk around the boundaries of what they believe was Rama's city. Tully meets various people and talk politics and Rama.

The second chapter discussed the child labour issues of carpet weaving in Mirzapur (near Varanasi). Foreign importers of carpets from here have banded under the Rugmark brand which promises child-labour free carpets - a promise it cannot deliver on, and seems to thrive on statistics it cannot validate. Tully visits their spokesperson, some looms, some government inspectors and some other exporters who refuse to join up with the Rugmark brand.

Next up is an inevitable chapter on government corruption. From ‘top to tail' as it is described. The first part is about a sting to capture evidence of corruption in the purchasing of military hardware, where a journalist poses as an arms dealer and bribes his way up the foodchain of military purchasing and films each step of the way as these officials accept money for opening the next door. This results in a couple of high profile resignations when the story breaks, but one is reinstated almost immediately, and more importantly, the governments investigation is more focused on the media company who set up the sting, and prosecuting them and their backers (the income tax investigators were set loose) to discourage further investigative journalism. The second part of this article is following the work of Aruna Roy and her MKSS, which started at the bottom, taking to task corrupt minor officials and local government officials. Hopefully things have improved int the 18 years since this was written, but that may be hopeful thinking.

Following that, a chapter on religion in Goa. Not in my wheelhouse, so i will steer clear of even summarising that one.

Hyderabad, and its IT revolution, and Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu is the subject of the next essay. Tully spends a day travelling by helicopter from meeting to meeting and at the end has a short interview with him. He outlines his vision, and how he achieved what he had at that time. Tully then goes on to interview his opponent, and some recent defectors from his party. Naidu was able to pull off somewhat of a coup to set up an IT enclave in Hyderabad, getting Microsoft to set up a R&D headquarters, as well as other IT learning institutes.

Next a chapter on the Tablighis, a Sufi Islamic missionary movement. I am not much clearer having read it how it interacts with and differs from other aspects, so won't elaborate on this one.

Next after a number of suicides by farmers with mounting debt, the governments offer to purchase millet and increase the rate paid is examined - due to the bureaucracy and corruption, only a small percentage is purchased, and even then too late in the season, causing farmers to have costs exceeding their income. Bizarrely at the time in India, thirty percent of the population did not have enough to eat, and yet the millet was stockpiled or destroyed. The government even acknowledged that only a mall percentage of the food distributed to the poor ever reached them. Part of Tully's investigation discovered that agricultural colleges were teaching student how to set up and grow crops, but not educating them in having a market to sell to. With everyone growing the same crops, the market is swamped and prices are incredibly low.

The eighth essay is a biography of two brothers political careers. Sant Bux Singh and his younger brother Vishwanath Singh, who would eventually become Prime Minister (for a short tenure). Both men were principled, and too proud to ask each other for favours, and Tully records their respective political fortunes.

The penultimate essay is titled ‘The Water Harvesters' and compares one village in Gujarat which has constructed catchment dams to make the most of any rainfall, constructed without government assistance or guidance, with another nearby village who await the government to save them from drought. The media loves a drought story and regularly reports the ‘worst drought conditions ever', but these claims are quickly disproved. The village with the dams is ruled and order maintained by a very ‘militant' panchayat. the results are of course excellent, with a lot of hard work providing an excellent outcome with the crops, but also almost no crime, and little or no police intervention.

Which brings us to the last of the essays. Entitled Paradise Lost it is of course about Kashmir. This wraps up religion, the India/Pakistan conflict, and politics and the lack of willing to give Kashmir a level of independence.

The conclusion is not really a summary or a conclusion. There is some follow up ‘news' of some of the earlier stories, and some very broad aspirations for the future. Strangely unfocused as a conclusion.

While I am quite knowledgeable in the field of Indian politics, and I would have probably steered away from this book if I had known how much it delves into politics, surprisingly it was an easy and enjoyable read.

Not sure how this review became quite so long, sorry for the rambling.

For me 3.5 stars, rounded down.