Skip to main content

A History of India’s Roadblocks



Book

Title: Caged Tiger: How too much government is holding Indians back

Author: Subhashish Bhadra

Publisher: Bloomsbury 2023

Pages: 303

For over two centuries the British held India captive. And then Indian politicians did the same. This book shows you how India’s leaders held their own country captive almost all through – with the exception of the first few decades.

77 years is not too short a period of time for a nation, especially one that is as huge as India, to reclaim itself from the ravages of history. What has India achieved in fact? “Governments have failed to provide the basic needs of life, such as clean air and water. India has 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, with a child dying every 3 minutes from inhaling toxic pollutants. Also, India has failed to translate its remarkable economic gains into better lives for its most vulnerable; 35 percent of children under five are stunted…” Now, even Bangladesh is doing better than India though it “is poorer with thrice the population density.”

No, this book is not about statistics at all. Its 9 chapters look at 9 staggering problems that haunt India even today when it claims to be on the way to becoming a world leader. Economy is the first of those. In Sep 2017, 11-year-old Santoshi Kumari of Jharkhand died of starvation after having not eaten for four days. The subsidised food they were getting until then was stopped because their ration card was not linked with Aadhar. The school was closed, so  Santoshi could not get the free midday meal either.

Santoshi is just a symbol in the book. A symbol for the miserable poverty that still haunts the country in spite of its erecting the tallest statue in the world or the most splendid temple. A symbol for the utter lack of vision among the country’s leaders. A symbol for the countless unfulfilled promises made before every election. A symbol of a failed nation.

In this failed nation, the government is more eager to pry into the private lives of its citizens. Titled ‘The Panopticon’, chapter 2 shows how the government has set up surveillance over the citizens of India. “A 2014 report stated that between 7500 and 9000 new orders for interception (of phone calls) were issued by the Indian government every month” [emphasis added]. We know how many journalists, whistle-blowers, social media critics, activists and others were arrested in the past ten years. We know how the Israeli spying technology called Pegasus was misused by our top leaders.

The control that the government exerts on social media forms the subject of the next chapter, ‘Controlled Cacophony.’ Shaheen Dhada, a 21-year-old girl from Palghar in Maharashtra was arrested merely for asking a question on the need to shut down all public life just because a political leader (Bal Thackeray) had died. Respect cannot be forced, she wrote. And our politicians didn’t like that. What is the worth of an ordinary citizen of this country? Shaheena asked. She got the answer in the jail.

Our jails can be as good as Hitler’s concentration camps. That’s chapter 4: ‘His Master’s Police.’ The author argues that the Indian police behave even today just like their British counterparts of pre-Independence days. The police take care of the government’s interests. And the interests of others in power, may be in the opposition. Or in certain mafia groups. Don’t forget that nearly half of our parliamentarians are criminals too.

Even culture is not left untouched by the criminal politics. Salil Chaturvedi becomes a symbol for our new leaders’ cultural obsessions. Chapter 5 begins with his anecdote. Salil is a disabled person and a disability activist. He did not stand up from his wheelchair when the national anthem was sung because he could not. It was the year 2016 when our new nationalist government had ordered to have the national anthem sung in cinema halls to inculcate patriotism among citizens. Salil was beaten up by the nationalists. Like Santoshi and Shaheena above, Salil becomes a symbol in the book.

Eventually, the parliament itself became a big joke in the country. Most of the time the Prime Minister was away abroad. When he was here, he dismissed the opposition and passed all the Bills. The book doesn’t mention the Prime Minister’s later claim to divinity because the book was written before that.

The last two chapters attempt to suggest some solutions and remedies. One such suggestion, among many, is a sortition instead of election. The representatives of the people will be chosen by lots from among citizens eligible for holding public offices. We can save a lot of time and money that is spent on elections. Probably, we will have better governance too. The author lists other benefits of such a system which was in practice in ancient Athens and in the Tamil civilisation.

There is hope in the last pages of the book. There is invitation to the youth to take their political responsibilities a bit more seriously. We need to educate ourselves better. And then communicate those ideas to people around us. Then join hands with those who share our views and act collectively for a better nation. We can make a better India.

The author is an optimist. Let me share his optimism. With you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Adventures of Toto as a comic strip

  'The Adventures of Toto' is an amusing story by Ruskin Bond. It is prescribed as a lesson in CBSE's English course for class 9. Maggie asked her students to do a project on some of the lessons and Femi George's work is what I would like to present here. Femi converted the story into a beautiful comic strip. Her work will speak for itself and let me present it below.  Femi George Student of Carmel Public School, Vazhakulam, Kerala Similar post: The Little Girl

In this Wonderland

I didn’t write anything in the last few days. Nor did I feel any urge to write. I don’t know if this lack of interest to write is what’s called writer’s block. Or is it simple disenchantment with whatever is happening around me? We’re living in a time that offers much, too much, to writers. The whole world looks like a complex plot for a gigantic epic. The line between truth and fiction has disappeared. Mass murders have become no-news. Animals get more compassion than fellow human beings. Even their excreta are venerated! Folk tales are presented as scientific truths while scientific truths are sacrificed on the altar of political expediency. When the young generation in Nepal set fire to their Parliament and Supreme Court buildings, they were making an unmistakable statement: that they are sick of their political leaders and their systems. Is there any country whose leaders don’t sicken their citizens? I’m just wondering. Maybe, there are good leaders still left in a few coun...

Death as a Sculptor

Book Discussion An Introductory Note : This is not a book review but a reflection on one of the many themes in The Infatuations , novel by Javier Marias. If you have any intention of reading the novel, please be forewarned that this post contains spoilers. For my review of the book, without spoilers, read an earlier post: The Infatuations (2013). D eath can reshape the reality for the survivors of the departed. For example, a man’s death can entirely alter the lives of his surviving family members: his wife and children, particularly. That sounds like a cliché. Javier Marias’ novel, The Infatuations , shows us that death can alter a lot more; it can reshape meanings, relationships, and even morality of the people affected by the death. Miguel Deverne is killed by an abnormal man right in the beginning of the novel. It seems like an accidental killing. But it isn’t. There are more people than the apparently insane killer involved in the crime and there are motives which are di...

Whose Rama?

Book Review Title: Whose Rama? [Malayalam] Author: T S Syamkumar Publisher: D C Books, Kerala Pages: 352 Rama may be an incarnation of God Vishnu, but is he as noble a man [ Maryada Purushottam ] as he is projected to be by certain sections of Hindus? This is the theme of Dr Syamkumar’s book, written in Malayalam. There is no English translation available yet. Rama is a creation of the Brahmins, asserts the author of this book. The Ramayana upholds the unjust caste system created by Brahmins for their own wellbeing. Everyone else exists for the sake of the Brahmin wellbeing. If the Kshatriyas are given the role of rulers, it is only because the Brahmins need such men to fight and die for them. Valmiki’s Rama too upheld that unjust system merely because that was his Kshatriya-dharma, allotted by the Brahmins. One of the many evils that Valmiki’s Rama perpetrates heartlessly is the killing of Shambuka, a boy who belonged to a low caste but chose to become an ascetic. The...

When Cricket Becomes War

Illustration by Copilot Designer Why did India agree to play Pakistan at all if the animosity runs so deep that Indian players could not even extend the customary handshake: a simple ritual that embodies the very essence of sportsmanship? Cricket is not war, in the first place. When a nation turns a game into a war, it does not defeat its rival; it only wages war on its own culture, poisoning its acclaimed greatness. India which claims to be Viswaguru , the world’s Guru, is degenerating itself day after day with mounting hatred against everyone who is not Hindu. How can we forget what India did to a young cricket player named Mohammed Siraj , especially in this context? In the recent test series against England, India achieved an unexpected draw because of Siraj. 1113 balls and 23 wickets. He was instrumental in India’s series-levelling victory in the final Test at the Oval and was declared the Player of the Match. But India did not celebrate him. Instead, it mocked him for his o...