<![CDATA[In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India]]>

false <![CDATA[In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1170848889m/74121.jpg 74121 7 India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the world’s third largest economy within a generation, outstripping Japan. It will surpass China in population by 2032 and will have more English speakers than the United States by 2050. In In Spite of the Gods, Edward Luce, a journalist who covered India for many years, makes brilliant sense of India and its rise to global power. Already a number-one bestseller in India, his book is sure to be acknowledged for years as the definitive introduction to modern India. In Spite of the Gods illuminates a land of many contradictions. The booming tech sector we read so much about in the West, Luce points out, employs no more than one million of India’s 1.1 billion people. Only 35 million people, in fact, have formal enough jobs to pay taxes, while three-quarters of the country lives in extreme deprivation in India’s 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the world’s largest experiment in representative democracy—and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption. Luce shows that India is an economic rival to the U.S. in an entirely different sense than China is. There is nothing in India like the manufacturing capacity of China, despite the huge potential labor force. An inept system of public education leaves most Indians illiterate and unskilled. Yet at the other extreme, the middle class produces ten times as many engineering students a year as the United States. Notwithstanding its future as a major competitor in a globalized economy, American. leaders have been encouraging India’s rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance China’s influence in Asia. Above all, In Spite of the Gods is an enlightening study of the forces shaping India as it tries to balance the stubborn traditions of the past with an unevenly modernizing present. Deeply informed by scholarship and history, leavened by humor and rich in anecdote, it shows that India has huge opportunities as well as tremendous challenges that make the future “hers to lose.” 71715 2006 In Spite of the Gods: The Strange Rise of Modern India total:284|5:62|4:139|3:72|2:9|1:2| 284 1102 576 72 3 1 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 21:08:48 -0700 2007 Mon Oct 01 17:17:53 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 1 true false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Mon Sep 24 15:19:55 -0700 2007 Mon Sep 24 16:25:07 -0700 2007 The book comes at a good time as the West has never been more coo-coo for cocoa puffs about India. Most of these warm feelings are about India's relatively recent IT (and overall economic) revolution. To a...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 14:28:17 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 01 14:28:30 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Sep 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 17:55:24 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 04 18:07:40 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Jun 11 02:26:50 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 11 02:30:15 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Mon Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Aug 19 06:45:43 -0700 2007 Fri Oct 12 15:09:38 -0700 2007 The amount of history he covers is vast and sometimes he touches very fleetingly on subjects leaving you hungry for more. There are times when I felt, he generalised i...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 19:11:56 -0700 2008 Tue May 13 19:15:55 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu Nov 20 01:03:18 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 01:10:55 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jan 23 11:56:23 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 12:08:39 -0800 2008
The gratifying feature was that Ed Luce, unlike most other writers, was not wary of presenting his own opinions.]]> 4 0 false false Wed Aug 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 29 11:26:29 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 07:30:06 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 19 23:54:56 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 07:49:00 -0800 2009
it's a great overview of where india is and is poised to go in the 21st century. luce explains india's dynasty politics (nehru/gandhi) and religious context to help the reader understand how india's bureaucracy, s...more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 01:30:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 01:30:13 -0700 2009
getAbstract recommends this excellent, well-written work of reportage on India. Edward Luce provides a colorful, striking picture of the country and its unconventional path to development. Within the past several years, numerous books have been publishe...more...]]> 5 1 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 09 15:54:57 -0800 2009 Fri Jan 09 15:56:00 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Fri Jul 04 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 22 10:20:14 -0700 2008 Fri Jul 04 06:33:28 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri May 04 11:08:32 -0700 2007 Fri May 04 11:23:06 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Oct 03 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 11 22:14:02 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 03 18:21:08 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Tue May 15 12:29:56 -0700 2007 Wed Jun 20 10:58:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 09:03:42 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 17 09:08:58 -0700 2009 Pros-His meetings with the political bigwigs are interesting.His candid discussions give us a inside look about the leaders take on issues like development,power,money and politics.
Cons-He appeeared to be biased against the Hindu religious groups such as Art o...more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Mar 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 10:56:46 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 22 11:01:19 -0700 2009 ]]> 5 0 false false Tue Sep 29 09:05:50 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 09:17:51 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=74121