What do you think?
Rate this book
Rogue Elephant: Harnessing the Power of India's Unruly Democracy
Five years ago, India was an emerging world power being courted by the world's most powerful political and business leaders, an upbeat story of unparalleled economic growth. Since then, it has failed to account for the human capital at the heart of its effort to modernize: more than one billion people clamoring for what has become known as the 'Indian Dream' - an education, a career, and an opportunity to pull one's family out of poverty and into prosperity. Today, India is suffering an immense crisis of confidence-crippling political corruption, politicians mired in the status quo, economic inequality, brutal violence agains women, and rampant social injustice. Simon Denyer captures India at this crucial tilting point in its history.
384 pages, Hardcover
First published March 27, 2014
14 people are currently reading
162 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 16, 2017
I read this book as part of the History Book Club’s India challenge: the four books of The Raj Quartet plus one. The Quartet is historical fiction set at the end of British rule, so logically, the thing to read would be the history of independence and partition. I still plan to do that, but I was more interested in India today, so I read this book.
The author is a Western journalist who was stationed many years in India, so not only does he have expertise on his subject, he knows how to present it to Westerners like me who have very little background. Of course, I’d heard in the news that outsourcing was lifting India out of the Third World, and I’d seen the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” which gave me some visuals of India before and after this tech revolution, but that was all rather superficial. As one of the interviewees in the book puts it, the belief that the economic boom would automatically catapult India into prosperity and democracy was “delusional.” Centuries of ethnic tensions and caste divisions don’t disappear that fast. Things are improving, but not necessarily for everybody.
The book gives a thorough picture of the best and worst of India. Corruption in government is rampant, as is crime. It opens with a chapter on a theme very familiar to readers of The Raj Quartet: gang rape. It also confirms all the dark themes portrayed “Slumdog Millionaire” – ethnically-motivated mob violence, child trafficking, and mobsters taking the lion’s share of profits in the real estate boom. Yet for all that, the author gives us reason to hope. India has quite a few grassroots activists who style themselves after Gandhi, most notably a young woman engaging on the longest hunger strike in history and a cadre of anti-corruption whistle blowers. The activists have not achieved as much success as they’ve hoped for, but they, along with the followers they’ve managed to amass, have made improvements.
In the course of the book, the author quotes John Kenneth Galbraith, who served as the U.S. ambassador to India for a while. Galbraith said, “Whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true.” That about sums up the picture I got from this book. Corruption is holding up India’s progress, yet in spots, some wonderful victories are being won.
The author is a Western journalist who was stationed many years in India, so not only does he have expertise on his subject, he knows how to present it to Westerners like me who have very little background. Of course, I’d heard in the news that outsourcing was lifting India out of the Third World, and I’d seen the movie “Slumdog Millionaire,” which gave me some visuals of India before and after this tech revolution, but that was all rather superficial. As one of the interviewees in the book puts it, the belief that the economic boom would automatically catapult India into prosperity and democracy was “delusional.” Centuries of ethnic tensions and caste divisions don’t disappear that fast. Things are improving, but not necessarily for everybody.
The book gives a thorough picture of the best and worst of India. Corruption in government is rampant, as is crime. It opens with a chapter on a theme very familiar to readers of The Raj Quartet: gang rape. It also confirms all the dark themes portrayed “Slumdog Millionaire” – ethnically-motivated mob violence, child trafficking, and mobsters taking the lion’s share of profits in the real estate boom. Yet for all that, the author gives us reason to hope. India has quite a few grassroots activists who style themselves after Gandhi, most notably a young woman engaging on the longest hunger strike in history and a cadre of anti-corruption whistle blowers. The activists have not achieved as much success as they’ve hoped for, but they, along with the followers they’ve managed to amass, have made improvements.
In the course of the book, the author quotes John Kenneth Galbraith, who served as the U.S. ambassador to India for a while. Galbraith said, “Whatever you say about India, the opposite is also true.” That about sums up the picture I got from this book. Corruption is holding up India’s progress, yet in spots, some wonderful victories are being won.
November 17, 2020
I like to read about India by non-Indian writers for two reasons. First, it is always good to see your world in the eyes of others. And secondly, it is interesting to know what the foreigners are fed into about India, as these would be the books, they would pick up when they want to know about my country.
Simon Denyer is a foreign correspondent of Reuters/Washington Post, who lived in and covered India extensively in the last two decade. This book of his confines itself with the chronicles spanning late 2000s to early 2010s. Predominantly focusing on two issues - women safety and rampant corruption in politics and business, painting a pretty dystopian picture of India.
Though the book ends with a note of hope, putting a lot of onus on the young and vibrant population of India and their resilience in handling adversities to take the country forward, the tone of the author in describing the various incidents in those 5-6 years was pretty negative, bordering contempt, probably as a result of hardships and frustrations covering those incidents.
Denyer covers many topics with much intricate details like the Nirbhaya gang-rape and the aftermath, the India against corruption movement and the meteoric rise of Arvind Kejriwal, the fall of dynastic politics and encashing of polarization by Narendra Modi, the struggle for farmer rights, dysfunctional parliament, influence of 24X7 media channels etc. For a keen observer of current affairs in India, I don't think, this book has anything new to offer. However, it provides the expected darker and starker reality of life and politics in India to an outsider. Even if I can't accuse the author of any kind of misrepresentation in his fact based analysis, somehow, I believe, he lacked a sense of balance in his takes on the issues.
Simon Denyer is a foreign correspondent of Reuters/Washington Post, who lived in and covered India extensively in the last two decade. This book of his confines itself with the chronicles spanning late 2000s to early 2010s. Predominantly focusing on two issues - women safety and rampant corruption in politics and business, painting a pretty dystopian picture of India.
Though the book ends with a note of hope, putting a lot of onus on the young and vibrant population of India and their resilience in handling adversities to take the country forward, the tone of the author in describing the various incidents in those 5-6 years was pretty negative, bordering contempt, probably as a result of hardships and frustrations covering those incidents.
Denyer covers many topics with much intricate details like the Nirbhaya gang-rape and the aftermath, the India against corruption movement and the meteoric rise of Arvind Kejriwal, the fall of dynastic politics and encashing of polarization by Narendra Modi, the struggle for farmer rights, dysfunctional parliament, influence of 24X7 media channels etc. For a keen observer of current affairs in India, I don't think, this book has anything new to offer. However, it provides the expected darker and starker reality of life and politics in India to an outsider. Even if I can't accuse the author of any kind of misrepresentation in his fact based analysis, somehow, I believe, he lacked a sense of balance in his takes on the issues.
November 23, 2014
A bit of a stretch for me to give this book 3 stars, since it is not what I hoping for from the reviews I read about it. I had become very interested in the question of why India has only been growing at some 7% per year while China for such a long period before the world recession grew at more than 10% per year. China grew on the basis of becoming the work shop of the world by moving peasants from subsistence farming to factory work, and India has an even much larger pool of such available low cost labor.
I thought India should also have a big advantage over China because as everyone knows, India is the world's largest democracy, while China is a totalitarian police state
So I was looking for a lot of detailed economic analysis and statistics about demographics and industrial sectors. Instead this book is mostly war stories the journalist author has gathered from interviewing people in India in order to convey a sense of what the country like today.
In spite of this, the book did give me the answer to my basic question about the lack of growth for India. The reason is that Indian society is totally corrupt from top to bottom and almost completely lacking in the rule of law. India is still a basket case and has never really recovered from it's disastrous experiment with socialism. The police are roughly equal to the police in Mexico and mainly looking for bribes like all the other government workers and politicians.
The author ends the book, however, saying he is optimistic that there are some changes for the better taking place and better things lie ahead for the Indian people. We shall see.
I thought India should also have a big advantage over China because as everyone knows, India is the world's largest democracy, while China is a totalitarian police state
So I was looking for a lot of detailed economic analysis and statistics about demographics and industrial sectors. Instead this book is mostly war stories the journalist author has gathered from interviewing people in India in order to convey a sense of what the country like today.
In spite of this, the book did give me the answer to my basic question about the lack of growth for India. The reason is that Indian society is totally corrupt from top to bottom and almost completely lacking in the rule of law. India is still a basket case and has never really recovered from it's disastrous experiment with socialism. The police are roughly equal to the police in Mexico and mainly looking for bribes like all the other government workers and politicians.
The author ends the book, however, saying he is optimistic that there are some changes for the better taking place and better things lie ahead for the Indian people. We shall see.
May 21, 2016
Always approach these foreign journalist's work with some dread but this was a surprisingly good adddition to the genre in the style of Edward Luce's Inspite of the Gods; in many ways it updates Luce's book covering the 10 years since 2004. Denyer's book captures well the run up to the 2014 election and reading it one can see why Congress lost so badly; he is best in analysing the failings of the Manmohan Singh regime during UPA II and also why despite his personal integrity, Singh ultimately turned out to be a poor PM. This is also based on his earlier journalist's criticism in print in the Washington Post which laid out the deficiencies of Singh as a PM and his govt - for which Denyer received an abusive call from Singh's media adviser, only one of the many missteps in dealing with the media that the UPA regime and the Congress party made leading up to 2014. In fact poor media management in response to corruption scandals over Coalgate, the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the 2G affair, the 2012 rape case, betray a party and a leadership divorced from ground realities and being constantly misfooted by critics in the media and political opposition.
The only gaps are Denyer's rather Delhi-centric approach; though he does journey to Manipur and covers the Iron Sharmila sage with great sensitivity and detail; yet too much of his analysis depends on the view from Delhi. South India is almost completely absent from his narrative and given that this is the socially most advanced and best administered part of India, it has obviously coloured his view.
There is also a misunderstanding of India's economic system before 1991 and the usual American belief that free markets and a turn away from a statist system is inherently superior; while this approach has its merits, it overlooks the contributions to growth and development that were delivered under the Nehruvian regime and the systemic problems of lack of inclusion of the rural sector and the inability to generate jobs that the current market-based approach has. A more thorough based analysis of why India can generate jobs in the services sector but not in the manufacturing one would have been merited.
All in all though an easy and useful read; it is a shame that the book stops before the general elections of 2014 as the author's thoughts on that and the subsequent events would have been interesting. To his credit Denyer is not impressed by Modi in his personal meetings and makes some very prescient criticisms about the risks that lie to India's democracy and social stability in adopting the kind of politics that Modi represents.
The only gaps are Denyer's rather Delhi-centric approach; though he does journey to Manipur and covers the Iron Sharmila sage with great sensitivity and detail; yet too much of his analysis depends on the view from Delhi. South India is almost completely absent from his narrative and given that this is the socially most advanced and best administered part of India, it has obviously coloured his view.
There is also a misunderstanding of India's economic system before 1991 and the usual American belief that free markets and a turn away from a statist system is inherently superior; while this approach has its merits, it overlooks the contributions to growth and development that were delivered under the Nehruvian regime and the systemic problems of lack of inclusion of the rural sector and the inability to generate jobs that the current market-based approach has. A more thorough based analysis of why India can generate jobs in the services sector but not in the manufacturing one would have been merited.
All in all though an easy and useful read; it is a shame that the book stops before the general elections of 2014 as the author's thoughts on that and the subsequent events would have been interesting. To his credit Denyer is not impressed by Modi in his personal meetings and makes some very prescient criticisms about the risks that lie to India's democracy and social stability in adopting the kind of politics that Modi represents.
June 23, 2016
This book had a lot of fascinating people and stories in it, however the way it was written was maddening. The utter lack of sympathy for the customs, culture, complexity and history of India and a total fixation on abstract academic ideas of human rights, economic growth, and corruption made for a cold and sterile account of a country that is anything but. It was more of a collection of dry but semi-interesting Economist articles than a real exploration of the world's largest and maybe most complicated democracy. A disappointment.
April 10, 2014
A very insightful book. The author is not from India yet his observations on India's unfolding democracy are profound and insightful. He exhibits an intuitive grasp. Which makes me wonder that people living in democracies, whatever be the stage of their democratic evolution, will probably relate to each other more deeply than any other underlying criteria like religion, race etc. as humanity moves to next level in its evolution.
July 9, 2014
Insightful book that explores the various forces affecting India today (and continue into the future). A chapter-by-chapter analysis from a journalist reporting with access to the highest echelons of India's movers-and-shakers. Strong faith in democracy as the way forward, and each of the forces is analyzed through the lens of how it could make India a more vibrant democracy. Worth a read.
July 15, 2014
A comprehensive overview of the working of Indian democracy. For regular followers of happenings across the country,this book breaks no new ground . My personal favorite is the chapter on Narendra Modi where the author expresses his doubts about the NaMo model.
August 18, 2015
Classic book on the last decade of indian politics. Beautifully written, readable and cohesive.
It provides examples which prove that india as democracy is changing for the better.
It provides examples which prove that india as democracy is changing for the better.
August 11, 2018
Such a negative statement of India, like no other foreign country has problem. A very equivocal reportage of India. Disgusting left it half.
February 19, 2018
The author Mr Simon Denyer is a professional journalist with comprehensive experience reporting around the globe. He has been post to many countries including China, Nigeria, USA, UK, India, and Pakistan. He was the head of Indian bureau of The Washington Post. His role allowed him to interview many prominent figures in India. Besides the political leaders, he also traveled to rural areas interviewing villagers. He did an amazing account for India for the period of 2004~2014. Though some events seemed a little outdated in 2018, the book gave me great insight into Indian society.
The book opened with the incident of a girl being raped by young men. The girl was raped and then killed. It sparked enormous anger among Indian people. Women are easily subjected to victims of harassment. This incident pulled the trigger, and people went onto the streets, calling for improvement. Women's safety is just one issue among many others. Denyer introduced these issues from the perspective of politics.
Denyer spent some paragraphs discussing about the rampant corruption. The scale of corruption was immense. There were wholesale corruption (misappropriation of money at government level) and retail corruption ('fast money' in daily life). The fight against the problem was continuous. There were uplifting examples from the top leaders to grassroots commoners. Though there are still many room for improvement, it seems we can have some positive anticipation.
I learned much about the political world of India. Denyer set out the history of Indian democracy. I read about the Ghandi family, Manmohan Singh, Modi, and other influential figures. Denyer seemed to be very critical on every politician. He did mention their good, but he mostly focused on the bad. Journalists are always perceptive. These description provides me different views. Aside from politicians, he mentioned the stale functioning of parliaments. There were many things impeding the legislation such as vested interests. This slowed the promised development from the government. Even some members in the Houses were not qualified as lawmakers. Some lacked the integrity because of criminal conviction.
Denyer accounted several social movements that aimed to revamp Indian politics. I think it's very fortunate that Indians have democracy to work things out. Though it may be slower, this system offers more opportunity to everyone. However, Indian leaders should speed up the process. Many new challenges are already emerging. For example, the large proportions of young population can either empower the economic growth (demographic dividends), or lead to potential social unrest (demographic disaster). India needs to speed up the job creations. Otherwise, it may make more people unsatisfactory.
Overall, the book reads like a collection of newspaper articles. I really learn a lot of India from this amazing work. Highly recommend to anyone interested in contemporary India.
The book opened with the incident of a girl being raped by young men. The girl was raped and then killed. It sparked enormous anger among Indian people. Women are easily subjected to victims of harassment. This incident pulled the trigger, and people went onto the streets, calling for improvement. Women's safety is just one issue among many others. Denyer introduced these issues from the perspective of politics.
Denyer spent some paragraphs discussing about the rampant corruption. The scale of corruption was immense. There were wholesale corruption (misappropriation of money at government level) and retail corruption ('fast money' in daily life). The fight against the problem was continuous. There were uplifting examples from the top leaders to grassroots commoners. Though there are still many room for improvement, it seems we can have some positive anticipation.
I learned much about the political world of India. Denyer set out the history of Indian democracy. I read about the Ghandi family, Manmohan Singh, Modi, and other influential figures. Denyer seemed to be very critical on every politician. He did mention their good, but he mostly focused on the bad. Journalists are always perceptive. These description provides me different views. Aside from politicians, he mentioned the stale functioning of parliaments. There were many things impeding the legislation such as vested interests. This slowed the promised development from the government. Even some members in the Houses were not qualified as lawmakers. Some lacked the integrity because of criminal conviction.
Denyer accounted several social movements that aimed to revamp Indian politics. I think it's very fortunate that Indians have democracy to work things out. Though it may be slower, this system offers more opportunity to everyone. However, Indian leaders should speed up the process. Many new challenges are already emerging. For example, the large proportions of young population can either empower the economic growth (demographic dividends), or lead to potential social unrest (demographic disaster). India needs to speed up the job creations. Otherwise, it may make more people unsatisfactory.
Overall, the book reads like a collection of newspaper articles. I really learn a lot of India from this amazing work. Highly recommend to anyone interested in contemporary India.
December 24, 2020
Refreshing non nationalistic review of some of popular and not so well known challenges India faces between addressing corruption, dealing with minorities and the government reforms for women and children safety. Enjoyed how factual and well researched this book was, though I worry how well it was received in the country with the common excuse of foreign propaganda.
April 2, 2022
4/5. A worthy addition to the magisterial work by Guha.
July 13, 2015
good writing
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews