Book review - Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality

Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality
John Elliott
HarperCollins
Pages: 400; Price: Rs 699

In his 24 years as a reporter in India for Financial Times, Fortune and other publications, John Elliott has travelled to more places in this country on assignment than most Indian journalists, including this reviewer, have and likely ever will. That and the rigour of journalism he practises make him a master storyteller on a subject close to his heart: India.

 

Elliott both delivers and underwhelms in his book, Implosion: India's Tryst with Reality. The British writer is clearly an Indologist with a well-honed sense of research that is unique in journalism today. He breaks Implosion into seven chapters and 23 sections to make it easy for a reader to choose any one chapter and jump to another one. The chapters are around the 1991/92 reforms; social change sweeping the country; the overwhelming presence of dynasty; governance or the lack of it; foreign policy; Indian traits of jugaad, chalta hai and ram bharose (roughly translated: fix or make things with less, let's settle for average, and god willing); and, finally, coming to grips with reality.

Elliott nicely weaves in India's challenges of balancing growth and environment, the rush to grab land, how rules and systems have been bent to serve individual rather than national interest, the country's frosty relationship with its neighbours, and, provocatively, how its misgovernance is deliberate. A section on Andhra Pradesh (Elliott titles it Scam Andhra) is exceptional in its rich reporting and bringing together information via meta-research.

A few things that stand out for me in the reportage in Implosion:

The 'M' document: The author of a July 1990 paper, which formed the bedrock of much of the reforms set off the following year by then prime minister Narasimha Rao and Manmohan Singh, finance minister in the Rao cabinet, was Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission now.

n Tata's unlearnt lessons: After 12 tribals were killed in 2006, Tata Steel realised the need to be involved in local resettlement at its project in Kalinganagar in Odisha. But little of that learning was on display when Tata Motors was faced with industrial India's most visible protests in Singur, West Bengal.

n Rahul, the reticent: Elliott recounts watching Rahul Gandhi and mother Sonia at an art gallery: "...what struck me was how unimpressive Rahul looked on an occasion when he was not performing publicly... That Saturday afternoon, he looked as if he just wanted to fade away."

There are several other untold stories and factoids that frequently mark the book and will tickle readers' minds. Where it fails, however, is on three counts: one, at its core, it echoes the reformist voices - at times, dogmatic and unidimensional - you get to hear among Delhi's benign. Two, Elliott doesn't offer solutions to the problems he so meticulously shines the light on. When I asked Elliott about this, his answer was: just focus on implementation. "It's so much easier to argue policy than try to actually do things," he told me. Three, the book doesn't service its title, Implosion, well. Maybe, I find it a little melodramatic because, as an Indian, I am used to all the chaos Elliott talks about.

The nature of a journalist's work - chronicling, really - is such that most live by the "mile wide, inch deep" credo. To that extent, don't expect Pratap Bhanu Mehta or Sunil Khilnani kind of insights in Implosion. But Elliott's work is must-read for anyone watching India from abroad and at least a good-to-have-read for those resident in India.