MARC Record from Library of Congress

LEADER: 05184cam a22003734a 4500
001 2006014227
003 DLC
005 20070308092942.0
008 060501s2007 nyuabf b 001 0 eng
010 $a 2006014227
020 $a9780385514743
020 $a0385514743
035 $a(OCoLC)ocm68373240
040 $aDLC$cDLC$dYDX$dBAKER$dBTCTA$dYDXCP$dOCO$dCOO$dGK8$dFVC$dDLC
042 $apcc
043 $aa-ii---
050 00 $aHC435.3$b.L83 2007
082 00 $a954.05/3$222
100 1 $aLuce, Edward,$d1968-
245 10 $aIn spite of the gods :$bthe strange rise of modern India /$cEdward Luce.
250 $a1st U.S. ed.
260 $aNew York :$bDoubleday,$cc2007.
300 $ax, 383 p., [16] p. of plates :$bill. (some col.), map ;$c24 cm.
504 $aIncludes bibliographical references (p. [357]-367) and index.
505 0 $aGlobal and medieval : India's schizophrenic economy -- The Burra Sahibs : the long tentacles of India's state -- Battles of the righteous : the rise of India's lower castes -- The imaginary horse : the continuing threat of Hindu nationalism -- Long live the sycophants! : The Congress Party's continuing love affairs with the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty -- Many crescents : South Asia's divided Muslims -- A triangular dance : why India's relations with the United States and China will shape the world in the 21st century -- New India, old India : the many-layered character of Indian modernity -- Hers to lose : India's huge opportunities and challenges in the 21st century.
520 $a"India remains a mystery to many Americans, even as it is poised to become the worldʾs 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 Indiaʾs 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 Indiaʾs 600,000 villages. Yet amid all these extremes exists the worldʾs largest experiment in representative democracy-and a largely successful one, despite bureaucracies riddled with horrifying corruption."--From source other than the Library of Congress
520 $aLuce 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 Indiaʾs rise, even welcoming it into the nuclear energy club, hoping to balance Chinaʾs 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 ʺhers to lose.ʺ
520 $aIncludes information on Afghanistan, agriculture, Bhimrao Ambedkar, Ayodhya, Bangalore, Bangladesh, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Brahmins, Buddhism, bureaucracy, George Bush, caste system, cattle, China, Christians, British colonialism, Congress Party, corruption, Dalits, democracy, economy, education, elections, electricity, equality, Indira Gandhi, Mohandas Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Great Britain, Gujarat, health care, Hindu nationalism, Hindus, Hinduism, industrialization, information technology, Japan, jobs, Kashmir, Kerala, literacy, lower castes, marriage, military, modernity, Narendra Modi, Mumbai (Bombay), Muslims, Jawaharlal Nehru, New Delhi, nuclear weapons, Pakistan, police, politics, poverty, Punjab, riots, roads, science, secularism, separatist insurgencies, Sikhs, Manmohan Singh, Soviet Union, taxes, television, terrorists, United States, upper castes, urbanization, Uttar Pradesh, Atal Behari Vajpayee, villages, water, etc.
651 0 $aIndia$xEconomic conditions$y21st century.
651 0 $aIndia$xCivilization.
856 41 $3Table of contents only$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/ecip0613/2006014227.html
856 42 $3Contributor biographical information$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0661/2006014227-b.html
856 42 $3Publisher description$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0661/2006014227-d.html
856 41 $3Sample text$uhttp://www.loc.gov/catdir/enhancements/fy0704/2006014227-s.html