Title: The Elephant, The Tiger
and the Cellphone – Reflections on India in the Twnety-first Century
Author: Shashi Tharoor
Publisher:
Penguin-Viking, 2007 (First)
ISBN: 978-0-67008-145-5
Pages: 387
A scion of international politics
who almost made it to the Secretary-Generalship of the U.N, and a charismatic
politician who redefined politics the way we practised it since independence,
Tharoor is an Indian at heart and rejoices at the unity in widespread
contradictions – that is, India. Though he spent most of his career overseas,
he opened his heart and mind to the vibrations emanating from the motherland
and formed well developed ideas about how the country made its precarious crawl
to Indira-style socialism and began to run thereafter, ever since P V Narasimha
Rao ushered in the winds of change. As the title amply illustrates, India was a
lumbering elephant in the first four decades of her independence. The gait was
unwieldy, decisions painfully slow to make and the actions forever delayed in
materializing. Liberalization exposed the true potential of Indian industry and
trade, changing the metaphor to the tiger. But the transformation was not
complete – it still has tiger’s stripes on the elephant’s body which still need
a long time to fully transform as a tiger. The cellphone symbolizes India’s
success story like no other. From waiting lists which would have taken years
for the public to get a basic phone, the cellphone has revolutionized
communication to plenitude.
The book is divided into five
sections and 76 articles which originally came out in op-eds and columns of the
country’s newspapers. Naturally, repetitions are to be expected and the reader
finds them frequently. The sections cover a wide area of an author’s
experience, like the transformation of India, Ideas of Indianness, India at
work and play, Indians who helped make my India and Experiences of India.
This is not a survey of Indian politics or history nor reportage. It reflects
the world view of the English-speaking, educated professional and
entrepreneurial classes who are driving change and prosperity in India, who
still manages to live in several centuries at the same time.
Tharoor turns critical only when
he encounters the blunder which passed for planned economy in
pre-liberalized India. The book is also an indictment on the centrally planned
notions prevailed then. Communication was woefully inadequate with 8 million
customers and 20 million in the waiting list. C M Stephen, the then
communications minister in Indira Gandhi’s cabinet, once replied to a question
on unreliability of telephone lines in Parliament that the telephone is a
luxury and anyone dissatisfied with the state monopoly service can return the
sets! How the country has changed thereafter.
What Tharoor repeats again and
again is the eclectic and assimilative nature of Indian culture which proved to
be the meeting place of all religions known to mankind. Just like America is
referred to as a great ‘melting pot’, India may be called a great thali,
where the different ingredients do not actually mix, but provide delicious
taste to the offering. Such an inimitable mix of ideas and opinions is possible
only in a true democracy which provides every opportunity for the marginalized
to express themselves. The author specifically points to the political scenario
which emerged soon after the 2004 General Elections. A Hindu-nationalist party
was voted out in a country of 80% Hindus, a Sikh (Manmohan Singh) was sworn in
prime minister by its Muslim President (A P J Abdul Kalam) upon the
recommendation by a Roman Catholic leader (Sonia Gandhi) of the major winning
party. Nowhere in the world can such a spectacle take place.
Tharoor always love to portray
himself on the politically correct side of a question. One wonders whether his
true feelings are expressed in the book. It does not seem to be what he
actually thinks, but what he should think. A few hundreds of pages are
devoted to display the moral highstand which is repetitive and lacks sincerety.
Most articles are ideally suited for quoting in school essays and nothing else.
It lack depth and resort to exaggeration of even mild achievements to skyhigh
praise. The comparison of Infosys to Microsoft is a case in point.
Tharoor includes a collection of
biographies and reminiscences as a section. Prominent personalities in the
Indian social life, like the Mahatma, Nehru and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad are
included without the slightest concern for relevance or criticism. Except for
an objective review of Indira Gandhi’s life, all others pander to the political
objectives of the author. The life story of Mariam Thresia, a Keralite nun who
was beatified in 2000 includes references to her supernatural miracles like
levitation taken at face value.
On the other hand, the book is a
delight to read, with Tharoor’s cheerfulness pervading the book cover to cover.
Nobody could complete the volume without extracting a bit of the optimistic
streak coursing through and between the lines. A fine introduction to India for
those foreigners who want to familiarize the country and also a good review of
how our society went through its day to day life over the eons. This book
should set a fine example to illustrate the point that how secularism found an
unshakeable place in the national psyche, without denying religion to any of
its citizens.
The book is strongly recommended.
Rating: 3 Star
