An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions - Hardcover

Dreze, Jean; Sen, Amartya

4.15

1,511 ratings by Goodreads

9781846147616: An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1846147611 ISBN 13: 9781846147616

Publisher: Allen Lane, 2013

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From two of India's leading economists, Jean Dr�ze (Hunger and Public Action) and Nobel Prize-winner Amartya Sen (The Idea of Justice), An Uncertain Glory is a passionate, considered argument for the need for a greater understanding of inequalities in India, despite economic development.

When India regained independence from colonial rule in 1947, it immediately adopted a firmly democratic political system, with multiple parties, freedom of speech and extensive political rights. The famines of the British era disappeared, and steady economic growth replaced stagnation, accelerating further over the last three decades to make India's growth the second fastest among large economies. Despite a recent dip, it is still one of the highest in the world.

Maintaining rapid yet environmentally sustainable growth remains an important and achieveable goal for India. Dr�ze and Sen argue that the country's main problems lie in the disregarding of the essential needs of the people. There have been major failures both to foster participatory growth and to make good use of the public resources generated by economic growth to enhance people's living conditions; social and physical services remain inadequate, from schooling and medical care to safe water, electricity, and sanitation. In the long run, even high economic growth is threatened by the underdevelopment of infrastructure and the neglect of human capabilities, in contrast with the holistic approach pioneered by Japan, South Korea and China.

In a democracy, addressing these failures requires not only significant policy change, but also a clearer public understanding of the abysmal extent of deprivation in the country. Yet public discussion in India tends to be constricted to the lives and concerns of the relatively affluent. This book presents a powerful analysis not only of India's deprivations and inequalities, but also of the restraints on addressing them - and of the possibility of change through democratic practice.

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Review:

"Sen and Dr?ze carefully explain such issues as health care, education, corruption, lack of accountability, growing inequality, and their suppression in India's elite-dominated public space. . . . Sen and Dr?ze also reveal how democracy in its simplest manifestation, the scramble for votes, can drive successful implementation of welfare programs such as the Public Distribution System."--Pankaj Mishra, "New York Review of Books"

One of "BloombergBusinessweek" Best Books of 2013, selected by Edmund Phelps
One of "BloombergBusinessweek" Best Books of 2013, selected by Edmund Phelps
"[A]n excellent but unsettling new book."--
"The Economist"
One of "Bloomberg/Businessweek" Best Books of 2013, selected by Edmund Phelps
One of "Bloomberg/Businessweek" Best Books of 2013, selected by Edmund Phelps
"[A]n excellent but unsettling new book."--"The Economist"

""An Uncertain Glory" is an excellent, highly readable, and exceptionally meaningful book."--S. Prakash Sethi, "Business Ethics Quarterly"

One of Bloomberg/Businessweek Best Books of 2013, selected by Edmund Phelps

"It's an urgent, passionate, political work that makes the case that India cannot move forward without investing significantly--as every other major industrialized country has already done--in public services. . . . This book is . . . a heartfelt plea to rethink what progress in a poor country ought to look like."--Jyoti Thottam, New York Times Book Review

From the Back Cover:

'In dealing with India's multitude of problems, there may well be a temptation - but not a serious reason - for India to give up or reduce its long commitment to democracy, for which so many people have fought and out of which so much good has already come to the country. It is deeply disappointing that more use has not been made of the opportunities offered by a political democracy and a free society to solve the problems that so many Indians continue to face. The success of a democracy depends ultimately on the vigour of its practice, and with that in mind, the book presents material for informed and reasoned public engagement. The important task is not so much to find a 'new India', but to contribute to making one.'

[adapted from Chapter I, 'A New India?']

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