Before I dive into this, I just want to say it out loud - I absolutely love elephants. There’s something irresistibly charming about these odd-bodied, unapologetic, big-brained giants that makes me think, “Maybe gaining a few kilos isn’t such a bad thing after all.”
What makes elephants even more fascinating, though, is their uncanny resemblance to India - the very nation that shelters one of their largest thriving populations. Both are vast, emotional, unpredictable, and audible only to those attuned to their hard thuds and mellow murmurs. And yes, before you roll your eyes, I’ll be linking some random elephant facts later - entirely unnecessary, mildly bewildering, but hopefully entertaining.
Now that we’ve had our fair share of flora and fauna, it’s time to slip into my serious swimming trunks and wade into deeper waters. This time, I find myself turning the pages of yet another book on India - but not one written by a passing political commentator. This comes from a man who has lived through India’s transformations, from the red-tape-choked corridors of the License Raj to the fizz and frenzy of the 1990s cola wars: Gurcharan Das.
A champion of intellectual honesty and a master of conveying layered ideas without hiding behind verbosity, Das stands out in India’s literary landscape. What draws me further into his work is how seamlessly he weaves mythological reflection with modern dilemmas - exploring everything from statecraft and governance (India Unbound) to morality and human frailty (The Difficulty of Being Good). His writing doesn’t just describe India; It makes one want to look out of the window.
"India Grows at Night,When the Government sleeps"
Hidden in plain sight, these lines are to the book what brandy is to wine - a distilled elixir left for the palate. The book largely deals with the Indian growth paradox - the steep, exponential curve of FDI and perception that post-1990 India witnessed, and the slow trot of a large yet weak government trying to keep pace.
Much of its early chapters explore the idea of a weak state and its historical footing in modern, medieval, and ancient India. Das threads together insights from the Subas of Mughal rule, the provincial discretion of the British Raj, and the rise of an opulent federalism in modern Indian democracy, weaving a narrative that traces the long-standing existence of a fragile state in the subcontinent.
With the stage set for a battle of ideas, the Indian story begins to unfold into what many call “The Indian Miracle.” First-hand accounts testify to the resilient and dramatic economic rise of a nation transformed by the liberalization efforts undertaken by the Centre in the 1990s. These narratives make a compelling case for the potential and acumen of its people, capturing the rise of IT hubs such as Bengaluru and Gurugram, and the steady stabilization of markets across the country. And just as when all seems fun and games, the book presents you with the horror that surpasses 5 Nights at Freddy's - Indian Public Infrastructure. While the reader upto this point is sensing an easy road ahead, Das hits us with the conundrum that slides along with the Indian Miracle, A State that is trying hard to keep up and only pushes the disparity further. The reader is hit with mind boggling numbers and statistics as well as lived experiences pertaining to the state of Government Infrastructure and its rusted machinery, one that further pays an ode to the vigor of its people, almost asserting that The Indian Miracle is working despite its government.
As the final chapters arrive, the book almost leaves the reader with a couple of questions to ponder on - If India has grown despite its government, can the dilemma of disparity be covered with tighter government control? If India can come this far with a weak and big government, how far can we go with a strong and compact one?
India Grows at Night is a captivating and surprisingly fun read. While we're all told not to judge a book by its cover, this one’s is strikingly prophetic. The image of a middle-class family navigating rough territory on a single bike speaks volumes, perfectly capturing the book's central theme: the tenacious rise of an aspirational class fighting to get ahead in a system that barely acknowledges its existence.
Das kicks things off with what sounds like a startling contradiction, describing his work in the prologue as "a liberal case for a strong state." It sounds absurd, right? Yet, the book masterfully unpacks this paradox. It argues that the delicate balance between two such opposing forces - liberal politics and a strong state-isn't found in ideology, but in a simple, guiding principle of any healthy democracy: responsiveness.
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