Subcontinental drift: the ups and downs of a nation of extremes

India Rising: Tales From a Changing Nation
by Oliver Balch
Faber and Faber

This might not be the best of times for a book titled India Rising. The economy has seized up, the rupee has hit rock bottom, reforms have stalled and the government is in limbo. But then, paradox is inevitable in any study of India. And, as author Oliver Balch finds out, so is the emotional roller coaster of hope and despair that the country's extremes tend to trigger.

India has experienced massive changes during the past couple of decades. Hundreds of millions have moved out of poverty, malls and skyscrapers have mushroomed while globalisation and prosperity have ushered in new attitudes and social mores. Balch, a British journalist who returns to India after 15 years, traverses the country to understand the dynamics of this change by drawing on the stories of myriad characters, from corporate honchos to slum dwellers, actors, monks, fashionistas, social activists, students, teachers, marketeers, lawyers and sports people. The result is part travelogue, part journalism, part nostalgia, wholly anecdotal and largely entertaining.

Using the medium of everyman as the narrative of a nation has its obvious, intuitive appeal. All the more so in undermanaged India, where much of what people make of their lives, they do so despite the way it is governed, not because of it.

That's the opposite of over-managed China, with which Indians benchmark their nation. Which is why individual triumphs in India are as hope-inducing as its tribulations are dispiriting. Balch's journey is filled with both in equal measure.

First stop: entrepreneurs. Market, after all, is why India is back on the radar after decades of impoverished irrelevance. Understanding the people shaping and driving the changes seems the logical first step in understanding the new India itself. The new breed of risk-takers is inspiring: a village boy who rises to launch a budget airline; a doctor whose hospital chains make health care affordable by mass-producing it; and so on. A growing economy and new technology are also changing lives in fresh ways, from farmers selling their produce online to village women enlisted by companies to peddle soaps and toothpaste.