After spending more than a decade in the United States, Akash Kapur returned to his homeland, Chennai, India. During his absence, India had gone through a miraculous transformation. Leaving behind the antiquated socialist system, India embraced capitalism which resulted in the in-sourcing of millions of jobs. Gone were the farmland and rice fields, the primitive living conditions, vegetarian diets, suppressed women, and strict caste system. Akash witnessed what appeared to be a whole new world of modern infrastructure, gated communities, open-air restaurants, movie theaters, shopping malls and high rise office buildings housing high-tech industries. Akash saw men and women dressed fashionably, driving cars, talking on cell phones, and openly holding hands in public.
India’s transformation, Akash found “intoxicating and exciting”. He decided to write a book, traveling around India interviewing people and documenting his observations. It didn’t take long for Akash to discover that everything was not as marvelous and progressive as it appeared. Beneath the surface of the pretentious new materialism and the highly visible young, educated, optimistic, self-confident rising middle class of the large cities, was a volatile uncertainly. India is faced with consumer debt and a new entitlement mentality. It’s all about money, greed and power. And the greed has created a new lawlessness – violence and bombings, corruption, and a drug trade. Economic growth at the cost of ruined villages, developed farm land, pollution, and lack of clean water.
Among the most interesting interviewed are R. Sathyanarayanan (Sathy). Sathy is a forty-one year old farmer. He is the descendant of a feudal lord who once owned thousands of acres of land and fed entire villages with his produce. Sathy still owns several hundred acres but is worried about his future. It is almost impossible to make a living and farming is not a respected occupation anymore. Farmers all over India are being forced – many times at gun point – to sell out to developers. With over a billion people in India, Sathy contemplates, “If all the farms are gone, then who will feed all these fancy people?” (page 85).
Akash also interviews a young woman named Selvi who works for an American call center. She shares her story of living an independent life away from her family and the difficulty of adapting to life in the city.
The most harrowing interviews were at Dharavi, a slum of a million people, and gypsies living on the edge of a toxic landfill.
“India Becoming” presents a compact overview of life in India today, but is somewhat repetitive and limited in scope. Rather than interviewing a large multitude of people from all walks of life, Akash repeatedly returns to the same group of 6 or 8 people over a period of time. And several of those were of slight interest.
Rated 2.5 Stars.
Books rated 1, I seldom finish. Books rated 2, I usually finish, but would never recommend to anyone. 5 is the highest rating.