Review of India Shashtra by Dr. Shashi Tharoor

As a public figure and an eminent politician, Dr Shashi Tharoor has carved a unique niche for himself in public perception and media, owing to his several “trysts with destiny”–of both favourable and unfavourable hues–on social media platforms as well as in real life. Truth, it is said, is sometimes stranger than fiction; and who could be a better example of having lead such a chequered life amidst harsh scrutiny and comments–some warranted and some unwarranted– from all quarters of socio-political arenas and platforms?

What can be said undeniably of this extremely charming, suave and articulate writer-politician with a large body of experience–he was the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations, which he served for 29 years, he was a former Minister of State for External Affairs in the Government of India; currently he has been re-elected as a Member of Parliament from the Thiruvananthapuram constituency, and chairs the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs–is that he is a very insightful writer and an author par excellence. His astute sense of perception, and his understanding of both the micro-level of Indian politics at the grassroots as well as the holistic picture at the macro-level, is evident from his latest book India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time. An extensive collection of 100 essays, it makes for discerning reading, and offers much food for thought on contemporary India and events from its recent history that have contributed to its present state of affairs in the political, social, economic, cultural and communal arenas.

Divided into eight neatly segregated sections, India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time talks about the events that have shaped India until May of 2014. Section I, “India Modi-fied,” scrutinizes the first six months of the BJP government’s performance chart. Interestingly, despite himself being a Congress MP, Shashi Tharoor has displayed a remarkable sense of appreciation for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s genuine accomplishments such as the Cleanliness Initiative, but is equally critical of Modi’s purported “silence” on communal voices rearing their ugly heads from time to time in myriad nooks and crannies of the country.

Section II, “Modi’s India and the World,” dwells on the foreign policy actions and decisions of the new government, the problems afflicting the country’s foreign policy, Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj’s successful diplomatic breakthrough during her Afghanistan visit, the infamous Khobragade scandal, and other such incidents that have been colouring recent news.

The section which I found the most endearing and alluring was undoubtedly the third one on “The Legacy,” which speaks, among other topics, on the forgotten Indian soldiers who participated in the First World War, the legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, the ideals of Sardar Vallabhai Patel, the teachings of Swami Vivekananda, the aura of the inimitable Rabindranath Tagore and about many such great personalities, and the heritage that is a part and parcel of India’s rich cultural past. About Tagore, Dr Shashi Tharoor writes: “And yet this magnificent wielder of words spoke modestly of the value of poetry. ‘Words are barren, dismal and uninspiring by themselves,’ he said in a 1922 lecture, ‘but when they are bound together by some bond of rhythm they attain their significance as a reality which can be described as creative.'” The fact that India has inherited such great legacies in terms of thinkers, philosophers, visionaries, political leaders, authors, poets, et al is a matter of national pride, and the author has done a remarkable job in clustering these under this evocative third section of essays.

The fourth section entitled “Ideas of India” deals with the changes in age-old ideas of Indian democracy and talks about fresh perspectives sweeping the hearts of Indians, be it the emergence of the Aam Aadmi Party after toppling established legacies, or the new-fangled definitions of development, which, for a modern evolved Indian represents a better quality of life and not just a figure denoting a plumped-up GDP (Gross Domestic Product) figure or some infrastructural achievements. For instance, Tharoor explains that one of his “most favourite images of India is from the last Kumbh Mela of a naked Sadhu, with matted hair, ash-smeared forehead, rudraksh mala and scraggly beard, for all the world a picture of timeless other-wordliness, chatting away on a cell-phone.”  In his inimitable style, Tharoor decodes these interesting paradoxes visible in today’s India.

“The Pursuit of Excellence,” which comprises Section V deals with the nation’s quest to excel in various key areas of development, be it industry and manufacturing or a better quality of education, particularly higher education for the blossoming of–by far the most crucial resource of any nation–its youth. Moreover, this section speaks about India’s lunar mission Chandrayaan and its hugely successful Martian mission Mangalyaan, catapulting the country to the top echelons, among the many developed nations with a progressive space and research infrastructure in place. India’s Twitter revolutions, the futuristic e-governance and the role of the web in shaping the future of any nation’s socio-political space are also discussed here.

Section VI picks up “Issues of Contention,” offering much cause for debate and dilemma for India, such as the Ayodhya fiasco of 1992, the role of responsible journalism, the slow and time-consuming visa procurement process, India’s stance as an asylum provider to international refugees, rampant corruption in governing bodies, the controversial ‘bringing back of black money’ slogan of the new government and then its sluggish implementation, and so on.

The seventh section examines “A Society in Flux” which mirrors the changing times and their impact on Indian society such as issues of how dogmas pertaining to astrology, numerology, astronomy, etc. still continue to rule our decisions despite modern developments; how colonial dress codes need to be outworn and shed; how the caste system continues to plague most mofussil towns, districts, villages and hutments of rural India; how the FYUP fiasco disrupted the graduation system; how women continue to be violated and destroyed physically, mentally and sexually despite claims of better laws and security measures being put into place; how terrorism failed to dampen the spirits of a nation continuously ravaged by its despicable torments in different parts such as Jammu and Kashmir, Assam, Bombay, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Bengal, Bihar and so on and yet India continues to tackle the menace with a mixed feeling of being overwhelmed and underwhelmed at the same time.

The final section, Section VIII, offers a vision into “India Beyond India” and explores topics and themes which are of global interest and hence relevant to India. Shashi Tharoor looks back at his years with the UN and explains how “the UN isn’t just a way of bureaucratizing our consciences; it makes a real difference to real human beings, a difference that only the UN can make.” He speaks of how the ISIS crisis and the Arab Spring affect India and its peace and its neighbourhood, particularly communist China. The invasive dilemmas of cyber security, the age and times of near-absolute dependence on the World Wide Web in all spheres of contemporary life right from grocery shopping to controlling an inter-space satellite and the author’s random musings on issues close to his heart make this section a delightful and rich tapestry of thoughts and ruminations that have been influencing Dr Tharoor’s life and times in his different avatars in India and abroad.

In his own words, Dr Shashi Tharoor describes India Shastra: Reflections on the Nation in our Time as a portrait of contemporary India, as according to him: “India is a land of extraordinary pluralism and diversity, where political democracy is indispensable to national survival; a country of great economic potential held back by some of its own policies and practices, many of which are in the process of being re-examined and re-invented; and a lively, contentious and exciting society which is far removed from the timeless and unchanging land of well-worn cliché. A Rip Kumar Winkle who had fallen asleep at the end of the Second World War seventy years ago would be unable to recognize the India of 2015. Everything has either changed dramatically or is in the process of changing: the nation’s politics, its economic preferences, its social assumptions, the relations amongst castes, the material and professional choices available in the country, the patterns and habits of daily life, and the intangible attitudes of Indians towards everything from religion to profit-making.”

Translated literally into Sanskrit, the term shastra implies a rule or treatise written to explain in detail a thought or an idea, particularly in the context of religion or philosophy in erstwhile India. Dr Shashi Tharoor has professed no such rules or guidelines in this book but has instead raised pertinent questions and analyzed relevant topics in a simple conversational tone that is easy to read, and conjures up many subjects/issues to ponder and analyze for any Indian in today’s age and time. And this is what makes this body of work all the more important and relevant to anyone, be it in India or anywhere on the planet, to understand and scrutinize the changes sweeping through modern India and their impact on the present and the future.

BRICS Summit

BRICS represents the first important non-Western global initiative in the post-Cold War world. But despite the forward movement achieved at their New Delhi summit, Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa remain in search of a common ground that can help turn BRICS into a weighty geopolitical alliance. Without clearly defined objectives and an agreed plan of action, BRICS will be weighed down by internal contradictions, as symbolized by its members’ starkly varying political systems, economies, and national ambitions.
The disparate nature of the group’s membership — bringing together the world’s largest autocracy and democracy, as well as commodity-exporting and resource-hungry economies — has prompted cynics to dismiss BRICS as an acronymic ingenuity without substance. To its protagonists, however, BRICS is a product of the ongoing global power shifts, and has the potential to evolve into a major instrument in shaping the architecture of global governance. As a unified grouping, BRICS could play midwife at a time the qualitative reordering of power symbolizes the birth-pangs of a new international order.
On burning international geopolitical issues like Iran and Syria, BRICS actually stands out as the voice of moderation and caution, seeking to provide the balance to the interventionist impulse of Western powers. But as the recent UN human-rights resolution on Sri Lanka showed, the grouping is badly split on other issues. The group’s main economic giant, China, is also the political outlier that rejects the very concept of national elections and is ever ready to advance its commercial and strategic interests by coming to the succour of a fellow human rights-abusing state.
Economically, BRICS is likely to remain the most-important source of global growth. The BRICS grouping, after all, represent more than a quarter of the Earth’s landmass, over 41 per cent of its population, almost 25 per cent of world GDP, and nearly half of all foreign-exchange and gold reserves. In a spectacular reversal of fortunes, the developing economies, with their large foreign-currency holdings, now finance the mounting deficits of the wealthy economies.
In this light, BRICS, with its members’ collective weight, can exercise significant global financial clout if it gets its act together.  BRICS indeed can be called the R-5, after the names of its members’ currencies — the real, rouble, rupee, renminbi, and rand.
Yet in the period since the Russia-India-China (RIC) initiative enlarged in 2008 to include Brazil and take the name of BRIC — a term coined by a Goldman Sachs economist in 2001 — the group has remained a loose, informal bloc. Last year’s expansion of BRIC into BRICS with South Africa’s addition has only accentuated the challenge to establish an institutional structure and a common plan of action, even as this enlargement threatens to make irrelevant yet another initiative — IBSA (India, Brazil, and South Africa).
For Brazil, South Africa, Russia, and India, BRICS serves as a forum to underscore their rising economic clout and showcase their emergence as global players. But for China, which needs no recognition as a rising world power, BRICS offers tangible — not just symbolic — benefits. China indeed has cast a lengthening shadow over the grouping, seeking, for example, to control the proposed common development bank — something India and Russia, in particular, are loath to accept.
At a time when China is under pressure for continuing to manipulate the value of the renminbi in order to artificially reduce the price of its goods and services abroad, the BRICS framework offers it a platform to expand its currency’s international role. As part of its quest to build the renminbi into an international currency, a cash-rich China is to extend renminbi loans to the other members of BRICS.
Lending and trading in renminbi will further boost China’s international status and clout. China’s undervalued currency and hidden export subsidies, however, have been systematically undermining manufacturing in other BRICS states, especially India and Brazil.
BRICS proponents still hope the group can serve as a catalyst for international institutional reforms. The global institutional structure has remained virtually static since the mid-20th century despite the rise of non-Western economic powers, and even the G-20’s formation was an improvisation designed to defer genuine reforms.
Yet, on international institutional reforms, China is hardly on the same page as the other BRICS members. It is a revisionist power concerning the global financial architecture, seeking an overhaul of the Bretton Woods system. But it is a status quo power with respect to the UN system, and unwaveringly opposes expansion of the Security Council’s permanent membership. It wishes to remain Asia’s sole country with a permanent seat — a position that illuminates its effort to regionally confine India.
BRICS can become a pressure group in international relations only if its members are able to agree on a common action-plan. The BRICS states, for example, are generally united in their frustration with — but not in their proposed response to — the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. Indeed, the most-important bilateral relationship each BRICS country has is with the US. As long as BRICS is unable to present itself as a unified bloc seeking to push specific changes in the present ailing international order, it will continue to be seen by the old powers as embodying an aspiration rather than a threat.
Despite the steps agreed upon at the New Delhi summit, it is uncertain whether BRICS will evolve into a cohesive grouping with defined goals and institutional mechanisms to help pluralize the global order or remain an initiative with a beguiling acronym that does little more than annually bring together its leaders for more discussions. If it is able to develop brick by brick, BRICS could find itself on the evolutionary path treaded by the now-supplanted G-7, which also began as a discussion platform before advancing to joint coordination and action among its members on key international issues.

Courtesy Brahma Chellany

Dismal progress in social housing

• • The Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), launched in 2008 to provide an interest subsidy of five per cent on a loan amount of Rs.100,000 to the economically weaker section and lower income group, has so far benefited only 7,805 people as against the 2012 target of 310,000.
  • Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, which has a provision of Rs.50,000 crore for the period 2005-2012, is no better. Only about 30 per cent of houses sanctioned for the poor under this scheme have been built
  • ISHUP has failed to deliver because it is conceptually flawed. Policymakers assumed that the poor had access to land and needed only financial support to build their houses
  • Since 1998, after the Construction Task Force set up by the U.K. government published its seminal report ‘Rethinking Construction', local authorities earnestly adopted best building practices

Strategy for Civil services perliminary examination 2011-Paper I (GS)

PT 2011 - Paper I is similar to GS paper of earlier PT examinations.But nature of questions is now somewhat changed and mere knowing facts would not be sufficient.Now integrated approach would be necessary in which preparation for GS should be for PT, Main GS, Essay and some extent to interview simultaneously.Main focus of the preparation should be Main examination and not PT.If one is well prepared for main examination then he/she would clear PT easily. Now we have more than 7 months for PT and gap between PT and Main examination is less than 5 months so preparing exclusively for PT from today would not be a wise decision. Here is the syllabus for PT Paper I

• Current events of national and international importance
• History of India and Indian national movement
• Indian and World Geography- physical, social, economic geography of India and the world
• Indian Polity and governance – constitution, political system, panchayati raj, public policy, Rights issues, etc.
• Economic and social development – sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives etc.
• General issues on environmental ecology, bio-diversity and climate change-that do not require subject specialization
• General science.

Now I shall discuss each section separately. Portions that are common to PT and Main examination should be given more emphasis and should be prepared in a manner that you don't have to do that portion again for main examination.


Current events of national and international importance:

This is the most important section of GS in current scheme of examination .It is must for GS PT, Main , Essay and Interview . Given its weightage this portion will be needing extra attention and time accordingly.Materials for this are-

• One general national newspaper ( Hindu, TOI, Indian Express etc any one of these)
• One business national newspaper (ET,FE, BL any one of these)
• One competition magazine
  

• Frontline, Yojna

OUT of these newspapers are most important and I would write a separate post on this.

History of India and Indian national movement:


This is a static portion of GS and should be prepared for Main and PT simultaneously. History from ancient times to up to 1850's would cover about half of the marks and rest half would be from 1850's to 1947.Important events from post independence can also be asked so that also needs to be prepared.Portions of National Movement must be understood clearly. Linkage, origin, region, action of government etc. of every event must be known.Even in PT now analytical questions are being asked so each and every aspect of history with logic of each events to be prepared. Analytical and opinion based questions also need to be prepared thoroughly.
Some useful materials are-

• NCERT books of class 11 and 12 of Indian History
• Bipan Chandra -India's struggle for Independence
• Sumit Sarkar-Modern India

Indian and World Geography- physical, social, economic geography of India and the world:

This is a scoring portion of GS in PT and main both. As in Main only Indian Geography is in syllabus so Indian Geography must be prepared more thoroughly.Current affairs related to Geography is very important and should be recorded separately from newspapers and magazines. World Geography should be prepared such that all basic principles and their applications of geography world over be related easily. Map questions also be prepared from PT's point of view.

Material are-

• a good atlas
• a map of India and World each
• NCERT books of 11 and 12
• physical and human geography-Goh Cheng Leong
• a globe
• India year book for reference only
• previous years GS PT questions for PT
• latest data from newspapers and internet

Indian Polity and governance – constitution, political system, panchayati raj, public policy, Rights issues, etc.:

This is very dynamic section . Newspapers are best source for this.Especially editorials and op-ed pages can be of very help. Search for every debate on issue of governance Rights etc. For public policy any public administration book can be consulted. Important resources are:

• Editorials and op-ed of newspapers
• Indian Polity of TMH by Laxmikanth
• Bare acts-P M Bakshi
• NCERT Political science books of class 11 and 12
• Frontline

Economic and social development – sustainable development, poverty, inclusion, demographics, social sector initiatives etc. :

This portion is again current affairs based.Newspapers are very important for this portions.Debate on LokSabha TV can also be of some use. One has to very aware of all these issues with all social implications.Inclusion need to done very thoroughly.
Materials include..

• Evolution of Indian Economy- I C Dhingra
• Economic Times
• Economic Survey
• Frontline
• Yojna and kurukshetra
• Indian Economy of TMH by Ramesh Singh
• Some Govt. sites such as RBI, NABARD,Planning Commission can be very useful

General issues on environmental ecology, bio-diversity and climate change-that do not require subject specialization:


Some portion of this part is common with Geography. Basic environmental issues are covered in Geography portion.Current developments in this field are very important. Newspapers will be the best source of information.Every international aspect also to be covered.

Materials include :

• Website of Environment Ministry
• Frontline

• Yojna and kurukshetra
• India Year Book

General science:

This is similar to previous version of PT.But lately even in PT questions from current development are also being asked. To score good in this portion conceptual understanding is necessary and fundamentals of science must be strong.
Materials includes:

• NCERT science books from class 6 to 10
• Thursday S and T column of The Hindu

As general science is not asked in main examination one need not to spend a lot of time in this portion. If whole science syllabus can not be completed then some parts such as Biology, Physics, Chemistry etc whichever easier for you can be done. One can safely skip one or two portion of General Science in PT as here one only need to qualify.



To start preparation for CSE a complete planning is must. A idea about how much time one can afford to devote to a particular portion should be known beforehand.I would write about CS(P)-2011 Paper II in next post. All comments welcome.

How to tackle new pattern of civil services examination

As all of us know that CSE is undergoing a transition phase in which not only whole PT process to be changed but also nature of questions in main examination have changed significantly.I started my preparation from 2009 and that was the year when UPSC started to experimenting with main pattern. With my experience of writing 2009 main, 2010 PT and 2010 main I want to share these changes as I observed. I am no expert on CSE but want to share my experience and hope that it would help. My aim of this post is to analyze proposed changes in CSE.



Whats 'new' in this new pattern?

First of all we should know whats exactly new in this pattern and how it is different from previous pattern.Optionals in PT have been done away with . So apart from GS paper a CSAT paper to be common for all. Also relative weightage of GS have been increased to 50 % as compared to 33% earlier. As GS paper is known to all so this would be deciding factor for clearing PT 2011. As despite the claims of being CSAT ' expert' by many coaching classes no one knows more about CSAT than UPSC made public. So even if CSAT paper happens to be very easy cut off for that paper will be very low as aspirants would not attempt any question they are not 100% sure.So here ' new' thing is increased importance of GS for clearing PT 2011. And GS is now changed. You can not score good marks in GS PT by just mugging facts without understanding the fundamentals of the concepts. Gone are the days when 60 days classes by a coaching institute for prelims was sufficient .Current affairs and development issues are now gaining importance. A serious study of at least one newspaper is now must.

CSAT is a new addition in PT and this is causing maximum anxiety among aspirants. Basic syllabus made available by UPSC suggest that it would be like any other aptitude test for management and banking entrance examination . But final shape of paper could only be known when UPSC come up with model question papers.It is advisable that aspirants should not panic about CSAT and start with basic numeracy and reasoning books. Those not comfortable with English grammar can also start reading basic grammar books. As stated earlier cut off for CSAT is bound to low and score in GS would be deciding factor so more emphasis should be given on basics of GS.


Coaching classes and prepartion for CSE

With new pattern of CSE in offing , many 'experts' of CSAT have emerged overnight. It is irony that UPSC is changing pattern on pretext of reducing grip of coaching classes on CSE but this is only going to help coaching classes. Here are some reasons why coaching classes would continue to attract a significant numbers of aspirants in years to come.

1. opaque nature of functioning of UPSC is the biggest reason for dominance of coaching classes as they claim of having 'insider' knowledge of UPSC.
2. Nature and pattern of examination is so lengthy that it is very difficult to manage 2 optional subjects , GS, Essay and interview phase on one's own.
   
3. In this examination stakes are so high. People put their career on holds for at least 2 years and make this as a question of life and death . So they can not take any chances and try to attend as many coaching classes as possible in hope to be befitted by them.
4. Advertisement blitzkrieg and unethical claims by coaching classes. Coaching classes never tell what course a successful candidate attended. If one even attended a mock interview they will claim full credit for success of candidate.

Coaching classes are not indispensable for cracking CSE. But if one has resources in terms of time and money should go for coaching classes.But aim of coaching classes should be to extract maximum value for money . Coaching classes attending should not be the sole purpose for this. One should prepare to win not just for sake of preparation due to pressure from family and friends.Always have a critical mind on the matter taught in class. If a teacher tells that one can safely skip some topics and still manage to attempt all 5 questions in main examination never fall for that. Whole syllabus must be covered .





I would write about what approach should be followed for preparation of CSE in next posts. All comments are welcome.

Decriminilising art 377 . Do u agree?

TARGET IAS 2009

There are some probable current affairs topics that are important for mains 2009 GS point of view.

1.India's moon mission
2.SCO and BRIC summit
3.Naxalism in context to Lalgargh operations
4.Terrorism AND new anti terror laws
5.Yashpal committee report on status of higher education
6.Delhi HC verdict on Art. 377 of IPC
7.AWACS IN IAF
8.Reservation for women in legislature
9.Proposed food security act
10.Effect of economic recession on social welfare scheme of Union Govt.