Making India awesome by Chetan Bhagat

"Making India awesome" by Chetan Bhagat -  Thought provoking!

This book was published by Rupa Publications in 2015 and has 192 pages. 

Book summary

Overwhelming majority of youth don't care about politics. Author calls them 'Self focused indifferent Indians'. Out of the remaining, most have decided to take permanent sides (read political parties). Their contribution to public discourse is limited. Author calls them 'Caring but aligned Indians'. That leaves a tiny segment who actually care about India but don't have fixed ideas. Author calls them 'Caring objective Indians'. This book is for them. Making a nation awesome asks for fundamental shift in societal values, culture and habits. No law or leader can solve our problems if we fail to display some initiative. 

Awesome governance:

Governance involves formulating and implementing policies, laws, rules and regulations to run our country. Author has 17 suggestions for Narendra Modi. This is his wishlist for India as well as Modi and BJP. Even the most educated of us are prejudiced. If you shed your prejudices things will improve faster. Voting patterns show corruption as a variable but not the top influencer. The upper- caste,  upper- class Hindus have to let go of their bigotry and prejudice, the oppressed have to let go their urge for revenge and retribution. Until we really feel that graft, unethical behaviour and nepotism are huge problems, and start to truly care about all of them, politicians will not change. Our netas have no accountability. Problem is, we do see them as our kings. If Indians change this mindset, changes to laws and policies will follow. Author warns against creating states at gunpoint (read Telangana). Making a state is not the solution, inherent issues need to be resolved. The answer is not new state, rather, new state of mind. Author analyses why Modi's popularity remains high, he tries to figure out Modi. He likens Rahul Gandhi to the Emperor wearing no clothes. In the current climate, goodness is the new cool. Chetan provides 5 point solution to revive Congress party. The one shortcoming that prevents babus from earning glory is  - no guts. He advises that your dharma is to do the right thing rather than listening to you masters. Rise, fight and rescue us. He says that for 'Make in India' to be successful, government has to let go 'control freak' mindset. The rules should be clear, simple and not politician- personality dependent - in spirit, writing and practice. He is bold enough to oppose 'Food security act'. He emphasizes that small reforms will lead to big reform. He also advises to take up rupee convertibility first. 

Awesome society:

The huge roadblock in making India awesome is that we, as citizens, refuse the responsibility of making India better. It's always someone else's fault. Godhra incident was the cost of keeping country second and religion first. We are probably the most intensely racist nation on earth. He deplores treatment of Northeastern people and proposes five ideas that could work. Author brands BCCI as one of the most talent- exploitative and unfair organisations in the world. Based on revenue they can generate, the average cricket player is highly underpaid. The default strategy of living in Indian society is to pretend that sex doesn't exist. Sex is an issue that needs to be discussed in an open and inclusive manner. Prohibition law was made in 1960 and is outdated. He sees alcohol ban in Gujarat as hypocrisy and argues that it's also bad for business. He stresses need to rein in MNC's selling junk food and calls for stringent labeling and advertising regulations and adopting healthy eating habits in family. India is not clean because we look at our country differently from our homes. To make India clean we have to minimize and prevent creation of filth and for that were have to think 'What is outside my home is also mine.' He enumerates top 4 stupid procedures at our airports. He also makes a bold case to adopt Roman script for Hindi. He points out the science obsession vs superstition conundrum. Author reserves a lot of praise for Jaipur Literary Festival. He advocates adding a junk- healthy indicator on the packet of the food items.

Awesome equality:

Author defines equality as everyone getting their due based on hard work, merit and creativity. While taking about women equality, he says that women feel inadequate. He advises them not to kill themselves in trying to have it all. He enlists 5 things women need to change about themselves to make things better for their own kind. He advocates case of a working lady over home maker. Film 'Queen' has done more for feminist movement and women empowerment than it is given credit for,  according to Chetan. Mary Kom's career had a rock solid support in her husband Onler Kom. Author urges everyone to wake the Mr. Kom in you and suggests 3 ways. He is perplexed by Indian obsession to fair skin and urges India to fight low esteem. He strongly advocates for gay rights and advocates abolishing Article 377.  He has written a letter from a progressive Muslim youth to the so- called leaders asking some difficult questions. Chetan recommends forming a world organisation like UN or NATO for all world religions to take up common issues facing all faiths. He recommends Muslims to take a leaf out of Jews, Sikhs and Parsis about how they integrated and succeeded.

Awesome resources:

India has four classes: Political masters, Industrialists and capitalists, People like you and me, People with limited education, low living standards and little hope for better future. Author has a few suggestions to improve rural education system. He makes a case for encouraging students to develop all round personality and other interests with academics rather than just academics and urges top institutions to set the precedent. He has a 3 point wish list to ensure that Indian economy grows 10% yoy. Chetan has few no nonsense tips for those who have scored marks in seventies and are branded mediocre. 

End of book summary

His suggestions to Modi and Congress are very good. Both should ponder over some of the suggestions (because it's improbable that some will be accepted, being too radical). But are they listening? Or are they in denial?

'Once upon a beehive' is an essay about bees. It's an allegory to the Indian politics. It's a masterful essay. Minority section is all about Muslims and other minority religions don't even find a mention. 

Author has candid views. Sometimes he is funny, sometimes sarcastic, sometimes tongue-in- cheek and mostly honest. Each of the essay is to the point. This allows author to cover a number of issues and still maintain the crispness. Author gives simple examples from every day life, either direct or as an analogy, to prove his point. I especially liked this form of writing as it becomes appealing to a common man and easy to relate. All of us must have asked ourselves some of the questions he asks. We did not do anything about it, he wrote a book. That's the difference!

Stated objective of this book is to simplify things and point to a solution. Some of the issues and solutions appear oversimplified. But at least it's a start and with brainstorming and healthy debates, solutions can be improved. 

One has to understand the timeline while reading this book. This book was written when BJP government led by Mr. Modi was in power for less than two years. Some of the things have changed since. Modi government's look northeast policy has taken effect after this book was published. Article 377 was abolished after the book was published etc.

The underlying theme of this book is that if we want to make India awesome, we have to do it, individually and as a society, not the government.

I decided to read this book because I was curious what problems author identifies as paramount and because author promises to point to solutions. The problems identified are accurate. He has caught the pulse. Solutions suggested need more work to be done. However what's most important is his vision. It's awesome. 

Chetan Bhagat, first of IIT-IIM authors,  is credited for bringing the youth of India back to reading books. This is his second non fiction book.

Why did I read this book? Was on wishlist for a long time.

What did I like? Problem identification.   

What I didn't like? Nothing really..... 

It's awesome, a must read.