QUESTION

Write an analytical book review of the Crabtree book. In other words, the task is not to summarize the book, but to analyze it, with the following questions in mind: how appropriate and useful is the American Gilded Age analogy in understanding the problems of India today? And how useful is the analogy in framing a development paradigm for India going forward, as well as for other democratic emerging countries.

                                                           SAMPLE SOLUTION

A book review is a critical evaluation of the text of a book which provides a commentary as opposed to merely a summary. The person reviewing can provide agreements or disagreements with the author and identify areas where there is a deficiency in knowledge, judgment, or even organization. In the first part of the review, a concise summary is provided with the second part provides a critical assessment. Finally, apart from the analysis, a suggestion is made as to whether the audience would appreciate the book. This paper seeks to provide a book review of Crabtree (2018)’s book, The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age. This book provides a factual representation of the existing inequality and corruption in India and forms a basis for the framing of a development paradigm in India going forward which is pegged on the decrease in wealth inequalities and the fight against corruption and impunity.

Crabtree (2018) starts by considering the Mumbai apartment tower built and owned by billionaire Mukesh Ambani as one of the accurate representations of the “the power of India’s new elite.” The Ambani wealth is also used to emphasize the sharp divide between the poor and the rich in the country. Additionally, a sharp divide is demonstrated by the book between the rich and the superrich. According to Crabtree (2018), the wealthy and hyper-wealthy class which exists in the Indian society can be attributed to the economic reforms in the country; which though meant to promote a free market economy, led to a new era of both staggering corruption as well as the inefficient government machinery which could not deal with the increasing corruption. The reforms made in 1991 were specifically geared towards giving the Indians a taste of the world of technology in the form of mobile phones as well as televisions with multiple channels and foreign consumer goods. Additionally, there was an increasing enthusiasm for globalization and modernization which came with the reforms. However, the existing state apparatus was too efficient to deal with the increased corruption which came about. According to Crabtree (2018), there are so many bureaucracy layers in individuals such that the only logical thing for a business person is to try to strike a deal with the top people in decision-making.