FTAdviser.com

Advertising

But when the day came, he was one of many thousands to be denied entry to the ground. Flooded with requests from judges, cabinet ministers and senior civil servants, the Delhi cricket board, whose president, Arun Jaitley, also happened to be the Law Minister, had printed thousands of complimentary VIP tickets.

“This is how New Delhi operates,” writes Luce. “If you are rich and important, you rarely pay. If you are poor, you will usually pay through the nose. And there is no guarantee you will even get what you paid for.”

Luce’s account of contemporary India sparkles with anecdotes, making light reading of a vast and complex subject. The thoroughness and thoughtfulness of his analysis more than offsets the occasional glibness.

He starts with India’s dual-drive economy, both ultra-modern and medieval, with very little in between. Of India’s 470m strong labour force, only 35m work in the "organised sector" – pay taxes, enjoy job security, are registered, monitored, audited. Of these 35m, 21m are employed by the state.

Indian politics cast a long shadow over Luce’s subsequent narrative, as they do over India’s future. The poor, we learn, are entitled to subsidised grain at government-sponsored shops. Luce describes an encounter with a woman who had four coupons taken by her local dealer in exchange for one portion of low-quality wheat. Confronted by a team of anti-corruption activists, the dealer smilingly gave the woman her full ration of high-quality wheat, while admitting he would typically sell the state supplies on the black market and replace it with sub-standard chaff. No one, he knew, had the power to remove his license. Those without the energy of this woman would then have to bribe their dealer to get what was theirs by right.

Luce picks away at the public discourse of politicians to reveal an intricate matrix of interests and motives, in the ruling Congress party as in the Hindu-nationalist BJP and the fragmented caste-based politics of the regions. He describes how India's ruling classes often instrumentalise the poor to line their own pockets and maintain the status quo.

But for all its insight into the personal interests which are restricting India's development into a world political and economic power, In Spite of the Gods remains cautiously optimistic. Luce is always keen to stress the upside.

Having complained to the law minister about his failure to watch the England-India game, for example, Luce received a call two years later with the offer of a complimentary ticket to see the politically symbolic 2004 match between India and Pakistan. He did not hesitate to accept.