BEING INDIAN By Pavan K. Varma Viking Price: Rs 325 Pages: 213

The spin doctor who came up with the "India Shining" slogan will go down in history as either the country's most prescient socio-political analyst or the biggest conman in Indian politics. While the slogan itself has been discarded by the ruling party in favour of something foreign, the feel-good factor is infecting people in different ways, even the prolific author/diplomat Pavan Varma. The subtext to Being Indian reads: "The truth about why the twenty-first century will be India's." It is an issue of heated debate in this election campaign but sadly, party rhetoric has robbed it of any value.

Varma's effort is a logical sequel to his earlier book The Great Indian Middle Class. The timing is certainly opportune. Statistics and economic forecasts paint a rosy picture of India's future and, for the first time, the phrase "emerging superpower" has a ring of credibility. The author's thesis is, however, more rooted in the Indian psyche and the elements that characterise our society. Earlier, these were largely a handicap: the naked pursuit of power, patronage, skewed value systems, negatives that flourished under a flawed system of democracy.

POWER & GLORY: Heralding new India

Today, he argues, democracy has taken firm roots because it has proved to be the most effective instrument for the pursuit of power and also because it has empowered people who were earlier denied legitimate representation and provided them upward mobility. That a Dalit, Mayawati, can become the chief minister of India's most populous state is an example. An unabashedly democratic India, where compromise and co-opting are preferred to divisiveness and self-destruction, is the key to building an Indian century.

Following in the literary ethos of his earlier books, Varma draws extensive parallels from Indian epics and religious texts to flesh out his hypothesis. Indians, he says, have deliberately promoted a spiritual, other-worldly image. The truth, he says, is that the naked pursuit of wealth is considered dharma. Given the right milieu, Indians can "emerge as the most resilient and focused commercial operators of the new millennium". Varma bases this projection on various factors, most notably the Indian instinct for jugaad or creative improvisation and its manifestations in a growing economy. His listing of first-generation entrepreneurs who emerged after the 1991 economic reforms is compelling enough, as is his conclusion that the Indian entrepreneur is uniquely fortified by religious faith, the belief that divine intervention can overcome the worst adversity.

The other leg on which an Indian century must stand is the country's dominance in information technology. This, Varma say, stems from a historical aptitude for number crunching coupled with obsessive Indian parents who sacrifice anything to educate their children to succeed in disciplines offering the best material benefits, it being the current favourite. Educated Indians with a grasp of English have a huge advantage in interfacing with a globalised world compared with competitors from China and Russia. Varma adds to this seemingly potent mix the evolution of pan-Indianness, the new supranational and assertive Indian culture riding on the communication revolution. It permeates all aspects of Indian life, from food, art and dress to entertainment and employment.

A combination of these elements, Varma concludes, have allowed the Indian people to "muddle their way to a critical equilibrium". Given political and economic stability, India is poised for a turbo-charged take-off. It is a compelling thesis and Varma is careful to list the challenges and what the Indian leadership needs to do to maintain the current momentum.

There is the sense that these are subjects of contemporary debate and many of these arguments have been aired before. Varma, however, uses a clever mix of history, religion and personal examples to give this book depth and clarity. India shining could well end up as India whining, but Varma gives enough reasons to believe in the ascendancy of the former.