Men of letter make India their muse before the big day

As one day rolls into another, we get closer to one of India’s most significant political events — the 2019 general election from April 11 to May 19. In this climate of flared commentaries and analysis, predictions and predicaments, one thing comes as a resourceful pre-election reckoner — Re-forming India, by Penguin, edited by Niraja Gopal Jayal, that reflects on important aspects of India’s governance. In an interview, she tells us all about the relevance of these essays that she says intends to provide concrete answers.

The book is a synthesis of a gamut of viewpoints. How does each lend itself to understanding the state of India today? 
The book offers a review of multiple areas of national life over the last few years. The essayists take as their point of departure the developments in different fields since the present government came to power, and most of them assess these developments against the backdrop of its manifesto and the promises made by the party leadership. As we head into another general election, this book providesthe citizen- reader with objective expert analyses based on which to assess the performance of the incumbent government and to think about the problems confronting us today.
  
Is the overarching idea of the book reformatory in nature? 
The word ‘reform’ in the title of the book contrasts it with ‘reform.’ The distinction between reform and re-form is elaborated in the introduction. It could be argued that many of the reforms – say, economic reforms or administrative reforms – promised in the BJP Manifesto have not been realised. But the project of re-forming India in accordance with an alternative social and cultural vision has certainly moved forward and has arguably proved to be more successful than the promised project of reform.
 
What makes the book a stimulating pre-election reckoner? 
Today there are, especially in the world of online media, several pre-election evaluations of the government that marshal an impressive range of data to show the gap between promise and performance. The special contribution of this book is that it provides not just facts, but also serious and informed interpretations of these facts and of policies, by people who have a record of researching and analysing these questions.
 
How did you make a selection of the essays from the vast ocean of thoughts available to us? 
The essays were specially commissioned for this volume. There were no common goals, no pre-decided script. The essays, therefore, present a diverse range of viewpoints; some are critical, others are appreciative. 

Have international commentators been included too for a bird’s eye view?
There is only one ‘foreign’ contributor in the book, but there are several Indian academics based overseas. The perspective of the latter, as ‘insider-outsiders,’ is especially valuable, because the distance enables them to consider the Indian situation dispassionately. Another feature is the contributions of by younger generation.
 
While editing this book, how did you navigate the turf of collecting content and making it coherent? 
Contributing authors were asked to write on subjects in which they have domain expertise. Every essay is on a different field, and every essayist had the freedom to approach their subject the way they chose. The coherence comes from the fact that all the essays are addressing these issues in the same time-frame. Other than that, there has been no attempt to impose a straitjacket of uniformity.