The Beautiful And The Damned: Life In The New India

The Beautiful And The Damned: Life In The New India

THE economic rise of India over the last decade has been euphoric and well reported. Not so the fates of the country’s ordinary men and women, says Siddhartha Deb as he sets off to discover the cannon fodder that’s been fuelling India’s new place in the global pantheon.

The resulting series of snapshots of the little people — the waitresses, call-centre workers, union organisers — shows us a mottled picture of a country that has much in common with the inequality and exploitation of Britain post-industrialisation.