A MILLION FAULTLINES !

Making sense of a country as vivid and dynamic as India is a herculean task. India admits of multiple interpretations as well as multiple representations. A peculiar feature of India—particularly of its description—is the absence of any semblance of absolutism or universalism. On the contrary, the only certainty about India is that nothing here is certain. Almost every claim made about India can be countered by an equally persuasive counterclaim. India, in essence, is a land of myriad contradictions.

It is my endeavour to explore and make sense of these contradictions, to the extent that my capabilities permit. Since the spread, breadth, and depth of this enquiry resemble a bottomless and borderless sea, the extractions are bound to be diverse and multiple. Yet not everything that is extracted is necessarily valuable. In the economic sense, value addition lies in reducing waste and increasing utility. In the course of these explorations, I am bound to err in my approaches, inferences, and conclusions. I remain hopeful that whatever raw analysis I am able to collate, examine, and present will be enriched by your valuable feedback—be it appreciation, dissent, or disagreement. With this end in mind, I invite you to join me in this intellectual pursuit of making sense of the many shades of the rich mosaic that is India through the lens of twenty-first century realities.