In Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change is by a noted journalist-analyst, Shankkar Aiyar who scrutinizes India’s gradient through the archetype of seven game changers: the economic liberalization of 1991, the Green Revolution of the sixties, the nationalization of banks in 1969, Operation Flood in the seventies, the mid-day meal scheme of 1982, the software revolution of the nineties, and the passing of the Right to Information Act in 2005. He squabbles that these turning points in the country’s history were not the result of foresight or careful planning but were rather the accidental consequences of major crises that had to be resolved at any cost. This a nice read by a great journalist.
