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A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age
by James Crabtree
A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India's new billionaire class in a radically unequal society.
India is the world's largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China's. But the rewards of this growth have been far from evenly shared, and the country's top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth. In megacities like Mumbai, where half the population live in slums, the extraordinary riches of India's new dynasties echo the Vanderbilts and Rockefellers of yesterday, funneling profits from huge conglomerates into lifestyles of conspicuous consumption.
James Crabtree's The Billionaire Raj takes readers on a personal journey to meet these reclusive billionaires, fugitive tycoons, and shadowy political power brokers. From the sky terrace of the world's most expensive home to impoverished villages and mass political rallies, Crabtree dramatizes the battle between crony capitalists and economic reformers, revealing a tense struggle between equality and privilege playing out against a combustible backdrop of aspiration, class, and caste.
The Billionaire Raj is a vivid account of a divided society on the cusp of transformation - and a struggle that will shape not just India's future, but the world's.
"Starred Review. An inside look into the corridors of power, this is an invaluable commentary on Indian democracy and the forces that threaten it." - Publishers Weekly
"Solid reading for students of economic development and global economics." - Kirkus
"James Crabtree has written a lucid, detailed, and at times epic account of the new India, opening our eyes to the economic and social transformation that has quietly occurred there in recent years, behind the facade of the headlines. A must read for all those interested in the political and economic destiny of the subcontinent." - Robert D. Kaplan, author of The Return of Marco Polo's World
"James Crabtree, once a hugely-admired star foreign correspondent, has transformed himself into a brilliant writer and analyst of the Indian super rich. This timely, fascinating and eye-opening book is also - a rarity for a book about money - wonderfully witty and beautifully written." - William Dalrymple, author of The Last Mughal
"James Crabtree distinguished himself as the most insightful journalist writing for the Financial Times from India. It is not surprising therefore that he has now written a book that offers a splendid overview of the issues that have been raised concerning India's spectacular growth since the reforms began in 1991. It is bound to become a classic." - Jagdish Bhagwati, co-author of Why Growth Matters
"Who are the Indian nouveau riche and what do they want? James Crabtree's The Billionaire Raj will prove the defining work on these questions. It is a must-read for anyone interested in wealth, inequality, India, or the evolution of capitalism." - Tyler Cowen, author of The Complacent Class
"A fascinating look into the world of the Indian business elite - the 'Bollygarchs' - and their political entanglements. James Crabtree deftly explores the changing balance between big money and democratic accountability, shedding considerable light on whether the country will sustain the miracle that is the Indian democracy or go the way of populism and authoritarianism, as so many others have." - Dani Rodrik, author of Straight Talk on Trade
"Crabtree's stylish writing and sharp insights bring to life the extremes of country changing with bewildering rapidity, and one the world will find increasingly hard to ignore. The Billionaire Raj is an essential guide if you want to understand modern India, as you must." - Edward Luce, author of In Spite of the Gods
"A wonderful book! It artfully weaves together lively stories of India's billionaires while retaining a balanced perspective on the the big picture of the rise of India. It is not easy to write contemporary history but Crabtree manages to get to the heart of the matter - the problem of India's state capacity and the need to reform the institutions of governance." - Gurcharan Das, author of India Unbound
This information about The Billionaire Raj was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
James Crabtree is an associate professor of practice at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. He was formerly the Mumbai bureau chief for the Financial Times.
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