Beautiful and the Damned: Portrait of New India by Siddhartha Deb - Book Report/Review Example

Beautiful and the Damned: Portrait of New India In a world that heralds economic success that is fueled by capitalism and commercialism, how do we assess the true value of human development? Is it truly dependent on the aggregate goods created yearly, or does it belong to an even deeper ethical concept? These were questions that Siddhartha Deb aimed to answer in his novel entitled “The Beautiful and the Damned: Portrait of New India”. Similar to Fitzgerald’s “The Great Gatsby”, Deb invited his readers to ponder on the darker side of progress and wealth in India by focusing on the terrible price that average Indians have to pay to reach ‘economic success’. Precisely, Deb argued that modernity in India is an ambiguous phenomenon—while there are obvious developments in the fields of information technology, economics, and business, majority of middle class Indians are still reduced to poverty. Indeed, the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. And this phenomenon, as Deb further pointed out, is wreaking a more profound effect on the common mindset of Indians. Capitalism and consumerism have bore a culture of pretense among Indians—of frantic and mindless pursuit of material ‘nirvana’. In this essay, we look closer at the novel and its author, and evaluate whether his thesis rings some hardcore truths not only about Indian society but modern global society in general. By revisiting Deb’s distinct writing style, as well as examining the primary flow of his narrative, we intend to gather concrete evidences that will aid in better understanding his thesis. The findings that will be obtained in this phase will be used to study his philosophy in its entirely, and judge it according to the principles of ethics and social order. Thus, we support Deb in his thesis that any economic and social development, when divorced from the basic principles of morality and ethics, or when it fails to uphold the dignity of the human person, may bring the course of human development into its unnerving downfall. Understanding the Author: Siddhartha Deb Deb’s writing style in this novel was heavily influenced by his background in broadcast journalism. Unlike past novelists like V.S. Naipul who had trouble representing the status quo of modern Indian society, Deb maintained the journalistic value of ‘upholding the truth’ in his novel. However, of course, he maintained a sense of creativity and originality in the way he told his story to the readers. In this sense, much of his reportage was done on significant areas in urban and in rural Indian society. Like a seasoned field reporter, he went to prominent I.T. service firms, to highly commercialized factories, and to villages in slum areas and those situated in far-flung mountains to give the stories of people in each location. Indeed, his narrative achieved a contemplative, rambling rhythm that absorbed his passing sights and sounds of his adventure into a quasi-anecdote. Understanding the Narrative: The Beautiful and the Damned Deb began his narrative by describing the benefits of gilded India—the beautiful people, the booming commercial industry, the culture of prosperity and affluence. In this part, Deb underscored that India’s economic ascent not only propelled the country out of poverty but also chased away the unsightly class divisions. The strength of his detailed descriptions immersed the readers in a wondrous state of approval—a technique that attacked both the readers’ logic and emotions. But Deb did not there, behind the glamour and the increasing dollar laid a bigger dilemma, that is, the development of unequal social, political, and economic conditions in India. Indeed, modernization in India has destroyed the lives of farmers, has stoked the people’s appetites for materials wealth, and has nourished the scoundrels and profiteers. The irony is clear and crisp. To further strengthen this claim, Deb mentioned that between 1995 and 2006, two hundred thousand debt-ridden farmers committed suicide, while seventy percent of the population survives on fifty cents a day. Through Debs exploration of the people’s unique stories, these statistics were humanized. Indeed, although life in India is marked by confidence and prosperity, the country races from excitement to anxiety. The craze over capitalism and commercialism has caused physical dislocation, as evidenced by the itinerant steelworkers that Deb met. This solidified his observation that in the quest of employment, Indians had to wrench themselves repeatedly from their rural homes. Deb further investigated this ambiguous phenomenon by unearthing an even more striking concept—that amidst all the frantic chase of success, Indians are slowly using their own identity. Thus, the departure from mysticism and strong supernatural beliefs to post-modern empiricism as concretized by commercialistic ideologies has created a massive of culture pretense. For one, in the call center industry that is highly dominated by Brahmins (ruling caste), common workers struggle to sustain a decent living. Another important character is Arindam Chadhauri, a business mogul who founded the ‘management institute’ that is open to all education-starved young Indian men and women. These graduates can find employment, however, only in his enterprises with conditions that do not meet the standards of favorable working environment. Another character is Esther, a migrant from a small province in Manipur. Although she works as a waitress at a luxurious restaurant, she shares a pinched tenement flat with her brother and two sisters. Although she has a choice to go back to her hometown, she refuses to as it signals defeat—unworthy of an urban professional in India. All of these characters reinforce the idea that Indians have been blinded by the grandeur of material success, causing them to continually seek it as ‘end’ for themselves. In their search for the greener pasteur, they slowly lose their identity and values. The Definition of Authentic Human Development: The case of India In order to make sense of Deb’s accounts and understand them based on their natural essences, we have to look into: firstly, at the nature of capitalistic and commercialistic mindsets as products of Scientific Revolution, and secondly, at the value of human development from the perspective of ethical doctrine. It is deemed that the modern technological breakthroughs of today have been the direct fruits of Scientific Revolution. According to an online website entitled The Scientific Revolution, Robert Hatch said that the said era did not only focus on the revamping of collective thought and belief, but also on changes in the sociological demographics. With this, because of our prevailing empiricist mindset, we now define human development in connection with bettering human life from an economical standpoint. The said theme is highly evident in Deb’s stories that center on the India’s frantic chase of success—the delusion of people to insatiably want money as continually evoked by the urbanization of the key cities. Indeed, the flourishing of the call-center industry is regarded by most Indians as a strong consequence of their thriving economy. In this sense, capitalism becomes the lifeblood of urban nations like India, as further implicated by the article entitled “What is Capitalism”. But it is crucial to ask, is it worthy to pursue capitalism at the expense of the very people that society is supposed to protect and nurture? At this point, it is essential to consider philosophical ideals to shed light on the ontological definition of human development, that is, the understanding of human development not from the physical but also from the more meaningful spiritual point-of-view, as expressed in the “Caritas in Veritate”. While many can question the reality of the human spirit, it is intelligible to argue that happiness is not only found in material things. Thus, a technologically-advanced and financially prosperous nation may not always possess true ‘human development’. It is not difficult to find evidences of this contention from Deb’s stories. The physical dislocation of migrants, the unsatisfied workers of Chaudhuri, and the suicide of rural formers all bolster the idea that material wealth does not ultimately satisfy other facets of human needs. Therefore, human development lies on the actualization of human happiness itself. Although happiness is difficult to define and discuss, it seems clear that the excellence in human character (which reinforces the social aspect of humans), and the enrichment of human knowledge are inseparable ingredients to human happiness, as discussed in an online paper called “Aristotle’s Ethics”. In acquiring both excellence of character and abundance of knowledge, it is implied that humans are responsible for the perfection of their own lives, since, in Immanuel Kant’s philosophy as underscored in the article “Immanuel Kant and the Categorical Imperative “, humans are ends in themselves. This simply means that nations driven by capitalism like India must marry ethics in the execution of its projects in order to put premium on bettering all of people’s lifestyles and not just the lifestyle of the elite. Thus, the bias over the good in all related human activities, either intra-personal or inter-personal, must be a firm principle of life. In the end, India must revisit its understanding of what development truly means. Sometimes, the riches of the nation are not found on the material good created, but on the very people that create them. Works Cited Benedict XVI (2009). Caritas in Veritate. Retrieved 26 January 2012 from http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/encyclicals/documents/hf_ben-xvi_enc_20090629_caritas-in-veritate_en.html. Hatch, Robert A. (n.d.) The Scientific Revolution. Retrieved 26 January 2012 from http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/ufhatch/pages/03-Sci-Rev/SCI-REV-Teaching/03sr-definition-concept.htm. Guthrie, Shandon (2001). Immanuel Kant and the Categorical Imperative. Retrieved 26 January 2012 from http://sguthrie.net/kant.htm. Kraut, Richard (2010). Aristotle’s Ethics. Retrieved 26 January 2012 from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/. World Socialist Movement (2006). What is Capitalism? Retrieved 26 January 2012 from http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/what_is_capitalism.php. Read More