Inhaling the Mahatma
by Christopher Kremmer
Fourth Estate, 2006
There must be something about the Subcontinent that turns the most well-intentioned reportage into 'intensely personal stories'. An examination of the dustcover of Inhaling the Mahatma, Australian reporter Christopher Kremmer's latest book, reveals another yatra into India: "A country in the grip of enormous and sometimes violent change." While consciously avoiding the temptation to refer to 'heady mixes' and 'multi-layered tapestries', Kremmer nonetheless takes readers on the mandatory gut-wrenching bus ride along India's crowded highways, complete with argumentative conductor, mad-cap driver and blood-red sunset against hazy grey skies.
In Inhaling the Mahatma, Kremmer sets out on a personal pilgrimage to track down the stars, bit-players and near-anonymous set-extras of what has now become the great Indian transformation of 1991-2006. Using as a road map the experiences, recollections and impressions of his first Indian tenure – in the early 1990s, when he came as a foreign correspondent – Kremmer charts a compelling and competent course through the major landmarks of the last 15 years. The assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the Mandal Commission, the destruction of the Babri Masjid, the horrific killing of the missionary Graham Staines and his children and, of course, the rise of the call centre all find mention, sketched out in varying degrees of detail. While the writer's voice throughout the narrative is clear and lucid, it is perhaps the current moment in which this book has emerged that makes it particularly interesting.
The blanket coverage of the Great Indian Growth story, in both Indian and international media, seems to have created a space for a well-crafted retrospective – a book that looks back over the last decade and a half and documents the churning and rumbling that accompanied this transformation, while drawing lessons for further growth.