While sipping a morning tea or coffee we often mull over the wise. We are the Indian citizens who vote the representatives to legislature but we aren't ever satisfied with the outcome. Is there a solution to this? Perhaps there is. The book Caged Tiger, penned by subhashish Patra. Hello bookworms. I'm Siddhi Your Wayone Book Cobbler. And this is My Swellcast, where we talk about books. Caged Tiger by Subhashish is an unconventional nonfiction questioning the various aspects that govern the democracy
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 1:38
Badra spent over half a decade working in public policy especially on issues of technology, policy, regulatory governance and digital rights. As a part of his job he funded many of India's leading think tanks and helped shape the policy discourse in these areas. Hadra has worked at a leading global management consulting firm, a venture capital firm and a tech startup working closely with CEOs, entrepreneurs, bureaucrats, academics and others
Hi Siddhi, thank you for your question and for introducing me. Look, I think if you look at books in the genre which are typically public policy or politics etc. Are very often written either with an ideological viewpoint or in extremely technical words which make it inaccessible to people. When I was writing Caged Tiger I was very keen that write it in a way that is useful to people and ordinary people who aren't that engaged in these issues and topics and discussions around politics and public policy
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:14
That answer satisfies me coming on to my next question. Cage Tiger is an unconventional name, but the book itself is an unconventional approach to understand the dynamics of the institution. So why call the book Cage Tiger?
Siddhi. Typically, when people speak about India, they think about india is represented as an elephant, whereas China is represented as a dragon and Southeast Asia is represented as a tiger. And the thinking is that India is this big, slow moving object. However, I think I want to question that through this book. I believe that India is a very, very unique country in the world. There is almost no other country at India's level of income, which has sustained democracy for so many decades
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:22
So, in continuation with my previous question in the blurb, it reads that no matter which party is in the ruling, left or right doesn't matter. The problem lies in faulty institutional design. You just gave me a glimpse of that. But can you explain what's a faulty institutional design and how do we begin to change it?
So unlike other democracies, some of which have referendums, some of which have larger public consultation processes, have more effective parliaments, I think India misses a lot of those things. So this whole idea of the approach being extremely top down and citizens not having as much of a voice is really what ails India institutions in general. And how we improve that is really by flipping that and having, for example, more bottoms up democracy. So, for example, economic resources and economic decision making
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:45
So. I have heard your note two to three times now. I'm trying to absorb it. And as much as I understand policy making and what I've heard from you, this question just popped up. That with a population of over 140 crores, how is the public consultation going to be possible and put to use? Of course, we all want to be heard. We want to read, reach out to our representatives and tell them about our miseries. Most often, our please go unheard
We are part of our district, we are part of our cities, we are part of our states. There are different levels of government and the more power that people closer to me have, the more influence I will have. When I am, for example, trying to advocate with the central government, I'm one out of 140 crore people. But if I'm trying to advocate for my city, I'm probably one out of a few million people and then I will be a much larger voice
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:20
So, continuing the previous question, bear with me, I'm trying to understand here. So talking about putting results from public consultation in public domain, making sure that we are stronger at the ground level. Do you think we have enough machinery for that? And can it be done? How can it be done?
So as much as people think about state governments as giving freebies, they actually have a far more balanced budget than the central government does. If you look at economic evidence on this topic, even pre independence, when the local governments were in greater control compared to the British governments, you actually had better health and educational outcomes. A lot of the health and educational outcomes of, say, Tamil Nadu and the Kerala have actually been driven at the state level
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:16
Okay, so moving on to my next question. This book is a result of humongous research, I'm sure, so I'd like to know how much research has gone into it. And will the contemporary Indian society, especially the Gen, Z and Millennials, be able to harness good out of it?
So to that extent, I do think as readers read this book, they will see more such examples of ways in which citizens, ordinary citizens, have actually affected the policy of the country, even on extremely complex and technical terms
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:15
So you mentioned that the contemporary Indian Society, especially the institution, rests on the principles that were put in place by the Britishers. What are some of the 40 systems that are still operational? And how can we do away with it?
Section one four four, which allows the government to pass very wide orders again done away within the UK, but India continues to have it. So basically what I'm trying to say is that a bunch of these colonial laws exist in India, but the UK has actually done away with it and we need to review them. More importantly however, it's just not about the specific laws, it's about this mindset
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:18
That was really, really insightful. Thank you so much for that. So coming on to my next question, this is a very cliche question, which I ask almost all my authors. How long did it take for you to pen this book? How was your writing process like, and did you face any hurdles in the process of publishing the book?
And what is more important is a proposal of kinds, which talks about who you are, why you're writing about this issue, who is the audience, how will you market it? So it's a full blown ten to 15 page proposal. The second thing is, most of these large publishers will not usually take unsolicited or direct manuscripts. They will actually take it through what are called literary agents. So this is something that one of my friends who published told me
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:14
You. Okay, so this is my last question for this session at the outset, and now that the book is published, what were and what are your expectations from the book and how has the response been so far?
Lots of people have liked this book. Many people have disagreed with the book. So lots of people have gone on Instagram and said, hey, look, I don't agree with these two or three points that this author makes. And I think that is perfectly fine. In fact, that is the very purpose that let us debate and discuss these things respectfully, and that I think this book has achieved. So this will be obviously a long term project. The book has been received fairly well
Siddhi Palande
@Book_gobbler · 0:14
Ah. After this incredible interview session and getting to know about the book, I too, hope it ignites a debate amongst the young and old, and it reaches far and wide. Thank you so much, sir, for talking to me about your book and my best wishes for the book