Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Revolution 2020
The young are being influenced and harmed by this corrupt world around them in the same
way that generations of children in conflict zones such as Kabul or Kashmir grow up as-
suming that bombs and stone throwing are a normal way of life. Nowhere is this better de-
and popular youth icon in his late thirties, whose stories about ambitious young Indians in
places like call centres and technology institutes sell 500,000 copies a year.
72
In
Revolution 2020
, subtitled
Love, Corruption, Ambition
, Bhagat exposes rampant cor-
ruption, not in the more obvious crony capitalist centres of Delhi and Mumbai, nor in the
activities of chief ministers like Mayawati and Yadav, but in the politics and businesses
of smaller cities and towns. His story is about India's tertiary education system that turns
out under-educated youth who are ill-equipped for careers. It is also about corruption in
provincial politics and local land deals. Gopal, the main character, comes from a poor fam-
ily in Varanasi, the sacred Hindu city on the River Ganga. He adores his childhood friend,
the beautiful Aarti, whose family is better off, but he has a rival in their more self-confid-
ent middle-class friend, Raghav. Gopal sets out on a path followed by millions of India's
youth, traipsing round ill-qualified cramming schools and phoney colleges. He fails his de-
gree exams while Raghav succeeds with his studies and makes Aarti his girlfriend. Eventu-
ally, Gopal falls into the clutches of a local politician who persuades him to build and run a
college (even though he has no degree) on family land that he has unexpectedly inherited.
That draws him into a life of deception and corruption with the politician whom Raghav,
by now a campaigning journalist, seeks to expose.
The novel graphically illustrates how India is wasting its demographic dividend with
about half of its population below the age of 25. Instead of equipping the youth for jobs
that would contribute both to their future and India's development, an inadequate education
system is turning out many potential failures who find it easier, as Gopal does, to fall in
with the corruption they see around them.
Corruption is a deeper and more dangerous problem in India than it is in many other
countries. It is not just a case of people in power taking bribes, or even creaming off gov-
ernment funds. The foundations of democracy and social stability are being eaten away,
and the effectiveness of institutions, already weakened by jugaad, are further destroyed.
Notes
1.
Bibek Debroy and Laveesh Bhandari,
Corruption in India - the DNA and the RNA
, p.
7, Konark Publishers, New Delhi, 2012,
http://www.konarkpublishers.com/books/851
