Snakes and Ladders

March 31, 1997
Mehta writes of India as one of a new generation, born the day in 1947 when it became independent and five years old when Gandhi was assassinated. Her view of her country's recent past is filtered through her own experiences as a well-connected, Oxford-educated writer (A River Sutra), reporter and lecturer. This series of engrossing sketches, some of which have been previously published in U.S. and British magazines, describes a country that is not one but several civilizations in different states of development, a subcontinent rather than a single state, with a multitude of cultures, religions, languages, races and customs, where "most Indians view other Indians as foreigners." Its lack of a cohesive identity has frustrated rulers, past and present, in their efforts to "centralize a land that has no center but is only a field of experience." Yet the democratic urge brings the disparate elements to vote in numbers that might shame more cohesive states: "half a billion ballot... in 17 different languages, each with individual scripts." Mehta's reports range across rampant political corruption, chaotic rule, fashionable dinners, discussions of the country's ancient cultures and her own encounters with poets and filmmakers. These wide-ranging pieces, suffused with outrage, pride, love and humor, have the immediacy of sharp personal reactions and the distance of a critical eye. First serial to Vogue; author tour.