The non-cultural revolution

Book review of India's Power Elite: Class, Caste and a Cultural Revolution

Sanjaya Baru — journalist, public servant, public intellectual-at-large — asserts that Narendra Modi as prime minister has effected a “cultural revolution” in the Indian order. In this process, he has overturned the traditional structure of the national “power elite” and replaced it with new wielders of power and influence in the polity.

Mr Baru adopts Modi’s perception of the traditional “elite” as, variously, “Lutyens’ Delhi”, the “Khan Market Gang”, and the “IIC Cabal” (the latter referring to members of the India International Centre, Delhi’s intellectual and cultural centre). This power elite consisted of those who went to upmarket boarding schools and