There was a time––it now appears to be the pre-historic period–– when people talked of literacy and were concerned about illiteracy. Then dawned the era when numeracy or the ability to grasp and manipulate numbers became important. Facts were what numbers supported. Not that some wise people were not aware of how reality could be misrepresented by skilful sleight of hand with numbers. As the adage has it, there are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics. We have come a long way and even statistics belong to the Jurassic age. Humanity today is trying to unravel the mysteries of big data and data analytics. Mathematics was never for the millions, despite the exertions of scholars who wish to demystify numbers, figures and charts. Recreational mathematics also remained niche.
Although remedial courses have proliferated online and offline, numbers continue to baffle most of us. It is in this context that the present book makes a welcome appearance, and should be considered a valuable contribution to diverse public discourses that are raging around us.
Whole Numbers and Half Truths provides a brilliant snapshot of contemporary India. It has been divided into extremely readable small chapters, refreshingly free from jargon that can be enjoyed separately. But, like always, the whole is much more than the sum of its parts.
The introduction tells us what the numbers say and what they don’t about the country we live in. It is followed by a short note on data that should reassure the sceptical reader about the credibility of the contents.
The first chapter is titled ‘How India Tangles with Cops and Courts’ and sifts fact from fiction in media reportage in its interpretation of crime statistics. The chapter that follows makes an effort to explore ‘What India Thinks, Feels and Believes’.
The temptation is strong to think that we as individuals are objective and more tolerant than others. Labels like ‘traditional’ and ‘modern’, ‘conservative’ and ‘fundamentalists’, ‘liberal’ etc. are simply crutches that most of us carry around to absolve ourselves of the responsibility to rigorously review our own positions critically. The third chapter strives to analyse the voting behaviour and examines the validity of opinion polls, exit polls and presumptions of ‘social scientists’.
The author has not forgotten the love life of Indians and their candour or otherwise, in replying to queries about the joy or misery of sex. Others––psychologists with more gravitas have ponderously trod on this ground but Rukmini stimulates serious thoughts with a light touch, without spicing up the barebones of the text with titillating tidbits.
The following two chapters focus on ‘How Much Money Do Indians Make’ and ‘How India Spends its Money’. The transition from the realm of kam (desire) to the domain of material arth (pursuit) is smooth. The author should be complimented for myth-busting of ‘middle-class’ India by juxtaposing governments’ own figures about those who subsist below the poverty line and the microscopic minority that pays taxes. She makes the reader confront the harsh reality that our country is no place for the middle-class. We only have the rich, the ultra-rich and the abjectly poor.
After kam and arth, the examining lens is turned towards work. Once again, perhaps the word lens is not apt, like a prism, the white light of the numbers is refracted and the reader can analyse the myriad tints in the spectrum––changing preference for careers considered most lucrative or the continuing fascination with government jobs to provide social mobility and opportunities to exercise power and enrich oneself, providing many interesting insights to speculate about shape of things to come.
For a long time, the Indian government has gloated over the demographic dividend that it can expect from its young population that gives it an edge over other countries with an ageing population. This chapter provides a comparative perspective of how different states in the Indian federation present a different demographic profile–– how they are growing and ageing differently. Unintended, and sometimes terrifying consequences of family planning and stereotypes about Muslims and other minorities are also addressed.
The last two chapters deal with ‘How India Lives and Where’ and ‘How India Falls Sick and Gets Better’. The painful divide is not just between urban and rural India, but also the inequities within large cities, access to healthcare, education and employment––all are inextricably mixed up with where one lives and how the place of residence decides life chances of Indians.
While examining the health issue, it understandably concentrates on the games politicians and pliant doctors play with numbers. The broader context, however, is not lost sight of. The book is strongly recommended for all who are interested in which way India is headed. It is impossible to have an informed debate without coming to terms with whole numbers (fractions included, and the depiction of abstractions based on them in pictorial representation: graphs, charts).
It deserves to be translated into all Indian languages to make the desired impact.
Whole Numbers and Half Truths: What Data Can and Cannot Tell
By: Rukmini Shrinivasan
Publisher: Context
Pages: 324
Price: Rs 598