The Modi Disruption: India in Transition; Author: Arjun S. Kadian; Blue One Ink; ISBN 9365477352, 978-9365477351, Pg. 232, Rs. 499/-

Narendra Modi first took oath as Prime Minister in 2014, riding on the strength of the many promises that he had made and vowed to fulfil. On taking charge, he gave several more assurances. If there is one word that would describe the essence of those promises, it is ‘disruption.’ For, his promises, or Sankalp, talked of an audacious break from the past. They held hopes of a complete overhaul of how governments had functioned in the past. Modi did not promise the moon, but more. He asked the people of India to go for the stars, be the stars, rather. And, he said that dreams, however impossible, could be realised. All that was required was a brave deviation from the recent past. Disruption. That, he told Indians, would happen with both the government and the citizens working together.

Ten years later, we are witness to the changes in governance that have been brought about with that ‘disruption.’ Not one sector, not one area of activity, has been left untouched. From being among the fragile five economies of the world, we are now the world’s fifth largest—and soon to be the third largest economy. From being a fringe player on the international stage, we are today being toasted by the world’s high and mighty and invited to be part of multilateral forums—and even head some of them. As the world reeled from the devastation of Covid-19, India, although also battered, kept its nerves and developed anti-Covid vaccines. It vaccinated millions of its people and exported the vaccines to needy countries, in many cases free of cost. When Indians abroad were caught in the crossfire of armed conflicts and their lives were in danger, the Modi government used its leverage with world leaders and extricated those Indian back home to safety. An Indian passport holder is looked at with respect all over the world.

How did this change happen? What prevented it from happening in the pre-Modi era? The current generation of Indians, who were not around when things were dismally different, would quite naturally take the sweet spot that we are in today, for granted. But a better appreciation of where we are today can be had by understanding where we have come from. This is essentially the story that Arjun Kadian’s book, The Modi Disruption: India in Transition, tells. It is not a tome of history, nor does it have scholarly pretensions. And yet, in its concise and easy-to-read manner, the book narrates the transformation that has swept the country in the decade gone by.

Kadian has a conversational style that strikes an instant connect with the reader. Thus, even complex issues are presented in a simplified, but not simplistic, construct. He would have got lost had he to tackle every single disruption that the Modi government has managed to achieve, and the narrative would have become unwieldy. Wisely, therefore, Kadian has chosen to concentrate on what he considers the most striking cases. They are representative of the overall impact that the new governance of Prime Minister Modi has created.

The author has identified six areas where Prime Minister Modi’s approach has made a marked difference. They are healthcare (with a focus on Covid management), cultural reawakening, global diplomacy, sports, rescue missions, and the crafting of a new narrative evident through films and writings. Arguably, a few others, such as climate change action and education, could have been included. However, that is a small quibble, given that Kadian has done full justice to the subjects that he has chosen. The chapters on new narratives through films and writings, as well as on sports, are especially refreshing, for they are among the usually less discussed.

Another interesting addition to the book is the section titled, ‘Before Modi and After Modi’, which speaks of, through pure statistics, the road travelled over the last ten years. A few examples: the country’s defence exports stood at Rs 686 crore in the year 2013-14, while in 2023-24 it was Rs 21,083 crore; budgetary allocation to the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports was Rs 1,219 crore in 2013-14, while in 2024-25 it was Rs 3442.32 crore; the total length of highways was 91,287 km in 2014, and it shot up to 1,46,145 km (till November 2023).

The book also provides a context to Modi’s rise from the lower rungs of the ladder to the very top, the lessons that he learned along the way, and the deft manner in which he internalised them in crafting policies and programmes. The author speaks of another kind of disruption—that of the cozy arrangement of the elites who had managed the governance ecosystem for decades. They were the quintessential ‘insiders’ of Lutyens’ Delhi, who were rudely awakened with the rise of an ‘outsider’ Modi, and were clueless on how to tackle the new challenge.

Footnote: Never judge a book by its length. Although under 230 pages, The Modi Disruption is packed with substance. Many years down the line, when readers will want to have an encapsulation of the Modi era, they will not have to go behind Kadian’s The Modi Disruption. That, in sum, is the strength of this book.