The Elephant, the Tiger and the Cellphone

For over four decades after Independence, India was likened to a slow-moving elephant, resting on the weight of its ancient achievements. In the early 1990s, however, the elephant appeared to stir, gradually transforming—until today, some believe it is evolving into a tiger. What, then, does the twenty-first century hold for India? Will it combine the tiger’s strength with the elephant’s vastness to shape the world, or remain an elephant at heart? In this companion to his bestselling India: From Midnight to the Millennium and Beyond, Shashi Tharoor examines the forces that have shaped modern India—and those that may yet undo it.