Marino, Andy. Narendra Modi: A Political Biography. HarperCollins Publishers India. 2014. 299 pp.

A very thought provoking observation that British Author Andy Marino makes very early in his discourse is that Indians have a very short-lived memory. He then proceeds to prove it systematically. First example he gives is Indira Gandhi's re-election in 1980 despite imposition of Emergency in 1977. Inexplicable now that you think about it, but it happened nonetheless. The second example – and one which is more harmful that we've forgotten (one which millennials and my own generation have very little idea about) is the KHAM formula and how the Congress used Gujarat as a laboratory to create vote banks in the 80s. The KHAM strategy (giving reservations and freebies to Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims) led to large-scale riots in Gujarat. But politically, it yielded rich dividends for Congress. Their vote share jumped up dramatically from 1980 to 1985. Once the Congress and Madhav Singh Solanki saw that the KHAM formula was successful in winning elections, vote banks were created all across the country. The rest, as they say; is history. The KHAM formula slowly evolved into what is so popularly called "secularism" and is anything but. We (some of us at least) now understand it to be appeasement politics.

People are an amalgamation of their circumstances and I'm beginning to see how it was inevitable that a man like Narendra Modi would be moulded in Gujarat and nowhere else. Gujarat's history of communal violence, it's troubles with drought, the earthquakes, its long-standing history of political uncertainty fuelled by the disastrous KHAM formula, its entrepreneurial spirit and desire for prosperity; were all ingredients in making Modi what he is today. For want of a better word, it was destined that Modi be a Gujarati. Makes one wonder; maybe even now, there is a future national leader being cultivated in West Bengal, where similar troublesome circumstances abound. It is also very interesting to note Modi's "gurus" and the effect they had on him as a person.

In Narendra Modi: A Political Biography, Marino charts out Modi's psyche in comprehensive fashion. It is very easy to follow the story and get an idea of what made Modi the person he is today. Marino also makes the story engaging enough using anecdotes culled from Modi's contemporaries. As a comparison, unfortunately; Madhu Kishwar's background about Modi in her book Modi, Muslims and Media is a bit sketchy and tends towards fulsome praise (no doubt backed by her exhaustive research but fulsome nonetheless).

Another important thing that Marino has done well is chart out the reality behind the Gujarat model. He makes it clear that culture changes would take time, but things that could be fixed were fixed. For example, Marino outlines the way in which Modi fixed the two critical challenges Gujarat faced in the early 2000s – electricity and water. It is of course an impressive achievement, but its electoral significance is that it turned the tide against traditional politics of caste and convinced Gujaratis that it was in their economic benefit to vote for Modi. And we see now that the same model is being repeated in national politics as well. Roads are being built, power grids being laid, waterways and airports created, impetus is being given to small and medium enterprises, investment being done in skill-building initiatives and foreign investment being pulled in through indigenous manufacturing. Hopefully, just like Gujaratis; the rest of India too will see that it makes economic sense to vote for Modi.