Dreamers: How Young Indians Are Changing the World
Snigdha Poonam
Viking: 2018
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In 1901, Rabindranath Tagore, the first and only Indian writer to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature, moved to Shantiniketan (“abode of peace” in Bengali), a leafy town north of Kolkata (then Calcutta), and founded what would later become Visva-Bharati University. Last year, on a hot May morning, a huge crowd had gathered at the university to see Prime Minister Narendra Modi. It was graduation day, and the stage was set for the occasion: a makeshift wooden structure carpeted in red and saffron, the perimeter a wall of royal-blue cloth with a chariot stitched onto it.

After some time, the prime minister’s convoy motored into the grounds. A few eager students cheered as dust clouds swirled up. Modi got down from the car and, while walking towards the stage, thought about the great Tagore stepping onto the same land (or so he told those in the crowd, most of them students — young, bright-eyed, hopeful.) But on that day, many looked weary, the sun weighing down on them. Their prime minister’s introductory words provided no relief: “First of all, I apologise to all of you, because on the way to the university some children were pointing out to me that they didn’t even have access to drinking water.” Then, Modi invoked the idea of a new India in 2022, coinciding with the country’s seventy-fifth year of independence from British rule. “Young people give new energy and direction to the country,” Modi said, raising his hands and looking straight into the crowd. There was a cheer.

• Tags: India, Issue 14, Narendra Modi, Rohit Inani, Snigdha Poonam