Ed Luce: belief

Transcript context

…China had a Communist revolution, a cultural revolution going back earlier, the Taiping Rebellion. At least on the surface, partition aside, India appears much more stable than China over the long term. At least that’s the cliché. Is it true, and if so, why is India so apparently stable? I think India’s diversity is a great stabilizing strength. The fact that it’s got, I think, 18 official languages, although they do add to that, the fact that it has got every religion under the sun, the fact that, as E. P. Thompson famously said, “There’s not a thought that’s been thought in East or West that is not active in some Indian mind.” India’s sheer pluralism is very stabilizing if you take a sort of 30,000‑foot view. If you’re in the midst of it, you think it’s anarchy, but the more of altitude you get on this, the more stabilizing it is. It is a country that lets off steam regularly, and that’s why I’m concerned that Modi doesn’t celebrate that side of India. I think it’s an important, immensely valuable quality to India, that gives it a huge advantage over China. Before we get to questions, we have about three minutes left. Three questions about you. You have about a minute apiece for each. You were a speech writer for economist Larry Summers. Other than the obvious, what particular skill does a good speech writer need?…

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