Impressing the Whites: The New International Slavery

The Indian, Third World equivalent (or distant cousin?) to Ta-Nehisi Coates's eloquent "Between the World and Me" is this compassionate, idealistic, and often hilariously satirical book by the author of "The Revised Kama Sutra: A Novel" (an Indian bestseller). In one satirical chapter, a White God gives lays down "The Fourteen Commandments of Impressing the Whites." Very different in texture and more no-holds-barred than Baratunde's "How to Be Black" or "Orientalism" (Edward Said), the book examines the dilemma faced by non-whites who must sometimes strive to impress white people in order to succeed in their OWN countries. It ends with suggestions about how whites and non-whites might avoid playing the complex and truth-subverting games we now play and become more authentic.

Controversial in India (briefly on the Outlook bestseller list), the book was discussed on Indian national television and also on BBC World. Soon thereafter, it's limited distribution was stopped, possibly because it offended too many important Indians, riled too many sacred cows. It has also been studied at an American university and a South African university..

"The reader laughs, squirms, recognizes his/her own hypocrisy and the blatant absurdity of most unquestioned social conventions. In this, Crasta succeeds [in ways that] Chris Rock race routines succeed, i.e., brilliantly. Zany exuberance . . . mischievous pleasure."--Frank Feldman

"Boldly goes where no Indian writer has gone before."--The Asian Age, Book Pick of the Fortnight.