WHOLE NUMBERS AND HALF TRUTHS

<p>INTRODUCTION xiii</p><p>Data could tell us the story of modern India; then why doesn't it?</p><p>A NOTE ON THE DATA xvi</p><p>I. HOW INDIA TANGLES WITH COPS AND COURTS 1</p><p>We form our ideas about safety and trust from media reporting of crime and from crime statistics. But pulling the curtains back on how the police report crime how crime statistics are generated and how the media reports on it could completely change our view of crime in India.</p><p>II. WHAT INDIA THINKS FEELS AND BELIEVES 28</p><p>Homilies about Indian values abound seeking to cast an image of a country of contradictions at once traditional and modern. But at its core India is conservative even fundamentalist. If there's going to be change it will take work.</p><p>III. HOW INDIA (REALLY) VOTES 53</p><p>Almost everything that we know about how Indians vote comes either from political journalists 'on the field' or from opinion polling. The way they ask questions the data from these surveys and selective reporting have created false narratives around the Indian voter that come in our way of an honest understanding of democracy in India.</p><p>IV. EAT PRAY ENJOY LOVE MARRY- 91</p><p>HOW INDIA LIVES LIFE</p><p>We have a surprising wealth of data on the minutiae of people's lives: what exactly Indians in different parts of the country once ate and now like to eat how religion and caste mediate these decisions; who and how Indians have sex with fall in love with and marry; and what people do in their spare time. But what does it miss?</p><p>V. HOW MUCH MONEY DO INDIANS MAKE? 121</p><p>How India really makes its money how much money Indians make and how rich or poor Indians think they are-all of these answers are a long distance from the common understanding of poverty and class in India.</p><p>VI. HOW INDIA SPENDS ITS MONEY 151</p><p>A generation ago cereals dominated the weekly spending budget of Indians; that has changed as Indians go out to eat watch movies save fly. But there's also the story of what the data misses and (at least) one gaping hole in official statistics. And then there's the story of how governments try to play with this data.</p><p>VII. HOW INDIA WORKS 178</p><p>Most Indians want a government job for their children many imagine that the majority of young Indians work in IT and most believe that hiring and firing is incredibly difficult in India. So what work do Indians really do and how can we expect the world of work to look in the near future?</p><p>VIII. HOW INDIA IS GROWING AND AGEING 202</p><p>We know that India is a young country that the southern states are ageing and that families in the northern states are larger</p><p>than those in the south. But beyond this lies a surprising world of nuance-women are actually having their children earlier than ever on average 'family planning' is having some terrifying unintended consequences and stereotypes about Muslim families miss most of the story.</p><p>IX. HOW INDIA LIVES AND WHERE 225</p><p>Urbanisation and migration were supposed to be the big stories of the last decade. Looking at where and how India lives shows that neither played out the way it was supposed to but planners don't seem to have caught on to this.</p><p>X. HOW INDIA FALLS SICK AND GETS BETTER 250</p><p>Who gets sick in India of what where do they go to get better and how does treatment work? We think we know the answers but a lot of what we think we know about illness doctor abilities and health costs is actually false and a result of polarised activism and news reporting. The COVID pandemic provides a special impetus to getting the answers right.</p><p>CONCLUSION 280</p><p>What can we then say that we really know about India from the data how could we go about getting the data to do a better job of capturing the country and is there a way out of the Left/Right binary?</p><p>NOTES 284</p><p>ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 322</p><p>A NOTE ON THE COVER 327</p>