The
European Union fiscal
crisis; tilt in market supremacy; a new pecking order; resolute China
racing towards its clear goals; a determined India trying to keep pace
are the focus of the book.

All that could possibly
go wrong with the EU, has. And all at once.

Faced with a formidable
threat that is ripping its delicate fibre, the economic rise of the
behemoth China is now a direct challenge to the EU domination. The
demographics is not a bright spot either, with an ageing and shrinking
workforce. Climate concerns have taken backseat, with the core EU
entity at stake.

The welfare states are
struggling to meet their own unreal standards, and with Greece’s
“dodgy bookkeeping”, it was a matter of time the 27-member
EU would buckle at the centre.

Greece had to be propped
up, and fast, to salvage the eurozone going under. Amid furious
deliberations with an ascendant Germany for a bailout, the unlikely
saviour was found in China, eager to expand its influence and pump in
mind-boggling funds into Greece. China with its ability to “vomit
up entire new neighbourhoods in what felt like weeks” had arrived
and how.

Pallavi Aiyar

Aiyar’s moving away from
bustling China to the quiet of Belgium, the headquarters of the EU,
was the seed for the book. Striving to be nothing short of a utopian
dream in spite of monetary limitations; many power centres; three
prime ministers in as many years; and the elusion of true cultural
amalgamation the road ahead for the EU is hazy. The EU’s cultural
identity is akin to India, with many faiths and states. Yet, the
“greater mixing” has not happened. Anti-immigration
sentiment prevails which works against integration. Minority
communities like the diamond merchants of India and Muslims continue
to live in ghettos.

The Antwerp’s diamond
business has been taken over by the Mehtas and Shahs, upsetting the
Jewish monopoly. Over 80 per cent of the world’s rough diamonds are
processed in India. Punjabi farm immigrants in Italy account for the
largest Indian diaspora in Europe, but are confined to the
countryside. It is believed if they were to go on a strike, Italy’s
production of cheeses like Parmesan would close down.

But the EU is
unimpressed with India’s presence and rise; it is resentful of the
hard labour Indians suffer for lower wages and fewer perks. There is a
social flaw. She writes: “Prosperity had been a potent amnesiac.
The slow, brutal slog of the labour movement in Europe has taken
centuries to accumulate and crystallise into present-day entitlements,
but had taken only a single generation to be internalised as
normal.” In spite of the crunch, people are not ready to part
with any of the elaborate fringe benefits, some downright ludicrous
(bonus for coming to work on time, for instance).

“With fiscal
contagion blowing across the region, it was apparent that Europe’s
major nations were in a state of disarray. Enrage mobs baying for the
blood of politicians, burning buildings, the elderly reduced to
destitution: these were not scenes from some faraway Third World hell
but from the countries that formed the beating heart of rich
Europe,” she writes. A nervous EU is staring at a breakup. It
must prune freebies and find “tact” that is essential in a
multicultural space else the union will be notional.

An award-winning foreign
correspondent, Aiyar’s work is made brilliant with scrupulous
research, a chatty style and personal anecdotes; the lack of which
would have rendered it pedantic. The book lends a fresh view to the EU
from the perspective of the growing economies of China and India. The
world is a global village and the book makes it easier to get a grasp
around it.