Why are so many of our fellow citizens disentangling from the political and economic future of India to invest in the destiny of other nations? Are Non-Resident Indians turning irreversibly into Non-Returning Indians? Is enhancing soft power a fair trade off for losing priceless human capital? And, perhaps most pertinently, is India becoming, after Russia and China, the constricting land of intolerance and authoritarianism from which the elites flee in droves, seeking greener and more liberal pastures—not to forget tax havens.

Marshalling his magisterial scholarship into highly readable prose, Sanjaya Baru raises all these questions and more in Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India, which more than being a tome is a wakeup call we had better heed.