Rule of the Contented

G Parthasarathy The Culture of Contentment by John Kenneth Galbraith; Houghton Mifflin Company/Boston, New York, London, 1992; pp 195, $ 22.95.
THIS book is about the attitudinal changes in the behaviour of the majority affluent towards the minority poor in the US in the 1980s, from one of concern to that of gross indifference. Galbraith, in his inimitable style seen in The Affluent Society, and other works, describes the culture 6f contentment and narrates the transition to it in 15 eminently readable chapters. What makes the book of absorbing interest to Indian readers is the parallel to the current situation in India. The situation here is marked by the culture of contentment of the minority elite and tack of concern towards the majority poor.