India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information AgeIndia today is a vibrant free-market democracy, a nation well on its way to overcoming decades of widespread poverty. The nation’s rise is one of the great international stories of the late twentieth century, and in India Unbound the acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a sweeping economic history of India from independence to the new millennium. Das shows how India’s policies after 1947 condemned the nation to a hobbled economy until 1991, when the government instituted sweeping reforms that paved the way for extraordinary growth. Das traces these developments and tells the stories of the major players from Nehru through today. As the former CEO of Proctor & Gamble India, Das offers a unique insider’s perspective and he deftly interweaves memoir with history, creating a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite, and eminently readable, India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future. |
Contents
OUR SPRING OF HOPE 194265 | 1 |
Ranting in English Chanting in Sanskrit | 3 |
Smells of the Bazaar | 16 |
4 | 28 |
Blind Then Blind Now | 44 |
If We Were Once Rich Why Are We Now Poor? | 52 |
The Paper Route | 69 |
Capitalism for the Rich Socialism for the Poor | 85 |
Merchants of Marwar | 176 |
Dreams in Kabutarkhana | 187 |
Licensing Blues | 196 |
THE REBIRTH OF DREAMS 199199 | 211 |
The Golden Summer of 1991 | 213 |
A Million Reformers | 228 |
New Money | 244 |
Democracy First Capitalism Afterwards | 310 |
THE LOST GENERATION 196691 | 101 |
Bazaar Power | 103 |
Lerma Rojo and Taichung Native No 1 | 123 |
Caste | 139 |
Multiplying by Zero | 155 |
Knowledge Is Wealth | 325 |
Afterword | 359 |
Notes | 365 |
Acknowledgments | 395 |
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