India Unbound Charts Analysis

India Unbound charts, from a politico-economic perspective, the story of India as a nation from the pre independence era of 1942 to the post reform period, circa Year 2000. The author has for the most part narrated the story in the first person, interspersing his account with facts and figures. One thing that is abundantly clear about the book is that economy is at the forefront of the author’s mind. So, while numerous accounts of the political developments are available for both pre- and post- independence ages, this book does justice to the age old wisdom that economy is the axis on which politics revolves. It is also to be noted that it is not a documentation of facts only and amply puts forth the author’s perspective on the dichotomous
The author begins with an account of the British Raj and the transition into independent India, and the aspirations of Indians of what they thought was the watershed ushering them into a period of political freedom and economic prosperity.He gives due regard to the political leaders of the age for being able to establish a united country from a heterogeneous set of people and conflicting interestsand imbibing and institutionalizing modern values of democracy, liberty and equality.
However, he then sets out to detail why the first political leaders of free India less than succeeded in begetting India the economic future that it had both dreamt of under British servitude and had the potential to achieve. While he briefly explains the contemporary wisdomthat motivated the political leaders of the era to adopt the socialistic model of the economy, the next score of chapters is devoted to assailing, in great detail, the folly of these policies and the colossal damage they caused to the
Steps such as bank nationalization (thereby pushing them into loss) and passing of the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Act of 1969 are described as a final nail in the coffin.
However, the author uses the last part of the book to bring optimism back into the canvas of the narrative and describes the circumstances in India after the economic reforms which changed the government policies. He stresses, as he had done earlier too, that India has immense potentialand as an evidence, posits that soon after the suppressed energies of enterprise were set free, India rushed into an economic growth spurt, spearheaded by the knowledge industry. He mentions how a new middle class is at the driving seat of this growth spurt and how it is changing the very fabric of Indian society, mostly for the