Table Of Content
GURCHARAN DAS
India Unbound
From Independence to the Global Information Age
PENGUIN BOOKS
Contents
About the Author
Dedication
Introduction: The Wise Elephant
PART ONE: OUR SPRING OF HOPE (1942–65)
1. Ranting in English, Chanting in Sanskrit
2. Smells of the Bazaar
3. The Train to Nowhere
4. Blind Then, Blind Now
5. If We Were Once Rich, Why Are We Now Poor?
6. The Paper Route
7. Capitalism for the Rich, Socialism for the Poor
PART TWO: THE LOST GENERATION (1966–91)
8. Bazaar Power
9. Lerma Rojo and Taichung Native No. 1
10. Caste
11. Multiplying by Zero
12. Merchants of Marwar
13. Dreams in Kabutarkhana
14. Licensing Blues
PART THREE: THE REBIRTH OF DREAMS (1991–99)
15. The Golden Summer of 1991
16. A Million Reformers
17. New Money
18. Old Money
19. The Rise and Rise of a Middle Class
20. Modern vs. Western
21. Democracy First, Capitalism Afterwards
22. Knowledge Is Wealth
23. A New Country
Afterword
Notes
Acknowledgments
Copyright Page
PENGUIN BOOKS
INDIA UNBOUND
Gurcharan Das is an author and public intellectual. He writes a regular column
for the Times of India, Dainik Bhaskar, Eenadu and other newspapers. He also
writes for the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Newsweek and Foreign
Affairs. He graduated from Harvard University in philosophy and politics and
was CEO of Procter & Gamble India before he took early retirement to become a
full-time writer.
He is the author of the novel A Fine Family. His other literary works include a
book of essays, The Elephant Paradigm, and an anthology, Three English Plays,
consisting of Larins Sahib, a prize-winning play about the British in India, which
was presented at the Edinburgh Festival; Mira, which was produced off-
Broadway to critical acclaim; and 9 Jakhoo Hill, which has been performed in
major Indian cities.
First published in 2000, the best-selling India Unbound has been translated
into several languages worldwide, and was also made into a film by the BBC.
Praise for the Book ‘It is a wonderful book—a great mixture of memoir,
economic analysis, social investigation, political scrutiny and managerial
outlook being thrown into the understanding of India … The temper of the book
is both critical as well as optimistic, and I think the combination works well.
Gurcharan being happier with the world makes a difference—there is a kind of
positiveness that breathes through every page’—Amartya Sen ‘This brilliant
work in political economy is for all young Indians, especially budding politicians
and IAS probationers. It deserves to be translated in all Indian languages so that
the common person can become better educated about the policies that they want
for their country’—N.R. Narayana Murthy ‘Having constructed a comprehensive
indictment of India’s economic failures, Das is optimistic about the liberalization
that has opened the economy in the 1990s … Das writes in an engaging style,
sprinkling his text with a well-chosen array of quotations. There are layman-
friendly discussions of economic theories of poverty, and his arguments are
leavened with a close reading of economic texts, both classic and contemporary.
But what shines through is the telling anecdote, the personal example, the
remembered conversation’—Shashi Tharoor, Los Angeles Times ‘There’s much
to be said for this book. In the first place, it’s interesting, for Das is a natural
storyteller. Second, it’s unpretentious—the language, while adequate, is without
unnecessary flourishes. Third, it’s informative—it contains a mixture of history
and autobiography—which includes some essentials for anyone in business or
management—and the reader glides smoothly from one to the other’—Shashi
Warrier, Indian Review of Books ‘Gurcharan Das is by any standard an amazing
man … India Unbound is an education by itself. [He] goes back and forth into
history, politics, social changes as and when the situation calls for, and speaks
more about the world around him than about himself … Even when he is critical
of Jawaharlal Nehru’s policies he is appreciative of his sentiments’—M.V.
Kamath, The Daily Sunday ‘Gurcharan Das has written a paean to liberalization
(India Unbound)—arguably the most readable book on the reforms of the 1990s.
Gurcharan is a magical writer and a great storyteller; his account of the reforms
is so upbeat that even I thought we had accomplished something’—Ashok Desai,
Business Standard ‘India Unbound is bound to become an essential component
of the reading list for anyone interested in the contemporary Indian economy’—
Sushma Ramachandran, The Hindu ‘Gurcharan Das is a good storyteller. He
weaves a series of unconnected actions into a pattern with some sort of theme.
His technique is to put himself, often vicariously, as an observer, occasionally a
participant, into the events he describes; in this way he gives immediacy to
history’—Sudhir Mulji, Business Standard ‘Why has a country as bountifully
blessed as India achieved so little in a half century of freedom? Gurcharan Das
provides a fascinating interpretation of the possible reasons in India Unbound …
Not often does one come across a former CEO of a major organization … who is
also well-read in a wide range of subjects, ranging from economics to
philosophy to poetry. And if one does come across them on rare occasions, not
many can wield a pen as dexterously as Das does’—V.S. Mahesh, Business
India
‘Gurcharan Das’s keen eye … captures the panorama of the last 50 years of
Indian history in his own way … both fascinating and interesting … India
Unbound keeps your interest in top gear throughout the book’—Shunu Sen,
Business Line ‘The change in India since economic liberalization in 1991 has
been astonishing, and the pace of it picks up every day. On a recent visit—after
several years—I found a book which gave a vivid and persuasive explanation of
the transformation all around me. India Unbound … is a mixture of memoir and
social and economic inquiry, written with great energy, personal knowledge and
clarity. I would firmly recommend it to any visitor to India as a key guide to its
recent past’—Ian Jack, New Statesman ‘India Unbound is at the top of the
country’s best-seller list for non-fiction, tapping into a vein of renewed self-
confidence and national pride that is itself a central theme of his study. Part
memoir, part history, part travelogue, part polemic, India Unbound dissects the
failures of the country’s Nehruvian socialist experiment and vividly describes
the changes that are transforming the daily lives and outlooks of the country’s 1
bn people’—John Thornhill, Financial Times ‘India Unbound is a lively,
interesting and well-documented answer—the first of its kind—to a key
question: why was India rich, why is it poor, when will it be rich again? It is also
full of the kind of stories which make that fascinating country come alive for the
reader’—Olivier Bernier, author of The World in 1800
‘India Unbound is a quiet earthquake that shook faraway shores long before its
shockwave reached Britain. [Its] conclusion is that in the next two decades India
will become the third-largest economy, after the US and China … [and] two
industries, information technology and agriculture, will lift India out of poverty.
It talks of an India where teenage tea-shop assistants work to save money for
computer lessons …[and] says that if the poor get rich and a few people get
filthy rich, that is better than worrying about the distribution of wealth and no
one getting rich. Amartya Sen, the Nobel Prize-winner, was so impressed he
asked Das to start a “secular, right-wing party” modelled on Britain’s Tories in
India’—The Guardian ‘Part memoir, part journalism, part history and part
management bible … India Unbound is an opinionated but insightful guide to a
rapidly changing nation in which old cliches about spirituality and poverty are
increasingly irrelevant … Das had a ringside seat at the events he describes, and
the result is an engaging account that moves easily from the big picture to the
telling anecdote’—New York Times Book Review ‘The strength of [Das’s]
inquiry lies in its castigation of those who inherited the running of India from the
British. He is commendably scathing about Nehru and his daughter Indira
Gandhi, who had her father’s hubris and contempt for businessmen but not a
trace of his erudition … The author regards economic growth as the only way to
strengthen Indian democracy … [and] his optimism is potent when he says, “We
have good reasons to expect that the lives of the majority of Indians in the 21st
century will be freer and more prosperous than their parents. Never before in
recorded history have so many people been in a position to rise so
quickly.”’—The Wall Street Journal ‘[India Unbound] could be an eye-opener
to readers unfamiliar with the radical transformations currently under way in the
subcontinent’—The Washington Post Book World ‘Remarkable … Head and
shoulders above the customary books … This story is so much more persuasive
and effective … [as] Das traces his life as a journey headed in the same direction
as the business life of his country, an almost literary scheme that is unusually
effective … The issues of business vs. private enterprise [are] played against the
somewhat parallel questions of modernity vs. tradition and nationalism against
cosmopolitanism … This elegant essay has something for everyone’—St. Louis
Post-Dispatch ‘Informative, entertaining and basically correct about India’s need
to embrace capitalism more whole heartedly, for all the costs and risks’—The
Economist
For Bunu, Kim, and Puru
