Book review
In India Unbound, acclaimed columnist Gurcharan Das offers a comprehensive view of the economic and social transformation of India from independence to the new millennium.

It is the riveting story of a nation’s rise from poverty to prosperity and the clash of ideas that occurred along the way. 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’s corporate leaders. Deftly interweaving memoir with history, Das has created a book that is at once vigorously analytical and vividly written. Impassioned, erudite and eminently written India Unbound is a must for anyone interested in the global economy and its future.

Review
‘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.’— Amartya Sen

‘Informative, entertaining, and basically correct about India’s need to embrace capitalism more wholeheartedly, for all the costs and risks.’— The Economist

‘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?’— Olivier Bernier, author of The World in 1800

‘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.’— Los Angeles Times

‘Remarkable . . . heads and shoulders above the customary books.’ — St. Louis Post-Dispatch

‘I do not know of any book that describes the impact of India's economic policies on her growth during the post-independent India as analytically, logically and vividly as this one . . . 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.’ — Narayana Murthy

‘Arguably the most readable book on the reforms of the 1990s. Gurcharan is a magical writer and a great story-teller.’—Ashok Desai, Business Standard

‘Gurcharan Das's keen eye and sharp sense of sound 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

‘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

‘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 and 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


About the author Gurcharan Das is a columnist for the Times of India and other newspapers, and is the author of three plays (including the renowned "Larins Sahib") and a novel. He graduated from Harvard College in Philosophy and Politics and attended Harvard Business School. A former CEO of Procter & Gamble India, he is currently a venture capitalist and a consultant to industry and government leaders. He lives with his wife in New Delhi