Customer Reviews

India Unbound

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Recently, while vacationing in India, I happened to watch an episode of 'Question Hour', an Indian political talk show hosted by Prannoy Roy on BBC World. Gurcharan Das was one of the guests and he, just like the other guests, shared his views on the Indian economy, the past policies and the needs for the future. The views expressed were so insightful and honest, that I decided to buy Gurcharan's book, 'India Unbound'.

Honestly, I couldn't put the book down for a minute. I finished the book, cover to cover, in three days. In my opinion, this is one of the finest books ever written about India (in the same league as 'Freedom at Midnight'). This book is not only superbly written, but also provides valuable insight and perspective.

The author discusses his childhood, his humble beginnings in corporate India, and his views about socialism and capitalism. In parallel, he discusses history, India's freedom, Indian politics and government, the Indian bureaucracy and even the caste system. Most endearing though, is how he describes the events in his life in a broader perspective of national politics and policies. He performs insightful analysis of the workings of Indian bureaucracy and how it influenced/touched not just his life, but the lives of millions and the workings of corporate India. He talks about all the failed attempts to reform government in the past (including his own) and the failures of the people in power to perform introspection and to do course correction.

He talks about the new beginnings after the reforms of 1991, the hopes and aspirations of millions in this new millenium, the IT boom, and the wonderful possibilities of the future.

This book is a must read for anyone who feels strongly about India.

This is a very informative book (and a thrilling one for every Indian) on the current state of Indian economy, what policies and factors shaped it and what can be made of it in the new century. The book blends government policy details of the past half a century (of independence) with interesting anecdotes of successful businessmen. The author is a strong advocate of free market policies and comes down heavily on Nehruvian thinking. The statistics and facts that are presented to support his reasoning are compelling.

After reading this book, one would tend to see a lot of mistakes in Nehru's view of modern India. The book squarely blames Indira Gandhi for most of the damage done to the system, citing the nationalization of banks and enactment of laws thwarting entrepreneurship. Overall, the book is very positive in what the new millenium holds for India. It presents a glowing future in the face of the recent economic liberalization.

A must read to catch up with post-independence Indian economy.

I could relate to this book because frustration and economic hopelessness, brought on by the absence of free markets and strict government controls in India, forced people of my generation overseas in droves. Das' ability to contrast his experiences as a student and an executive in the United States, with the ideals of Nehru Socialism, enables the reader to peel back the onion and smell the stink that emanated from the economic cesspool created by the "Licence Raj".

He provides the reader with a succinct account of the major reason why the nation with largest English-speaking population in the world with the second largest number of technically trained personnel was still mired in the throes of economic poverty five years ago.

An interesting book. I hope it inspires young Americans and people all over the world to work hard to preserve the ideal of a free marketplace where entrepreneurship, economic growth and freedom of expression are held in high esteem.

India's recent leadership in information technology and software design is just one facet of the country's economic transformation and re-birth. Journalist, former CEO and Harvard graduate, Gurcharan Das was born in India shortly before its independence. He moved to the United States in the 1950s, then returned to India as a marketing executive. Das deftly weaves history, cultural commentary and astute economic insight into a page-turning tale, and then brings it to life with the connective tissue of his personal story. We [...] were spellbound by his splendid book, which details India's emergence into the global economy, while delving deeply into why it took the country so long to come into its own.

India Unbound is the riveting story of a nation's rise from poverty to prosperity and the clash of ideas that occurred along the way. Today's India is a vibrant free-market democracy, and it has begun to flex its muscles in the global information economy. The old centralized, bureaucratic state, which stifled industrial growth, is on the decline; the lower castes have risen confidently through the ballot box; and the middle class has tripled in the last two decades. This economic and social transformation is one of the major themes of this book.

Gurcharan Das recounts the hope and despair of the last fifty years. The Licence Raj created a work environment in which a cousin of the author, one his first day at work in the railways, could precipitate a strike just because he was honest. An on one occasion, the author, even though a seasoned executive, was driven to sit by the polluted Yamuna and weep after a fruitless meeting with a bureaucrat. The transformation began in the golden summer of 1991, when a reticent reformer, Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao, finally changed the nation's course through sweeping economic reforms. A restrictive regime, in which the state dictated everything, from a woman's choice of lipstick to the programmes on television, gave way to the optimism of a rising middle class eager to compete with the rest of the world. It was a quiet revolution, one that has not been chronicled before.

Gurcharan Das examines the high's and lows of independent India through the prism of history and his own experiences and those of numerous others he has met following the reforms, from young people in sleepy UP villages to the chiefs of software companies in Bangalore. Defining and exploring the new mindset of the nation, India Unbound is the perfect introduction to contemporary India.

Here is a totally fresh look at India based on today's values. Unlike other books on India, its heroes are not political figures but private individuals. And the dualism that it focuses on is not between the rich and the poor, nor the village and the city, but the contrast between the vibrant private space in India versus the impoverished public space.

Mr. Das argues that "India embraced democracy first and capitalism afterwards and this has made all the difference. India became a full fledged democracy in 1950, with universal suffrage and extensive human rights, but it was not until 1991 that it opened up to the free play of market forces. This curious historic inversion means that India's future will not be a creation of unbridled capitalism, but it will evolve through a daily dialogue between the conservative forces of caste, religion and the village, the leftist and Nehruvian socialist forces which dominated the intellectual life of the country for 40 years, and the new forces of global capitalism. These 'million negotiations of democracy,' the plurality of interests, the contentious nature of the people, and the lack of discipline and teamwork imply that the pace of economic reforms will be slow and incremental. It means that India will not grow as rapidly as the Asian tigers, nor wipe out poverty and ignorance as quickly."

"The Economist has been trying, with some frustration, to paint stripes on India since 1991," adds Das, "It doesn't realise that India will never be a tiger. It is an elephant that has begun to lumber and move a head. It will never have speed, but it will always have stamina." And in moving into the future, if India manages to avoid the negative side-effects of an unprepared capitalist society and hold it own against the onslaught of global culture, then, states Das, "it is, perhaps, a wise elephant."

The story of this "silent revolution" is narrated in the first person by someone who has lived and intimately participated in it. He breathes life into the clash of economic and social ideas by recounting how one middle class family has lived its life and responded to the ups and downs of the past fifty years.

India Unbound voers the life of Gurcharan Das who grew up wealthy in India and for a few years in America and then became the CEO of Proctor and Gamble in India. Through his life he has seen many changes in India since its indepdence from Britain in 1947. He has seen the Congress Party ruling the country the current BJP party. He has seen the country move from an economic policy of socialism and state control to the beginnings of free market capitililsm. Through his life, he has seen the problems India has taken and the steps the country has taken in the right direction. He provides a great account of the dynamic changes occuring in the world's second most populous country and the world's largest democracy. His accounts do provide a lot of insight into this complicated country.

Das's book is peerless for many reasons. While chronicling post-independence India's socio-economic development (or lack of) through his discerning lens, he continually underscores the tremendous potential India possesses with nary a trace of sanctimoniousness. Nevertheless, his subtle indictment of the Nehru years along with a decidedly more searing assessment of the Gandhi (Indira and Rajiv) "legacy" leaves one with a tremendous sense of sadness and anger at "what might have been".

The language that Mr. Das employs is notable for its clarity giving the reader a thoroughly unrivalled perch from which to peer at the havoc wrought upon the nation by a bunch of self seeking politicos(Nehru included).

A powerfull opus for anyone with an interest in how policies can change the course of any nation.

This is simply the best piece of work on what makes India... India. Absolutely a must read for somebody who feels strongly about India and wants to get a modern unbiased perpective of the country.

Gurcharan Das is a genius and definately a very inspiring writer. Makes one proud to be an Indian. I have read this book, and have been totally taken away by it. Very different from normal books (specially indian authors), who are generally VERY pessimistic.

Every IAS, IRS, Customs, IPS officer and hordes of Indian Techies should read this book. Mandatory reading. Indias rise from the ashes.

Am willing to discuss this book with anyone. Feel free to email me at shiva338@yahoo.com

My Dad recommended this book to me as a way of learning more about India's economic and business evolution since 1947. Or, as he said:

This book is an excellent critical review of Mr Nehru and his successors' economic approach, which was based on state socialism, and led to economic stagnation, the growth of useless and stifling bureaucracy, and ultimately, India's isolation from the capitalist economies. Mr Das describes his position as democratic capitalism, and assumes that India's economic and social problems can be solved through her full and wholehearted participation in the global world economy. I personally think that he is overoptimistic, but tend to agree with the general thrust of his critique. The book is easy to read and does not come through as a boring academic exercise.