The Indian Renaissance is the tale of India’s economy. Although Sanjeev Sanyal has written some excellent books on India from a historical and geographical perspective, he is an economist by profession, and his first book shows us that it’s his forte as well. After a brief look at how India collapsed from being the country with the largest share of GDP in the world to one of the lowest, he centers most of the book around the liberalization reforms of 1991 as the focal point and the watershed moment in independent India’s history, considering it more important than 1947 itself.

While a lot of people are aware of the impact that liberalization has had on the Indian economy not many are aware of the causes which led to it. The author walks us through this phase commonly known as “license raj” and how it stifled productivity, growth and fostered an inward-looking and narrow-minded outlook among the citizens. He also rightly identifies that the socialist policies implemented during the years from ‘47-‘91 might have been a knee-jerk reaction of distrust of the outside world due to centuries of colonization but their seeds were long sowed long ago going back a 1000 years to the time of the first invasions and settlement by Turks and Afghans, followed by Mughals. Eventually the tri-facto of Balance of Payments crisis, the Gulf War and investors pulling out funds forced India to open up the economy. In doing so, India burst free from its shackles, leaving behind a 1000 years of decline to rise again.

The chapters on how India grew from strength to strength in three phases since were the most enjoyable to read especially for someone like me who lived through these times. We get a sense of how everything from private airplanes to cable TV, and nuclear weapons to the advent of the internet took place.

Another major focus of the book is on the great Indian middle class and how they shaped and continue to shape India’s progress on various fronts. We get a detailed outlook on how the middle class grew with the help of the tertiary educational institutions, on the myth of primary and secondary institutions not growing rapidly enough, how the IT services sector is powered by this white-collar middle class and exchange of ideas and thoughts on a global scale.

This book came out in 2008, and I can already see a lot of the predictions and assertions the author has made have played out accurately. We learn about the “Asian model of growth” and how countries like Japan, South Korea, Thailand and the latest entrant China have all grown rapidly due to their population demographics hitting a peak over the last 50 years, a lot faster than their European counterparts did during the Renaissance. India is poised to enter this peak in the next 20 years and has the added advantage of already having an educated middle-class and being a global player.

Of course, all is not rosy and we need to be primed to generate the manpower with the necessary skills and resources to steer us through this peak period. This involves changes at the policy level, a responsive and expansive judicial system and most of all to continue being open to new ideas and attitudes. The story of Kolkata’s rapid decline from being a center of arts and culture to its current state is elucidated to make us aware of how even the best-equipped places may not always succeed.

Most of all I loved the optimism and confidence the author portrays throughout the book. India is on the cusp of being a world superpower, and it is the energy and dynamism of its working population which will enable us to fulfill our potential.

Originally published here.