Economic and Political History

Today was the last day of this 1/2 term course. I did doze off a few times but otherwise the classes put many things into perspective. The economy post Indian independence wasn't simply Nehru's brainchild, or an overlay of the USSR model onto Indian geography, but an economy that bore from the feedback of the Indian entrepreneurs in west India (the parsis - read Tatas - and the gujaratis/marathis/marwadis - read Birlas). While the British killed industry in east India by monopolistic policies, forcing the marvadis there to take up new roles as zamindars and later traders of British goods in India, they grew Indian capitalists in west India, as importers of British machinery and actual indigenous producers of goods. Industrialists there called the shots, when Nehru came into power, asking for a state aided, protectionist government to grow the Indian industry which was currently in its infancy. So followed license-raj, the corruption that came along, the public sector companies, to fill the supply-demand gap and later to nationalize sick private companies so as to prevent further unemployment.

Things have come a long way today. Capitalism has picked up momentum. Hopefully, a leaner, thinner, more efficient bureaucracy will follow. I guess, many lives will be wasted making that happen, but just like I'm bearing the fruits of generations and generations of hard work and sacrifice, I'll just be doing my bit before I perish.