India Unbound

A thought provoking book’

Review of

India Unbound

 by Gurcharan Das

Gurcharan Das has very vividly and elaborately described the Indian social and economic transforms and reforms undergone, since it got its freedom. According to him, India developed as per the ideology of its leaders some what restricted to liberalize and resilient to the fast pace of the global revolution.

“When individuals blunder, it is unfortunate and their families go down. When rulers fail, it is a national tragedy.” He has analyzed why India was rich then and why it is poor now .He has also analyzed the failure of India to enter the Industrial revolution. He says that we are not tinkers but are conceptual people. Our tradition has deep influence on how we perceive manual labour.He says it is only tinkers who combine knowledge with manual labor, which produces innovation and entrepreneurship. However Knowledge age plays potentially to our advantage. Our success in software and internet is the evidence. India has wrestled with abstract concepts of Upanishads for three thousand years. Just as spiritual space is invisible so is cyber space. So our core competence is invisible. With IT we have found an engine for India to take off towards transformation.

He concludes that India will never be a tiger .It is an elephant, which has begun to lumber slowly. It will never have speed but will have stamina. Although slower, India is more likely to preserve its way of life and its civilization of diversity, tolerance and spirituality against the onslaught of global culture.

In reciting the stories of most of India’s entrepreneurs, he also weaves his personal story into the larger context of contemporary history. His family moves to America in mid 1950’s, his education in Harvard, His years in India as a young marketing executive, wrestling with social system which he feared would undermine the countries vast potential .His final decision to retire during the climax of his career as a CEO in USA company and return to India in order to make a difference in the Indian society and economy.

 His optimism that Indians flying abroad will sooner or later revitalize India’s potential and return back as a pay off to their country, is very touchy. He is very positive of India’s progress and likens it to the slow and wise elephant.

On the whole ‘A thought provoking book’