Prisoner of its past.

Examines the successes and failures of India's version of central planning. Importance of India's colonial past in shaping the attitudes of the middle class; Belief of Jawarharlal Nehru, India's first leader after independence, in Soviet-style central planning; Moves to industrialise India using economic plans; Efforts by Indira Gandhi to eliminate poverty; Avoidance of debt through a policy of self-reliance; Inequalities in India's agricultural policy; Failure to reduce poverty levels at the same rate as other Asian countries; Lags in primary schooling and education of women; Excuses for the persistence of India's problems, including the size of its population and the theory that poverty tend to be self-reinforcing; Why development has gone wrong.