An Afterthought

Abstract A central theme in this volume is that post-Nehru, India was on a deterministic path with no prospect of change of course until 1991. Externally, the change had to wait for the fall of the Soviet Union and the rise of the Chinese economy. Internally, a change could not have come without an economic crisis. Is there, then, a scenario in which the course of Indian economic history could have been different? This chapter develops the argument that such a possibility could materialize only if the age profiles of Nehru and Sardar Vallabh Bhai Patel had been switched. In that case, Nehru would have departed the scene in December 1950, while Patel would have succeeded him and remained in office until May 1964. A plausible case can be made that he would have kept socialism at bay and adopted an economic policy framework reliant principally on private enterprise.