What a long, strange Trip it’s been: Reflections on India’s Economic Growth in the Twentieth Century

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to situate India’s recent economic growth in the long sweep of the twentieth century and to understand what is different about the contemporary growth experience from earlier episodes. The paper argues that most interpretations of India’s growth acceleration tend to privilege one dimension of the growth experience over another, and that the causes of India’s growth suggest a more complex causal story and that no single perspective can provide a convincing explanation of India’s growth phenomenon. The paper also argues that in contrast to the previous growth success stories of the developing world, especially those originating from Asia, India’s pattern of growth has followed a non-standard route that privileges knowledge-intensive services and capital-intensive manufacturing over labour-intensive manufacturing, which is not in India’s long-term interests, either from viewpoints of efficiency or equity.