A few weeks ago, a very interesting essay hit the headlines. Authored by Yasheng Huang and
Tarun Khanna, I had, like many other India and China watchers, eluded to it in an earlier posting. The essay essentially argued India will surge ahead on the back of democracy and the institutions it has built over the years. Quite honestly, the theory is one I subscribe to. Over the weekend, however, I read another very interesting counter argument in Businessworld. Authored by Jehangir Pocha, a journalist of Indian origin based out of Beijing, Pocha has argued that India's isolation from the great wars and revolutions of the 20th century meant that much of the thinking that ossified Indian society in earlier centuries exists even in this one. India knows what it has to do; but not how to overcome the age-old obstacles to do it. Click here for the full essay.