This book presents a historical and political survey of India's economic development since independence. It analyses the post-independence developments in the context of the preceding British rule. It is argued that the major economic and other problems of post-independence India have their roots in the disruption of Indian society caused by colonisation. The country’s persisting poverty, illiteracy, and general backwardness can be traced to the poor quality of political leadership because of its elitist roots, low investment due to the drain of the surplus, and the Indian society's loss of value for original and relevant ideas and knowledge.

The book highlights that there is a common explanation of how a handful of British could conquer India and rule over it for two hundred years and why independent India has not been able to overcome its problems over the last six decades.

This is a magisterial, seminal work on independent India's economy by a renowned economist. It stands out because it probes various aspects of the Indian society in a holistic manner, including key events, the changing institutional setting, the evolving political economy and its theoretical understanding, the role of the black economy in policy failure and the stunting of societal dynamism due to the inadequacies in knowledge generation. Further, it integrates issues ignored by most analysts, such as the environment, the marginalised, sectoral imbalances, poor infrastructure, fiscal crisis, monetary policy difficulties, persisting under-employment, growing regional disparities, trade imbalances, the continuity with the pre-independence period, international developments, the role of knowledge generation through education and science and technology, and the hierarchy of policies, all of which are germane to an understanding of the progress and hiatus in India's economy since independence.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the Indian economy has achieved much in the period. The point, however, is that it is too little compared to what was needed to be achieved and that the nation is headed in the wrong direction, highlighting the disjuncture between the short run and the long run — a running theme in the book. The approach adopted in the book leads to newer questions and answers.