[Zhang Fei]

[Well what did he expect flying on Air India. It’s such a bad airline, the Indian government can’t even find buyers. Seriously, the Indian government was going to privatize Air India this summer, but no companies were interested in putting in bids to buy it.]

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The problem isn’t the business per se. It’s having to work under the thumb of Indian government bureaucrats. It would have been a bottomless money pit for investors. The Indian government is the reason why India remains very poor despite its abundance of intelligent people. If the Raj had remained in place, India would be far better off. But Gandhi and other local luminaries had to have their shot at being head honcho.

[Reily]

Also all the Indian political elite were UK-educated and Fabian socialists. So by having such leading luminaries managing the national economy for 50-60 years any economic advances from decolonization were going to be strangled at birth! In recent years that type of socialist thinking has not been as strong as it once was consequently India has taken off economically like a shot out of a cannon.

[Fred Hayek]

Was there an earlier time when the Indian independence proponents were more business types, merchants, more open to a market economy rather than socialistic?