What do you think?
Rate this book
A Sixth Of Humanity: Independent India's Development Odyssey - A Financial Times Book of the Year
This is a deeply impressive work ... Every Indian who wishes to know their country better, to more fully understand its past, present, and possible future, should read it.--Ramachandra Guha
A brilliant and breathtaking tour de force. You will never think about India or economic development in the same way again.--Simon Johnson
India's journey has been distinctively 'precocious' in comparative terms. It opted for democracy before development and social change, promoted high-skilled services before and over low-skilled manufacturing and chose a globalization that favoured exports of talented people and short-changed the poor. The socialist state became an inefficiently capitalist one before providing the public goods of physical infrastructure and human capital. The outcomes have been surprising, with the country achieving success in creating and sustaining democracy, albeit flawed, and maintaining a modicum of order.
Four decades of economic dynamism and the emergence of a somewhat more capable Indian state has meant that it is able to build infrastructure and deliver the essentials of life to its population at scale-still not without disappointments, but a massive improvement over the past. Just as India's aspiration has lifted to building 'world-class' statues, temples, bullet trains, airports and digital systems, the undermining of some of the real achievements of democracy, federalism and nation-building stand in the way.
As the world gets radically upended, India's development odyssey is at a critical juncture. A Sixth of Humanity is an attempt to trace how one of the largest and most diverse countries in the world, uniquely and daringly, attempted four concurrent transformations-building a state, creating an economy, changing society and forging a sense of nationhood-under conditions of universal suffrage.
Jointly written by political scientist Devesh Kapur and economist Arvind Subramanian, both of whom have decades of academic and policy experience, this book encompasses perspectives that span disciplines, experiences and geographies. Rigorously researched, carefully argued and lucidly written, this is the definitive development history of India. There is no book remotely like it.
A brilliant and breathtaking tour de force. You will never think about India or economic development in the same way again.--Simon Johnson
India's journey has been distinctively 'precocious' in comparative terms. It opted for democracy before development and social change, promoted high-skilled services before and over low-skilled manufacturing and chose a globalization that favoured exports of talented people and short-changed the poor. The socialist state became an inefficiently capitalist one before providing the public goods of physical infrastructure and human capital. The outcomes have been surprising, with the country achieving success in creating and sustaining democracy, albeit flawed, and maintaining a modicum of order.
Four decades of economic dynamism and the emergence of a somewhat more capable Indian state has meant that it is able to build infrastructure and deliver the essentials of life to its population at scale-still not without disappointments, but a massive improvement over the past. Just as India's aspiration has lifted to building 'world-class' statues, temples, bullet trains, airports and digital systems, the undermining of some of the real achievements of democracy, federalism and nation-building stand in the way.
As the world gets radically upended, India's development odyssey is at a critical juncture. A Sixth of Humanity is an attempt to trace how one of the largest and most diverse countries in the world, uniquely and daringly, attempted four concurrent transformations-building a state, creating an economy, changing society and forging a sense of nationhood-under conditions of universal suffrage.
Jointly written by political scientist Devesh Kapur and economist Arvind Subramanian, both of whom have decades of academic and policy experience, this book encompasses perspectives that span disciplines, experiences and geographies. Rigorously researched, carefully argued and lucidly written, this is the definitive development history of India. There is no book remotely like it.
773 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 22, 2025
54 people are currently reading
599 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
November 8, 2025
A Sixth of Humanity offers a comprehensive exploration of India's economic journey, integrating diverse perspectives and extensive data from its post-independence era.
The book is structured into five parts: the first examines India’s ability to avoid macroeconomic disorder amidst challenges; the second highlights its impressive growth, countering common misconceptions; the third focuses on the evolution of its financial system; the fourth discusses the dynamics of India as a multinational state; and the fifth synthesizes the findings and looks to the future.
A notable aspect is India's decision to grant universal voting rights upon independence, allowing 350 million citizens to participate in democracy despite widespread illiteracy. This bold move has contributed to India's status as the world's largest democracy, demonstrating that what may seem "impossible" can succeed with determination.
Overall, the book is a well-researched resource on India’s economics, politics, and society, supported by data, graphs, and charts, making it valuable for understanding the complexities of India's growth.
The book is structured into five parts: the first examines India’s ability to avoid macroeconomic disorder amidst challenges; the second highlights its impressive growth, countering common misconceptions; the third focuses on the evolution of its financial system; the fourth discusses the dynamics of India as a multinational state; and the fifth synthesizes the findings and looks to the future.
A notable aspect is India's decision to grant universal voting rights upon independence, allowing 350 million citizens to participate in democracy despite widespread illiteracy. This bold move has contributed to India's status as the world's largest democracy, demonstrating that what may seem "impossible" can succeed with determination.
Overall, the book is a well-researched resource on India’s economics, politics, and society, supported by data, graphs, and charts, making it valuable for understanding the complexities of India's growth.
January 8, 2026
Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian’s magnum opus is a fact-based and data-driven deep dive into independent India’s journey in the last 75 years. For someone who wishes to critically validate the authors’ findings, the ocean of data presented in the form of graphs, tables and other statistics gives them more than enough to chew on. But even for someone without the vast knowledge of India’s trajectory in the past, looking to plunge into this ocean of information, it is a very engaging book.
I personally learnt a lot from the book (I stopped reading after 300 pages (half way) because my mind needed a change of topic). Some key takeaways are:
1. India’s journey is punctuated by inflection points that were the result of certain global events or internal turmoil. 1950-1980 is called the planning phase (or the socialist era) where the government curbed the rise of private enterprises (the P word was considered too derogatory) and trade with the outside world owing to the experiences of the British imperialistic practices. 1980-1991 is when private enterprises were freed off their handcuffs to a certain extent, but global trade remained dismally low. Post-1991 is called the neo-liberal era because privatization was on the rise and India’s borders were forced to open up to the world thanks to the balance of payment crisis.
2. India is called a precocious democracy because we chose to industrialize before we could tackle poverty. For example, although zamindari was abolished in 1951, preferential access to lands based on financial status (courtesy democracy) prevented the poor from owning land and giving an impetus to agriculture. In China, the communist government appropriated all the land themselves and then redistributed it to the peasants to cultivate growth and prosperity from a grassroots level. That helped them climb the ladder in a more systematic sequence of agriculture followed by labor-intensive manufacturing followed high-skilled services. India, however, under the socialist government chose to industrialize via capital-intensive sectors (by setting up multiple public sector enterprises for power, irrigation and transport among others) by skipping agriculture and manufacturing altogether. That stymied structural transformation in the long run.
3. Revenue from direct taxes was not a thing until the neo-liberal era. Since the government was socialist, its prime motive was to eliminate poverty. Hence, indirect taxes and SLR (statutory liquid ratio) were some of the few sources of government revenue. Although the percentage of revenue coming from direct taxes soared in the neo-liberal era coterminous with high income due to increased trade and privatization, the growth rate was more or less stagnant as compared to pre-1991. This irony is explained in great detail in the book. In conclusion, the socialist era endorsed state capitalism symbolized by the monopoly of state-owned enterprises that was unfortunately prioritized over spending on public infrastructure like roads, railways, bridges, etc. that could have drastically improved the quality of life of millions living under the poverty line. On the other hand, the neo-liberal era was more welfarist than the previous governments as it increased manifold the subsidies provided to the under-privileged, most likely to retain electoral dominance.
I personally learnt a lot from the book (I stopped reading after 300 pages (half way) because my mind needed a change of topic). Some key takeaways are:
1. India’s journey is punctuated by inflection points that were the result of certain global events or internal turmoil. 1950-1980 is called the planning phase (or the socialist era) where the government curbed the rise of private enterprises (the P word was considered too derogatory) and trade with the outside world owing to the experiences of the British imperialistic practices. 1980-1991 is when private enterprises were freed off their handcuffs to a certain extent, but global trade remained dismally low. Post-1991 is called the neo-liberal era because privatization was on the rise and India’s borders were forced to open up to the world thanks to the balance of payment crisis.
2. India is called a precocious democracy because we chose to industrialize before we could tackle poverty. For example, although zamindari was abolished in 1951, preferential access to lands based on financial status (courtesy democracy) prevented the poor from owning land and giving an impetus to agriculture. In China, the communist government appropriated all the land themselves and then redistributed it to the peasants to cultivate growth and prosperity from a grassroots level. That helped them climb the ladder in a more systematic sequence of agriculture followed by labor-intensive manufacturing followed high-skilled services. India, however, under the socialist government chose to industrialize via capital-intensive sectors (by setting up multiple public sector enterprises for power, irrigation and transport among others) by skipping agriculture and manufacturing altogether. That stymied structural transformation in the long run.
3. Revenue from direct taxes was not a thing until the neo-liberal era. Since the government was socialist, its prime motive was to eliminate poverty. Hence, indirect taxes and SLR (statutory liquid ratio) were some of the few sources of government revenue. Although the percentage of revenue coming from direct taxes soared in the neo-liberal era coterminous with high income due to increased trade and privatization, the growth rate was more or less stagnant as compared to pre-1991. This irony is explained in great detail in the book. In conclusion, the socialist era endorsed state capitalism symbolized by the monopoly of state-owned enterprises that was unfortunately prioritized over spending on public infrastructure like roads, railways, bridges, etc. that could have drastically improved the quality of life of millions living under the poverty line. On the other hand, the neo-liberal era was more welfarist than the previous governments as it increased manifold the subsidies provided to the under-privileged, most likely to retain electoral dominance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 11, 2025
A Sixth of Humanity is not just a book, it’s an intellectual x-ray of India’s seventy-five-year journey from the chaos of Partition to the complexities of a rising, restless democracy. Co-authored by Devesh Kapur, a political scientist with a deep eye for institutional nuance, and Arvind Subramanian, an economist known for his precision and clarity, this book attempts what few dare to explain India not just through data, but through the delicate interweaving of its politics, economics, and moral choices.
The authors are not satisfied with telling us what India became; they dare to ask why. Why did India choose democracy before development, idealism before pragmatism, rights before roads? Why did it send its brightest minds abroad even as it struggled to feed its millions? Why did it globalize without first industrializing? These are not casual curiosities, they are the hard, uncomfortable questions that define India’s paradoxical story, a country that constantly breaks rules, sometimes to its detriment, but often to its brilliance.
At the core of the book lies a thematic audacity, the idea that India has been attempting four transformations simultaneously -
✨ Building a State
✨ Creating an Economy
✨ Changing Society
✨ Forging a Nation
Each transformation has moved at a different pace, pulled by different forces, often working against each other rather than in harmony. This is where the book’s intellectual honesty shines, it refuses to romanticize India’s contradictions; it dissects them.
The decision to grant universal adult franchise at independence, when 80% of the population couldn’t read or write, was perhaps India’s greatest moral gamble. The book frames this as a moment of revolutionary faith, a leap so idealistic that even the West had not dared it at such a scale. It’s a theme of moral audacity that democracy was not a result of development, but the soil in which India hoped development would grow.
Social change in India has often moved slower than economic metrics, but the book highlights subtle victories. The rise of Dalit leaders, the decline of overt caste dominance, the assertion of regional identities, all reflect an evolving social fabric. Yet, the authors don’t let us forget the shadow side: the persistence of inequality, gender bias, and the still unfinished task of genuine inclusion.
This book offers one of the most nuanced readings of India’s nationhood in years. They acknowledge the brilliance of federalism and linguistic accommodation that prevented fragmentation, but they also warn of a growing centralization and the corrosion of institutional autonomy. Their tone here is analytical but tinged with sadness, the sense that something fragile and beautiful in India’s democratic experiment is at risk.
✍️ Strengths :
🔸The combination of political science and economics gives the book a rare depth. It moves effortlessly from state capacity to social identity, from remittance flows to federal fault lines. Few books manage to balance data with humanity this well.
🔸Despite its dense research, this book is lucid. You don’t need to be an academic to grasp its essence, it’s a rare instance where complexity meets clarity.
🔸The authors neither glorify nor denigrate India. They praise its resilience while holding it accountable for its complacencies. Their tone is critical, not cynical, honest without being hopeless.
🔸The diasporic lens, linking India’s internal evolution with its global presence, adds a refreshing dimension. The data on remittances, skilled migration, and international influence is contextualized beautifully.
✒️ Areas for improvement :
▪️Despite acknowledging rural transformations, the book’s weight leans heavily toward macroeconomics and elite migration. The voices of India’s “other half” the rural poor, informal workers, and marginalized castes are more analyzed than heard.
▪️The final sections, reflecting on contemporary challenges, democratic backsliding, polarization, and inequality, feel somewhat cautious. One senses the authors’ restraint where a bolder, more direct critique might have hit harder.
▪️Sometimes, India’s story deserves to stand alone, not merely as a “comparison” to China or the West. The comparative framing, though analytically sound, occasionally dilutes the uniqueness of India’s messy brilliance.
In conclusion, this book is not just a history of India, it is a mirror, and not always a flattering one. It reflects a country that stumbled into democracy before knowing how to walk, that sent its best abroad while its poorest stayed behind, that built temples before toilets and airports before equal rights. But it also reflects a country of staggering courage, the only one of its size and diversity to sustain democracy, freedom, and growth simultaneously.
The authors are not satisfied with telling us what India became; they dare to ask why. Why did India choose democracy before development, idealism before pragmatism, rights before roads? Why did it send its brightest minds abroad even as it struggled to feed its millions? Why did it globalize without first industrializing? These are not casual curiosities, they are the hard, uncomfortable questions that define India’s paradoxical story, a country that constantly breaks rules, sometimes to its detriment, but often to its brilliance.
At the core of the book lies a thematic audacity, the idea that India has been attempting four transformations simultaneously -
✨ Building a State
✨ Creating an Economy
✨ Changing Society
✨ Forging a Nation
Each transformation has moved at a different pace, pulled by different forces, often working against each other rather than in harmony. This is where the book’s intellectual honesty shines, it refuses to romanticize India’s contradictions; it dissects them.
The decision to grant universal adult franchise at independence, when 80% of the population couldn’t read or write, was perhaps India’s greatest moral gamble. The book frames this as a moment of revolutionary faith, a leap so idealistic that even the West had not dared it at such a scale. It’s a theme of moral audacity that democracy was not a result of development, but the soil in which India hoped development would grow.
Social change in India has often moved slower than economic metrics, but the book highlights subtle victories. The rise of Dalit leaders, the decline of overt caste dominance, the assertion of regional identities, all reflect an evolving social fabric. Yet, the authors don’t let us forget the shadow side: the persistence of inequality, gender bias, and the still unfinished task of genuine inclusion.
This book offers one of the most nuanced readings of India’s nationhood in years. They acknowledge the brilliance of federalism and linguistic accommodation that prevented fragmentation, but they also warn of a growing centralization and the corrosion of institutional autonomy. Their tone here is analytical but tinged with sadness, the sense that something fragile and beautiful in India’s democratic experiment is at risk.
✍️ Strengths :
🔸The combination of political science and economics gives the book a rare depth. It moves effortlessly from state capacity to social identity, from remittance flows to federal fault lines. Few books manage to balance data with humanity this well.
🔸Despite its dense research, this book is lucid. You don’t need to be an academic to grasp its essence, it’s a rare instance where complexity meets clarity.
🔸The authors neither glorify nor denigrate India. They praise its resilience while holding it accountable for its complacencies. Their tone is critical, not cynical, honest without being hopeless.
🔸The diasporic lens, linking India’s internal evolution with its global presence, adds a refreshing dimension. The data on remittances, skilled migration, and international influence is contextualized beautifully.
✒️ Areas for improvement :
▪️Despite acknowledging rural transformations, the book’s weight leans heavily toward macroeconomics and elite migration. The voices of India’s “other half” the rural poor, informal workers, and marginalized castes are more analyzed than heard.
▪️The final sections, reflecting on contemporary challenges, democratic backsliding, polarization, and inequality, feel somewhat cautious. One senses the authors’ restraint where a bolder, more direct critique might have hit harder.
▪️Sometimes, India’s story deserves to stand alone, not merely as a “comparison” to China or the West. The comparative framing, though analytically sound, occasionally dilutes the uniqueness of India’s messy brilliance.
In conclusion, this book is not just a history of India, it is a mirror, and not always a flattering one. It reflects a country that stumbled into democracy before knowing how to walk, that sent its best abroad while its poorest stayed behind, that built temples before toilets and airports before equal rights. But it also reflects a country of staggering courage, the only one of its size and diversity to sustain democracy, freedom, and growth simultaneously.
November 15, 2025
The title itself - A Sixth of Humanity is a reminder of India’s demographic weight in the world. Written by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian, two eminent scholars of political economy, the book examines how India has navigated the daunting task of building a modern nation-state while balancing democracy, development, and diversity. It is not just a history of policies but a meditation on the choices, compromises, and paradoxes that have shaped India’s trajectory since 1947.
The authors trace India’s path from Nehruvian socialism to liberalisation in the 1990s, and the more recent experiments with welfare schemes and digital governance.
They argue that many of India’s setbacks, whether in agriculture, industrialisation, or governance ,stemmed less from destiny and more from failures of agency: poor policy design, weak institutions, and political short-termism.
The book highlights how regions like Punjab and Haryana benefited disproportionately from agricultural reforms, while others lagged behind, deepening inequalities.
Unlike many postcolonial states, India chose democracy first and development second. This gamble, the authors suggest, has been both India’s greatest strength and its Achilles’ heel.
India’s unique model, messy, plural, yet resilient, offers lessons for other developing nations and continues to reshape global geopolitics.
The authors combine economic data with political analysis, making the book both rigorous and accessible. Sharing some
From 12,000 to 2.9 Million: The US Saga
"Indian immigrants in the US grew from just 12,000 in 1960 to 2.9 MILLION in 2023."
(That’s more than 240x growth!)
Remittance Rocket
"Indians abroad sent back $129 billion in remittances in 2024—financing up to a quarter of the country’s imports in some years!"
Southern Surge:
Since 1980, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh have grown faster than China over four decades!
It avoids triumphalism and despair, instead presenting India as a nation of paradoxes, capable of both extraordinary innovation and frustrating inertia.
By situating India alongside other Asian economies, the book underscores why India’s path has been so distinctive.
The authors trace India’s path from Nehruvian socialism to liberalisation in the 1990s, and the more recent experiments with welfare schemes and digital governance.
They argue that many of India’s setbacks, whether in agriculture, industrialisation, or governance ,stemmed less from destiny and more from failures of agency: poor policy design, weak institutions, and political short-termism.
The book highlights how regions like Punjab and Haryana benefited disproportionately from agricultural reforms, while others lagged behind, deepening inequalities.
Unlike many postcolonial states, India chose democracy first and development second. This gamble, the authors suggest, has been both India’s greatest strength and its Achilles’ heel.
India’s unique model, messy, plural, yet resilient, offers lessons for other developing nations and continues to reshape global geopolitics.
The authors combine economic data with political analysis, making the book both rigorous and accessible. Sharing some
From 12,000 to 2.9 Million: The US Saga
"Indian immigrants in the US grew from just 12,000 in 1960 to 2.9 MILLION in 2023."
(That’s more than 240x growth!)
Remittance Rocket
"Indians abroad sent back $129 billion in remittances in 2024—financing up to a quarter of the country’s imports in some years!"
Southern Surge:
Since 1980, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh have grown faster than China over four decades!
It avoids triumphalism and despair, instead presenting India as a nation of paradoxes, capable of both extraordinary innovation and frustrating inertia.
By situating India alongside other Asian economies, the book underscores why India’s path has been so distinctive.
November 11, 2025
“Can a nation grow powerful and yet lose pieces of its soul in the process?”
India’s story, as traced through A Sixth of Humanity, isn’t just about GDP graphs or global rankings—it’s about the uneasy bargain between progress and principle. Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian don’t write like economists chasing numbers; they write like witnesses tracing the pulse of a country that never truly stopped negotiating with itself.
From the dawn of Independence to the digital republic of today, the book unpacks how India tried to do four impossible things at once—build a nation, shape a state, create markets, and reform society—while balancing the chaos of democracy.
The same democracy that protected freedom also slowed transformation. The same growth that lifted millions deepened divides. And somewhere between Nehru’s secular dreams and Modi’s majoritarian reality, India’s identity became a mirror reflecting both pride and peril.
Did you knew !? That Indian immigrants in the US grew from just 12,000 in 1960 to 2.9 million in 2023. That’s more than 240× growth—proof that India’s rise has often been as visible abroad as at home.
The book doesn’t preach—it observes. It compares, questions, and forces you to ask: did we gain a superpower’s confidence at the cost of a civilization’s compassion? Or is this simply what growth looks like when a billion lives are trying to rewrite destiny in real time?
⸻
🧭 Who should read this:
• Thinkers who love dissecting India beyond the headlines 🇮🇳
• Readers who crave interdisciplinary writing—where politics meets economics meets history 📘
• Creators, analysts, and dreamers who still believe that understanding India is the first step to changing it 🌍
⸻
💭If development means progress, who decides what we lose along the way—and is every loss justified by growth?
⸻
India’s story, as traced through A Sixth of Humanity, isn’t just about GDP graphs or global rankings—it’s about the uneasy bargain between progress and principle. Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian don’t write like economists chasing numbers; they write like witnesses tracing the pulse of a country that never truly stopped negotiating with itself.
From the dawn of Independence to the digital republic of today, the book unpacks how India tried to do four impossible things at once—build a nation, shape a state, create markets, and reform society—while balancing the chaos of democracy.
The same democracy that protected freedom also slowed transformation. The same growth that lifted millions deepened divides. And somewhere between Nehru’s secular dreams and Modi’s majoritarian reality, India’s identity became a mirror reflecting both pride and peril.
Did you knew !? That Indian immigrants in the US grew from just 12,000 in 1960 to 2.9 million in 2023. That’s more than 240× growth—proof that India’s rise has often been as visible abroad as at home.
The book doesn’t preach—it observes. It compares, questions, and forces you to ask: did we gain a superpower’s confidence at the cost of a civilization’s compassion? Or is this simply what growth looks like when a billion lives are trying to rewrite destiny in real time?
⸻
🧭 Who should read this:
• Thinkers who love dissecting India beyond the headlines 🇮🇳
• Readers who crave interdisciplinary writing—where politics meets economics meets history 📘
• Creators, analysts, and dreamers who still believe that understanding India is the first step to changing it 🌍
⸻
💭If development means progress, who decides what we lose along the way—and is every loss justified by growth?
⸻
November 13, 2025
"A Sixth Of Humanity"
Do you know the facts and figures of continuous Development in evolving India that took place post Independence?
This book is thick for it is consisting of in depth researches, studies and graphical representation of changing of numeric variability in terms of certain fields of agricultural Development, educational point, financial, political and economic swaps in India after freedom from slavery.
Author brings readers attention to,
Industrialisation and education in India as a need it was for which government had to take legal and valid steps. Further read what government invested in agricultural, educational and its worth for a Growing nation.
Condition of India's infrastructure in its mid 1960s & 1980s is what you'll get to notice.
✨Some important highlights that is a must known :-
••Remittance Rocket
"Indians abroad sent back $129 billion in remittances in 2024—financing up to a quarter of the country’s imports in some years!"
••The Democratic Experiment
Did you know India chose universal voting rights for ALL citizens right after independence - even when 80% couldn't read or write?
While other countries waited decades to expand voting rights, India said "let's give 350 million people the vote immediately!" Talk about a bold experiment!
Most experts thought it would never work. A poor, diverse country with hundreds of languages trying democracy? "Impossible," they said.
75 years later, India is still the world's largest democracy. Sometimes the "impossible" just needs someone brave enough to try it first.
Let yourself educate and connect to the powerful knowledgeable book covering history of India's growth and development with facts!
#asixthofhumanity
Do you know the facts and figures of continuous Development in evolving India that took place post Independence?
This book is thick for it is consisting of in depth researches, studies and graphical representation of changing of numeric variability in terms of certain fields of agricultural Development, educational point, financial, political and economic swaps in India after freedom from slavery.
Author brings readers attention to,
Industrialisation and education in India as a need it was for which government had to take legal and valid steps. Further read what government invested in agricultural, educational and its worth for a Growing nation.
Condition of India's infrastructure in its mid 1960s & 1980s is what you'll get to notice.
✨Some important highlights that is a must known :-
••Remittance Rocket
"Indians abroad sent back $129 billion in remittances in 2024—financing up to a quarter of the country’s imports in some years!"
••The Democratic Experiment
Did you know India chose universal voting rights for ALL citizens right after independence - even when 80% couldn't read or write?
While other countries waited decades to expand voting rights, India said "let's give 350 million people the vote immediately!" Talk about a bold experiment!
Most experts thought it would never work. A poor, diverse country with hundreds of languages trying democracy? "Impossible," they said.
75 years later, India is still the world's largest democracy. Sometimes the "impossible" just needs someone brave enough to try it first.
Let yourself educate and connect to the powerful knowledgeable book covering history of India's growth and development with facts!
#asixthofhumanity
January 10, 2026
1/6th of Humanity by Devesh Kapur and Arvind Subramanian is a monumental work. One whose sheer depth and ambition become clear when you learn it took nearly six years to write. Given its density and scope, that timeline feels entirely justified. This is not a light book by any measure; it is thick, demanding, and intellectually serious.
I found myself conflicted while reading it. On the one hand, the authors clearly attempt to write for a general audience; on the other, parts of the book feel closer to a textbook than popular non-fiction. Sections on fiscal federalism, early Indian economic policy, and econometric analysis were challenging, especially for readers without a strong background in economics. The extensive use of data, charts, and substantiated quantitative claims, while academically rigorous, can feel overwhelming. At moments, despite their efforts, the prose slips into a semi-academic register.
That said, in terms of scale and scholarship, this is an extraordinary achievement. Few books offer such a comprehensive account of India’s post-independence public policy evolution across the state, markets, and culture. It is equally credible inside and outside the classroom and has the potential to become a definitive entry point for understanding Indian political economy.
For readers with stronger grounding in economics or political science, this could easily be a 4.5-star book. For me, it lands around 3 -3.5 stars—but remains deeply illuminating, especially when read alongside its extensive notes and bibliography, which are almost a book unto themselves
I found myself conflicted while reading it. On the one hand, the authors clearly attempt to write for a general audience; on the other, parts of the book feel closer to a textbook than popular non-fiction. Sections on fiscal federalism, early Indian economic policy, and econometric analysis were challenging, especially for readers without a strong background in economics. The extensive use of data, charts, and substantiated quantitative claims, while academically rigorous, can feel overwhelming. At moments, despite their efforts, the prose slips into a semi-academic register.
That said, in terms of scale and scholarship, this is an extraordinary achievement. Few books offer such a comprehensive account of India’s post-independence public policy evolution across the state, markets, and culture. It is equally credible inside and outside the classroom and has the potential to become a definitive entry point for understanding Indian political economy.
For readers with stronger grounding in economics or political science, this could easily be a 4.5-star book. For me, it lands around 3 -3.5 stars—but remains deeply illuminating, especially when read alongside its extensive notes and bibliography, which are almost a book unto themselves
November 20, 2025
The book offers a sharp, compelling look at India’s transformation through surprising and powerful data points. It traces how the Indian diaspora in the US grew from just 12,000 people in 1960 to 2.9 million in 2023 an astonishing 240x rise. It highlights India’s position as a remittance powerhouse, with Indians abroad sending home $129 billion in 2024, enough to fund nearly a quarter of the country’s imports in some years.
The author also spotlights the extraordinary rise of the southern states Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Andhra Pradesh, which have outpaced even China’s growth over the past four decades. In contrast, rural India has undergone a quieter but profound shift: farming now contributes to less than half of rural income, and traditional artisanal occupations have nearly vanished.
A standout section revisits India’s boldest democratic decision granting universal voting rights at independence when 80% of the population was illiterate. What many deemed “impossible” has endured for 75 years, making India the world’s largest democracy.
Equally fascinating is the “Kerala miracle,” where development was fuelled not by industries but by people. With 2.2 million Keralites working abroad and remittances forming 15% of the state’s economy, Kerala transformed itself through migration proof that unconventional paths can reshape a society.
January 31, 2026
I stopped reading midway through Chapter 1 because the language felt overly complex and difficult to follow. The ideas may be valuable, but the way they’re expressed makes understanding them unnecessarily challenging.
Here are some examples -
"India's vertically stratified social structure and tenacious social norms fundamentally crushed individual agency and social and spatial mobility"
"And if societal participation is weak due to the absence of fraternity, so is the quality of public services. In other cases, society also forces the state not to do less but to play a greater role. For example, in redistribution. Affirmative action in India reflected this dynamic, but if the overall effects of the fissures in society are to reduce the full and equal participation of all citizens, it is bound to adversely affect the ability to generate economic prosperity"
A simple word like Partition has been stretched into “the dismemberment of the subcontinent.” 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 I really had to pause to realise that the author was simply referring to the Partition of India!!!!
Kudos to those who are able to complete this book. Picked with great excitement, but its just money gone in drain.
Here are some examples -
"India's vertically stratified social structure and tenacious social norms fundamentally crushed individual agency and social and spatial mobility"
"And if societal participation is weak due to the absence of fraternity, so is the quality of public services. In other cases, society also forces the state not to do less but to play a greater role. For example, in redistribution. Affirmative action in India reflected this dynamic, but if the overall effects of the fissures in society are to reduce the full and equal participation of all citizens, it is bound to adversely affect the ability to generate economic prosperity"
A simple word like Partition has been stretched into “the dismemberment of the subcontinent.” 🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄🙄 I really had to pause to realise that the author was simply referring to the Partition of India!!!!
Kudos to those who are able to complete this book. Picked with great excitement, but its just money gone in drain.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews