India: From Midnight to the Millennium

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India: From Midnight to the Millennium is a 1997 nonfiction book written by Shashi Tharoor. In his usual rambling style he covers India from its independence in 1947 until the turn of the millennium.

Along the way he covers diverse topics like caste, Indian democracy, the legacy of Indira Gandhi, the partition of India and India’s transition from a socialist economy to a free market.

"India: From Midnight to the Millennium" is an eloquent argument for the importance of India to the future of the industrialized world. Shashi Tharoor shows compellingly that India stands at the intersection of the most significant questions facing the world at the end of the twentieth century. If democracy leads to inefficient political infighting, should it be sacrificed in the interest of economic well-being? Does religious fundamentaism provide a way for countries in the developing world to assert their identity in the face of western hegemony, or is there a case for pluralism and diversity amid cultural and religious traditions? Does the entry of Western consumer goods threaten a country's economic self-sufficiency, and is protectionism the only guarantee of independence? The answers to such questions will determine what kind of world the next century will bring. And since Indians wil soon account for a sixth of the world's population, their choices will resume throughout the globe.