Review: ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Offers Reasons for Optimism in India’s Gilded Age
ByFor close to a century leading up to its independence in 1947, India operated under a system of British governance known as the Raj, taken from a Sanskrit word meaning “kingdom” or “rule.” Then, more or less until the introduction of economic liberalization in 1991, the country stagnated under a planned economy whose overwhelming regulatory demands were described as the License Raj.
The title of the new book by James Crabtree, “The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India’s New Gilded Age,” suggests that India has now come under the grip of a new but no less troublesome regime. In a nation no longer at the mercy of imperial administrators and maharajahs or petty bureaucrats, “a new system has grown up,” and the emerging superrich are firmly in charge…
Review: ‘The Billionaire Raj’ Offers Reasons for Optimism in India’s Gilded Age
