The first four decades of Independent India have been unfortunately ignored by much of modern writers in the media. Given the state of the country on Aug 15, 1947 it is remarkable how far it traveled before it was in some sense ready for economic reforms in the late 80’s. The following article which appeared in Business Standard last year at this time (Archives are not easily accessible) talks of the many achievements of those years. It is doubtful if Liberalization in 1947 would have produced such an outcome. It is a good topic for debate. The ideas of Swatantra Party were however kept alive by the Forum of Free Enterprise.http://www.indusscitech.net/remembering_nehru.htm M.A.Pai