In Spite of the Gods

Breaking Stereotypes

The notion that India has a unique spiritual destiny has exercised a powerful pull on Westerners for hundreds of years. For the most part, Indians themselves have been content to accept this stereotype. After all, it beats Winston Churchill’s dismissive judgment of India as “a beastly country with a beastly religion.” However, spirituality itself has contributed to India’s poverty.

Mahatma Gandhi’s love for Indian village life and its household manufacturing helped block the development of urban centers and industries that could have improved millions of lives. Today, Gandhi and his ideology seem quaintly primitive to young entrepreneurs. Bhimrao Ambedkar, leader of the untouchable Dalit caste, strongly opposed Gandhianism. He despised the narrow, prejudiced village mentality and hoped democracy would end India’s oppressive caste system.

After Gandhi was assassinated, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, put the country on a secular, socialist development path. The legacies of Nehru’s socialism included capital-intensive industries that did little to solve India’s employment problems, a complex regulatory structure that...