Skip to main content

Gurcharan Das on why it’s lonely being an Indian liberal

Submitted by shashi on Tue, 03/26/2024 - 07:46

I grew up in an India that was a proud liberal democracy saddled with an illiberal, over-regulated economy that micro-managed private enterprise. We called it the Licence Raj. I worked for a company that made Vicks VapoRub. One year there was a flu epidemic and sales of Vicks went through the roof. At the end of the year a summons arrived from the government, claiming my company had broken the law: sales had exceeded the production of Vicks authorised in our licence. It was a criminal offence, we were told.

Subscribe to The Economist