How would have India been, had it been liberalized in 1950 instead of 1991?

Someone asked this very enlightening question. Here's an attempt at answering it.

While it is extremely tempting to imagine a radically developed and rich India now, had our government attempted liberalization right from the early 1950s, that assumption most likely is futile.

I think so because -

• The British had almost completely hollowed out India before leaving - we had practically no capital resources, no industrial base, and no roadmap for the future. We were a blank canvas.
• Economic liberalisation through a democratic political process would have most likely led to a huge centralisation of wealth and resources within a decade, and the almost total annihilation and usurpation of all things indigenous (and we had/have tonnes of them). China avoided that largely for a long time post-1979 as a one-party system could take on the most convoluted of problems head-on.
• India was still developing its concept of nationhood through the entire 1950s, 60s and 70s, and in that sense, we may have become a carbon copy of the American model, something unsuited to our ground realities.
• Our military and security apparatus were relatively nascent. We were not a nuclear power.

When Rajiv Gandhi brought the first wave of economic reforms post 1985, (reducing import duties on technology products like computers, opening up of telecom sector - remember STD PCOs?, etc.), that itself took some time to show results.

What was experiencing the economic reforms 1991 like - a primer

What did the economic reforms 1991 do to India? To begin with -

1. they made consumerism desirable, brought in the first wave of multinational goods into India and made fancy consumer goods suddenly visible
2. they made the IIMs a brand worth chasing; suddenly everyone wanted to be an MBA
3. they changed the whole political and social discourse in India

The cat and its colours

Much like the Deng Xiaoping era witnessed in China after 1979, when he would exclaim that "to be rich is glorious", India was to witness its own Deng moment.

Allow me to offer a detailed insight. I was lucky to have witnessed, analysed, taught and lived the entire phase of the first generation economic reforms started by the team of PM Rao, FM Dr Singh, and Commerce Minister Mukherjee, beginning 1991. I was doubly lucky to have witnessed the tumultuous 1980s, when India witnessed a chaotic political scene, and ultimately which forced the Rao government's hands in 1991 to bring in economic liberalisation.

I distinctly remember the entire period of the first wave of Indian economic reforms (1991-1995), as that was the time I was in college (1989-1993), about to graduate, and making plans for my life. No one had expected that the Indian government would suddenly change track, and open up the floodgates of economic reforms so soon. But it happened, and India and its contours changed dramatically in just a span of 5 years. Almost each day brought with it headline news of government relaxing the rules of the game! Imagine an ET headline - "Government scraps Industrial Licensing" - that's how dramatic it was.