How can India become an economic powerhouse after years of state control?

But as Western experience shows, the market's other face is commercialism. Das observes that when affluence grows, people are freed from basic wants and appear to get bored and suffer from spiritual disquiet. "[Capitalism] also leads to a greedy consumer society where people care only about their interest and, after losing faith in religion or idealistic ideologies, are left with little to do except go shopping," he writes. Das believes, however, that India's powerful family bonds and religious values will help Indians absorb the shock of the market.

Yet religion arguably poses the greatest threat to India's society. Virulent Hindu fundamentalism is poisoning Indian politics. It is a blight on India's economic modernisation that the state of Gujarat, among the best performing in terms of economic growth and rising incomes per person, was also the state where Hindu mobs last year butchered some 2,000 Muslims. It was the worst outbreak of communal violence since millions were killed during India's separation at birth from Pakistan.

Das points out that Hindu nationalism is indeed one response to India's globalisation. In the eyes of the nationalists, India was a victim of thousands of years of foreign invasions, and multinational corporations and American culture are now threatening it. What they want is to "restore" India to its pure Hindu past, then advance to become a Hindu superpower in the future. India's atomic bomb is part of the plan.

Das says communal peace will not come from converting India into a secular, non-religious version of the West but from the efforts of moderate religious leaders. Until these voices step forward, Das laments that Indians will have to live in an age of extremism.