The unknown history of economic conservatism in India after independence
Neoliberalism is routinely characterized as an antidemocratic, expert-driven project aimed at insulating markets from politics, devised in the North Atlantic and projected on the rest of the world. Revising this understanding, Toward a Free Economy shows how economic conservatism emerged and was disseminated in a postcolonial society consistent with the logic of democracy.
Twelve years after the British left India, a Swatantra (-Freedom-) Party came to life. It encouraged Indians to break with the Indian National Congress Party, which spearheaded the anticolonial nationalist movement and now dominated Indian democracy. Rejecting Congress-s heavy-industrial developmental state and the accompanying rhetoric of socialism, Swatantra promised -free economy- through its project of opposition politics.
As it circulated across various genres, -free economy- took on meanings that varie
