This book investigates the complex relationship between economic liberalization, state-led industrialization, and growth patterns in India from 1991 to 2008. Matthew McCartney, an economist specializing in development, challenges conventional narratives regarding India's economic trajectory. He utilizes a political economy framework to analyze how domestic class structures and historical planning policies influenced the outcomes of post-1991 reforms, arguing that the link between liberalization and growth is far more contingent than standard neoliberal models suggest.

Experts recognize this work as a rigorous critique of mainstream economic interpretations of India's development history. Readers frequently note the academic density of the prose, which is intended for scholars and students of development economics and South Asian studies.