Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs
Center for Contemporary South Asia

Grime Beneath the Glitter

July 21, 2018

In his July 21, 2018 Indian Express article, Ashutosh Varshney reviews James Crabtree's The Billionaire Raj: A Journey Through India's New Gilded Age. The central focus of the book, and Varshney's review, is the comparison between India's economic rise over the last two decades and the so-called American Gilded Age (1865-1900), when the US was transformed from a predominantly agrarian county to an urban-industrial one.  Varshney asks the question: are the two periods similar in significant ways? Read the full review