India Awakes: How Freedom Saved the Subcontinent

n August 15, public television stations around the United States will begin airing India Awakes, a new documentary from Free To Choose Network.

For centuries, only the politically connected and elite prospered in this densely populated country, while everyone else lived in poverty. However, since 1991, more than 250 million people have been lifted out of poverty and are finding new ways to flex their personal and economic power.

Today, India is coming alive. In fact, Citigroup estimates that by 2050, India will have the world’s largest economy, larger than China or the United States.  

“Within two decades India will have the largest population in the world, and another two decades later, it will have the world’s largest economy,” said Norberg. “What happens in India will have an effect on the world and on the US, and its triumphs and challenges also sheds new light on the policies we are pursuing back home.”

In the new 60-minute documentary, India Awakes, appearing nationwide on public television stations August 15, 2015 (check local listings), noted Swedish author, commentator, and Cato Institute Senior Fellow Johan Norberg explores an inherited British bureaucracy, which created layers of rules and regulations.

Today’s globalization and economic liberalization have created fluidity between classes – and greater ambition among the people. Even the caste system is being broken up by upward mobility in India’s emerging middle class.