Yet if India manages to achieve the feat by the centenary of its independence with an estimated population of 1.7 billion, it will bring more people into prosperity than any other country in the history of the world. It will also be the first democracy in the world to do so rather than turning into one while it grew prosperous, which was the case with America and Britain. This is exactly where the Indian economy and its growth differs from the rest of the world and why its achievements are still wonderous despite their relative deficiencies.

The founders of independent India chose to adopt the path of democracy at a time when large swathes of the population were unaware of the concept. Indian leaders chose the path of universal adult franchise at a time when not even advanced Western powers had taken it up and at a scale that nobody in history had done before. As the eminent educationist, Sunil Khilnani, put it in Idea of India: “India became a democracy without really knowing how, why or what it meant to be one.” Yet the democratic spirit allowed the survival and progress of the country when almost everyone expected it to fall apart at some point due to its diverse mix of people and interests.

However, taking everyone’s interests into account and discussing and debating policies probably also slowed down the growth process for India. It is often argued that it might be better for economies to grow under authoritarian rule initially and slowly turn into a democracy as people become more prosperous and aware of their rights. India perhaps adopted democracy too soon. But India has led the way in making economic advances while taking the interests of its entire population into consideration. And throughout its independent history when a leader has gone awry, the democratic machine has voted him or her out of power, albeit with some lag in the mid-1970s. The Indian democracy is the miracle in its last 71 years of independence. Whether it is where we stand today or where we are headed in the future, the wheel of democracy plays a guiding role. It might take longer to get there but that is probably the price of its resilience.

—Amit Kapoor is chair, Institute for Competitiveness and Chirag Yadav is senior researcher, Institute for Competitiveness.