By trying to marry western-style liberal democracy with soviet-style central economic planning (that too, against the backdrop of Cold War politics), the first crop of leaders in independent India undertook a very bold experiment to say the least. The Planning Commission, with Prof PC Mahalanobis at its helm, was responsible for spearheading a lion's share of the allied efforts. While the whole construct might now seem like a relic of a past that grows more unfamiliar with every passing day, we can't refute the sway that these ideas held over the Indian conscience till the 1991 reforms upended this rather atypical consensus.

A new book by the University of Notre Dame historian Prof. Nikhil Menon, "Planning Democracy: How a Professor, An Institute, and an Idea Shaped India" documents how the zeal for central planning permeated every aspect  ...