From Midnight to Glorious Morning?

"In 1917, the British War Cabinet concluded it would take at least 500 years for India to be able to govern itself. Thirty years later, in August 1947, India became a sovereign, free nation. Mihir Bose, born just seven months before India won its freedom, spent much of his life watching as India anxiously awaited news of how much aid it was to receive from the West. Now India is one of the largest exporters of food in the world, sends space probes to Mars and is a rapidly emerging global power. How did a country that many doubted would survive at birth transform into a nation capable of rivalling China and challenging the West? Bose recognises that there is much to celebrate in India's short history of independence. Yet, as this personal and trenchant book shows, there is stilla long way to go before the dawn of that hoped-for bright morning."--Page 4 of cover.