Can Asia Industrialize Democratically?

Recently, a newspaperwoman said to me: “When I am in England I feel like a Conservative, in Italy I feel like a Socialist, in India I feel like a Communist.” When asked what she meant by this, she explained that the need for change in India was so pressing that only a regime ruthless, determined and full of drive, could grapple with the immensity of the problem.

The naivete of the young lady is widely shared. R. H. S. Crossman, in the New Fabian Essays, has advised...