Indian intellectuals opposed to the market

The Telegraph - Calcutta : Opinion

State intervention was thought back then to increase production, aid innovation and facilitate redistribution. The market, according to its critics, would only make the rich richer. Fortunately for them, the state-oriented economists found a great champion in India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru. Nehru was a democrat who had little sympathy with the political system of the Soviet Union. But he was deeply attracted by its economic model. Like his Fabian mentors in Britain, he thought that by mixing elections and planning he would get the best of both worlds.

Nehru was convinced of the need for the public sector to occupy the “commanding heights” of the economy. Crucially in his case, theoretical preference was confirmed by aesthetic choice. For Nehru had a disdain for business, and businessmen. Money-making was an activity meant for the crafty and corrupt. His upbringing was reinforced by his education in Harrow and Cambridge, for like a Brahmin, an English gentleman also kept his distance from tradesmen.

Seems like an affliction of intellectuals everywhere

Milton Friedman's advice to the Govt. of India was sadly ignored in 1955. Prescient of the economic disaster that was to be unleashed.

Friedman GOI memo
Friedman on the Nehru plan