Shashi Tharoor: Modi’s ‘Rising India’ nationalist agenda has faltered badly

For three decades, India’s self-branding as the world’s fastest-growing free-market democracy worked. But in a matter of months, it has all begun to fall apart, writes Shashi Tharoor

After India launched far-reaching economic reforms in 1991, its stature in the world rose steadily. The country was already recognised as a thriving democracy and an example to the world of how to manage diversity in a free and open society. Its enhanced economic clout and the size of its increasingly prosperous market added to its appeal.