SOMETIME IN THE 1990s Jagdish Bhagwati, one of India’s most distinguished economists, encountered Swaminathan Gurumurthy, a financial commentator associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), a Hindu-nationalist organisation. Mr Gurumurthy was making the case that globalisation, brought in by well-connected financiers, was destroying India. Mr Bhagwati came to a caustic conclusion. If RSS ideologues like Mr Gurumurthy were economists, then Mr Bhagwati was a “Bharatnatyam dancer”, he said (referring to a traditional dance from Tamil Nadu performed by women).
Over 20 years later, Mr Gurumurthy’s beliefs have changed little. But today he is one of the most influential members of the board of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, to which he was appointed by the government in August. He has led demands that the RBI loosen restrictions on India’s rickety state-run banks and hand more of its reserves to the government. Other than Narendra Modi, the…
