It has been manipulated politically, with credit taking on one side and conspiracy mongering on the other. It has misled an entire generation of economists, some of whom see it as a silver bullet for all problems economic and others as a system that will finally implode. It has been worshipped and condemned by the illiterate, depending on which side of the beneficiary bandwagon they stand. Its proponents claim it destroys the vices of autarchy, suspicion and control and blesses the virtues of consumption, growth and trade. Its opponents assert it magnifies inequalities, pushes the capitalist agenda, makes our country subservient to economic imperialism, fattens the purses of the wealthy minority and exploits the poor majority.

All are right. None are right.

And everyone is missing the point.

Outer changes in the rules of business accomplish nothing. At best they may, as they have over the past 25 years, sweeten the crust of society; the insides will remain bitter. It is not through an external tinkering that the objective of freeing the Indian entrepreneurs to experiment, grow, create wealth and fail will be accomplished. India needs more. The source of economic power lies elsewhere, in an invisible spiritual force.

Neither good nor bad, neither virtue nor sin, neither black nor white; this force is like the wind, the tides and the rotation and revolution of the earth. Deeper than the politically inspired surfaces, higher than the heavens where the gods of economics thrive, wider than the expanse of complex markets, the force driving reforms is an omnipresent and omniscient reality that rediscovered slivers of its omnipotent might only 25 years ago. Under political, economic and social assaults, first by the Mughals and later by the British, this force had withdrawn from the consciousness of the nation. Or maybe, it was the other way around.

For reforms to deliver India, we need a new revival, a fresh approach, a more rooted, more grounded transformation—perhaps a spiritual revolution. We need to bring back the consciousness of wealth in all its forms. We need to stop spitting at our entrepreneurs, our wealth creators, our organisers of society. We need to respect our Vaishyas, the arm of society that expresses its swadharma—own becoming—through professions and crafts, industry and trade, wealth creation and philanthropy.

Before I am crushed by the sullen and insufferable might of those who reject this idea simply because the caste system as they have understood is the epitome of all evil, allow me to finish this paragraph. The Vaishya is an entity whose being or inner nature is guided by the ability to bring various arms of knowledge, material and men together and organise them towards new enterprises, thereby increasing the sum of its parts. While money is a sweet byproduct, the joy of the Vaishya comes from building, organising and creating. Importing ideas that have been successful elsewhere and expecting them to work the same miracle here is laziness of thought, speech and action. The Vaishya, like the Brahmin, the Kshatriya and the Shudra, is a complex network of consciousness.

Cynics might not like it; they may not accept it, but India was once the world’s largest economy, commanding a GDP share of 32.9 percent in 1 CE, according to The World Economy: Historical Statistics. This share of world GDP had fallen to 24.3 percent by 1500 CE and three years after getting its independence from the British, had collapsed to 4.2 percent. The major blame for this humiliating debacle was the fall of the Kshatriya force from our country, following which an enfeebled nation was plundered serially by invaders from the West.

No doubt, if a nation gives up on itself, allows itself to decay, and uses “spiritual pursuits” to hang its inertia on, we can’t blame conquerors for devouring it. But despite our freedom, if we continue to revel in the shackles of poverty, reject a revival and continue to do what has been handed down to us from an imperialist constitution of control, it is clear that there are larger forces at play, forces that go beyond political choices and economic systems. That India’s GDP share fell further to 3.1 percent by 1973, a quarter century after Independence, stands testimony to that receding force.