As the world approaches the 20th anniversary of the fall of communism, it is worth investigating the costs borne by countries like India that did not become communist but drew heavily on the Soviet model. For three decades after its independence in 1947, India strove for self‐​sufficiency instead of the gains of international trade, and gave the state an ever‐​increasing role in controlling the means of production. These policies yielded economic growth of 3.5 percent per year, which was half that of export‐​oriented Asian countries, and yielded slow progress in social indicators, too. Growth per capita in India was even slower, at 1.49 percent per year. It accelerated after reforms started tentatively in 1981, and shot up to 6.78 percent per year after reforms deepened in the current decade.