 14th of August 1997, India was celebrating 50 years of its independence, and the capital New Delhi was witness to this vibrant performance, owed to the nation's freedom march, composed and sung by A. R. Rahman, which is the countryside of Gorakhpur district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. Less than six decades back, this district was the fiefdom of landlords who levied their own taxes. Today Gorakhpur is divided into three districts, with a fourth likely to emerge soon. Zamindari is gone, and the Second Green Revolution has transformed the district from a malaria-infested flood-prone swamp into one of UP's agriculturally prosperous districts. Abolition of Zamindari has been very, very significant in terms of the social development in a country. Consequently, what you find is that the earlier tenant castes or tenant classes have now moved into those places which were vacated by the Zamindars. And while they have not become Zamindars themselves, there has been a significant upward mobility. And this upward mobility can be evidenced not only in terms of the economic strength, but also politically. Earlier the Zamindars or their facto terms spoke on behalf of these people. How these people are speaking for themselves? Progressive legislation was an instrument that emancipated the stratified Indian mind. All that we have talked about in the past can become a reality because now the women have become decision makers. They are within the past structure at the local level. And you see there are one million women. I keep saying even if 25% of them are able really to assert themselves and bring in change, you have set in motion a social revolution in this country. If the Green Revolution brought prosperity to the farming class, the nationalization of banks in 1969 unshackled many peasants from perpetual indebtedness to the rapacious landlord and moneylender. Allegations that there were subsequent misuse of bank loans by politicians to increase their vote banks did not dilute the revolutionary impact it had on the Indian countryside. Loans from these nationalized banks empowered economically a new class of peasantry. During the last half century it is in the small towns that a new India is also emerging. These towns have become a nucleus for a variety of industrial products. Aligarh has become famous for manufacturing over 90% of all the locks made in the country. The Gulgaon in Haryana is where almost 30% of bicycles are manufactured. By 1991 the country was coming to terms with its social disorder. A disorder created by the assertions of a new class of empowered citizens and by a rival attempt to mold religion into a political agenda. The economy had found itself frozen in its overt concerns with socialism and dependence on state intervention. It was in this period that the country took a radical step to stride out of a past mindset and embrace a global economic vision.