There is a wake-up call here for India’s anti-globalisers. All that scare-mongering about India being wrecked from without will not wash any longer; it is the world out there that needs to be wary of Indians. Evidence is gathering that the more strident anti-free trade arguments will arise in the West. Monbiot says, “we can expect to encounter a lot less enthusiasm for free trade and globalisation in the parties and the newspapers which represent them. Free trade is fine, as long as it affects someone else’s job.”

Gandhi fought Britain’s restrictive trade practices with his own weapons conjured from thin air: we will not buy what you direct us to, he said. Boycott of British textiles worked so well, that he personally met British mill workers to explain to them how Indian livelihoods were being affected. He would find it hard today, to pursue the same line of argument. Indians are not starving anymore—they are thriving. You can bet they will say he engineered this revenge.

Read Monbiot’s full article here.