Before Independence, overwhelming majority of Indians was illiterate. After Independence, the Leftists took over education, and have made sure that at least in Economics, we stay that way.
And therefore, most in India have still not fully understood what money or wealth is. Money is just a receipt given to us for the work done by us, so that we can purchase somebody else’s that portion of work which he has surplus and we need. If currency notes were money, government could have printed unlimited quantity of them and made us all rich. And wealth is also not assets like land, etc., Otherwise an acre in Afghanistan would cost the same as one acre in Delhi or New York. But an acre in Afghanistan is junk, and gold in Delhi. Wealth is also just total work done by the citizens in the society. If in a society nobody works, if all survive on say fruits from the trees which naturally grow, even gold will have zero value, because a kg of gold will buy nothing, because there will be nothing to buy with it, and nobody will have anything to give in exchange for it. So our work is the only wealth we have, and agriculture has only that much work to offer, so industry is a must if we have to grow beyond eaters of naturally growing things. Of course we may choose to stay eaters of naturally growing fruits also, but then we can’t have a modern army, because for that we need a modern economy, because it costs money, which is our work. Of course we may choose not to have an army either, but folks next door may not choose to do so……….. And we would be overrun and enslaved in no time.