In the early ’90s, India found itself on the brink of bankruptcy, grappling with one crisis after another. The nation was reeling from a series of traumas, notably the recent assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, marking the second Prime Minister to be murdered in a short period. The economic landscape was precarious, with the longstanding Nehruvian socialist policies proving ineffective. The collapse of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union shattered the euphoria and socialist romanticism of the left that had influenced India for decades.