Nehru unwisely rejected myriad obvious offers such as a permanent UN Seat, Nuke Assistance from the US, and offers of Nepal and Baluchistan to join India. His failure to lead educational and economic empowerment served as impediments to upward mobility for regular Indians.
Abhijit draws from history to show parallels between what is happening in modern post-independence India and what happened to the religions of pre-Christian Europe and pre-Islamic Iran and Egypt, which are relegated to museums now.