Examining the disparity, characteristic of many former colonial states--particularly India, between strong political power and a weak economy, Chandra here focuses on the exchanges between rich and poor nations and the bilateral trade status that the USSR enjoys with some of these states. He discusses these phenomena within the context of the theory of unequal exchange, and relates the overall stagnation in material production per capita in India to the balance of class forces that emerged as a result, after independence, of a strategy of industrialization based on import substitution.