Ayn Rand in India?

Listening to an interview with Jennifer Burns, assistant professor of history at the University of Virginia and author of Goddess of the Market: Ayn Rand and the American Right, I was surprised to hear her assert that Ayn Rand's novels have developed a large readership in, of all places, India.  I quickly contacted my students from last year's classes I taught at the National Law University in Jodhpur to see if this were so and, indeed, it is.

A link to the November/December 2009 issue Foreign Policy http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2009/10/19/howard_roark_in_new_delhi
presents Professor Burns's explanation in terms of a deliberate turning away form the strongly communitarian ethos that undergirds Indian society.

The mixed attitudes toward capitalism I found in India lead me to doubt that a "Randian" justification--based on an unadulterated self-regard--will ever captivate the minds and hearts of Indians.  This seems especially so when one considers Rand's ethics of rationalistic moral objectivism in light of the lesser regard that Indian philosophy generally grants pure reason.  Nonetheless, India's accession to a modern market society from a traditional order centered around the joint family requires some sort justification.  Perhaps a future entry or two (or more) from a Christian perspective will prove helpful.