Frankly not decades ago, but Indian example of democracy convinced me as such.
Mate - that is your personal view. My personal view is this - the main reason for poverty in India is due to the communism's poor cousin, socialism. We got rid of communism's poor cousin in 1991 and since then we are on track(as per World bank) to meet the goals for poverty reduction.
Your reforms started in 1979 and ours started in 1991 a whole decade behind. You have 126 million at $1 or below per day(UN defined standards is $1.25 per day or below) . We have 37% below poverty as per UN defined $1.25 per day standards(mind you it is not $1.00 per day which is Chinese standards). Statistics says we add 40 million per year to the middle class from the lower class. That would translate to 400 million people moving away from poverty in 2022 though world bank predicts that we will have 20% population under $1.25 per day.
In short, here is the statistics for you.
1979-2011 - 32 years - poverty left 126 million(just in rural areas) @ $1 per day - China- world bank statistics not published
India's official poverty line doesn't measure up | Jayati Ghosh | Global development | guardian.co.uk
1991 - 2010 - 19 years - poverty left 33% @ 1.25 per day - India - world bank statistics - 350 million roughly
Here is the link for you to play around but if you want the view let me know.
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Databank User Session Time Out
India adds 40 million to middle class from lower class - world bank projection.
Summary
In 32 years you have 126 million published rural poverty at $1 - so I wonder how much would be your less than $1.25 rate and counting the urban poverty too?
India - in 19 years, 33% or roughly 350 million at $1.25 rate
Imagine in another 10 years, how much poverty we would have ?
So aren't we better off this way? And we doing this without an authoritarian regime controlling our freedom, mind you.