Strangely enough, India and China were left behind for the same reason they are surging ahead now -- they had a strict orthodoxy that did not allow for any changes.
India should be careful because Europe will be back again
and again.
I Don’t know where you got the idea that India didn’t industrialize on the basis of not wanting change. When the English took over, India was the worlds leader in steel production and casting technologies—the english enforced a strict policy that no foundry was to exceed four workers, no mechanical production of fabrics or goods, and no production of pumps/machines. I won’t even go into their policies of not allowing any local policing of roads(while simultaneously banning arms of any kind) or building/maintaining/repairing water flood systems for local roads and bridges and basically forcing a huge part of the Indian economy to die so a sub-sect could be taxed by opting for the only other protected movement of goods available outside of major cities( English rail).
The Indian economy is recovering from the english policies just as the Americans did after independence—given the young age of most of their population in comparison to other nations, they will most likely surpass their original position in the world economy prior to english occupation. I just don’t like the word ‘superpower’ being used—all war games aside, USA is the sole superpower and will remain so for a good part of the future.
The Great Divergence is just a lot of hooey created by Samuel Hintington.