jambu,
if you can refer us to the journal's url, we might be able to understand the context.
to term a country is not a complement.
banana republics are those small central american countries like guatemala, nicarague, costa-rica etc. whose sole crop is banana.
this banana is exported to the usa on a preferential tariff.
the large banana plantations which comprised of whole of the land mass was owned previously by one u.s. company called united fruit company.
this company was so powerful, that it could select the rulers and depose the ones that it did not like. this was the worst example of capitalist imperialism.
the workers who tended to the banana trees were paid a pittance while the u.s. public got cheap bananas.
things have not improved much these days either.
india is too big and too diversified to be called a banana republic. i would be very interested to read this article.
