Read Of The Week (Nov 28 to Dec 4)

India is heralded as the world’s largest democracy. Yet, there is now a growing alarm about its democratic health. To Kill a Democracy by Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane gets to the heart of the matter.

Combining poignant life stories with sharp scholarly insight, this work rejects the belief that India was once a beacon of democracy but is now being ruined by the destructive forces of Modi-style populism.

It details the much deeper historical roots of the present-day assaults on civil liberties and democratic institutions.

In compelling fashion, the book describes daily struggles for survival and explains how lived social injustices and unfreedoms rob Indian elections of their meaning, while at the same time feeding the decadence and iron-fisted rule of its governing institutions.

It points out that what is happening in the country is globally important, and shows that when democracies rack and ruin their social foundations, they don’t just kill off the spirit and substance of democracy — they lay the foundations for despotism.

Debasish Roy Chowdhury is a journalist based in Hong Kong and has lived and worked in Kolkata, Sao Paulo, Hua Hin, Bangkok, and Beijing.

He is a Jefferson Fellow and a recipient of multiple journalism prizes. John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and the WZB (Berlin) and is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy.