Book Launch | To Kill a Democracy: India’s Passage to Despotism

India is heralded as the world’s largest democracy. But there is growing alarm about its democratic health. In a radical re-appraisal of Indian politics and society, To Kill a Democracy shows why democracies everywhere must fear what is happening to India. The authors demonstrate that Indian democracy is now being ruined by the destructive forces of Modi-style populism. They detail the much deeper historical roots of the present-day assaults on civil liberties and democratic institutions. Democracy, they argue, is much more than elections and the separation of powers. They pay special attention to the decaying social foundations of Indian democracy. Through life stories and scholarly insights, they describe daily struggles for survival and explain how social injustice and lack of freedom rob Indian elections of their meaning, feeding the decadence and iron-fisted rule of India’s governing institutions. Much more than a book about India, To Kill a Democracy argues that what is happening there is globally important. When democracies ruin their social foundations, they lay the foundations for despotism.