The New India
The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy
Contributors
By Rahul Bhatia
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“An absorbing account of India’s transformation” (The Guardian) from democracy towards autocracy told through “brilliant on-the-ground reportage” (The Times).
Since Narendra Modi’s election in May 2014, India has become more dysfunctional and dangerous than ever. The “world’s largest democracy” has seen a cascade of events ushered in by a nationalistic and religious government that have threatened the freedoms and identities of its citizens. If you support Modi, you are a bhakt, among the devoted. If you do not, you are an urban naxal, an unpatriotic traitor, and enemy of the Hindu faith. There is, increasingly, no room in between.In The New India, journalist Rahul Bhatia investigates this slow burn of democracy in India, connecting past and present to offer the first thorough account of how the country is sliding towards autocracy. He describes the religious, societal, and technological changes that have brought India to a point at which a nationalist mindset that despises democracy and human rights is spreading fast, all in an effort to bind the multiethnic, multilingual, and multicultural country into a single identity.
Through a character-driven narrative informed by on the ground reporting, he investigates the disinformation machine at the heart of the Modi government, the corrupt lawmakers whose work targets religious minorities, the police force bent on raiding every public newsroom, and the CEO behind the largest data collecting agency in the world whose invention has forever altered Indian elections. At the same time, Bhatia shows us the consequences of these efforts on everyday citizens—from Muslims attempting to hold on to their property to students protesting the government’s overreach of their education to journalists being threatened for uttering a single word against the BJP party. What emerges is a timely, urgent and at times shocking portrait of a country that has turned on itself.
Genre:
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“This meticulously researched book is an unusual account of the dismantling of democracy in the world's most populous country. It is a portrait of how medieval religious sectarianism, modern majoritarianism, deepening poverty, all lashed together by the world's most ambitious data gathering project is driving India towards an alarming, unique model of authoritarianism. A serious subject, seriously addressed.”Arundhati Roy, author of The God of Small Things
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“An important, timely and powerful account of India now. Rahul Bhatia's book is both rigorously reported and very readable. Highly recommended.”Jason Burke, Guardian correspondent
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“Really important, superbly researched, very well written.”Peter Oborne, author of The Assault on Truth
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“The New India is a tour de force, and it will be one of the defining books of the Modi era. Rahul Bhatia's astonishingly granular and deeply empathetic reporting reveals an India well on its way to being an authoritarian dystopia”Samanth Subramanian, author of A Dominant Character
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Jason Stanley, author of How Propaganda Works
“Rahul Bhatia's The New India is an account of Hindu fascism from the inside, one with astounding resonances across all democracies currently threatened by fascism. It is one of the essential books for anyone interested in preserving democracy today.”
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"Bhatia's remarkable book is an absorbing account of India's transformation from the world's largest democracy to something more like the world's most populous country that regularly holds elections...Bhatia captures the whole phenomenon brilliantly, painting a gloomy picture of what India has become."The Guardian
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"This is the stuff of black comedy. Worse, it is a testament to the bigoted backwater that the new India is becoming...Bhatia gives us some brilliant on-the-ground reportage."The Times of London
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"Bhatia's book combines reporting, history and polemic...his account of the precursors to Hindu nationalism, reaching back to a Hindu reformist movement of the 19th century, is fascinating. So is his description of an early, unsuccessful attempt to create an identity system."The Economist
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"A beautiful writing style."Irish Times
- On Sale
- Nov 12, 2024
- Page Count
- 448 pages
- Publisher
- PublicAffairs
- ISBN-13
- 9781541704008
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