Debasish Roy Chowdhury has written extensively on Indian politics and society and geopolitics. A journalist based in Hong Kong, he has lived and worked in Calcutta, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, and Beijing. He is a Jefferson Fellow and a recipient of multiple prizes, including the Human Rights Press Award, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award and the Hong Kong News Award.John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and the WZB (Berlin). He is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy, and is the author of a number of distinguished books including The Life and Death of Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and The New Despotism (Harvard University Press, 2020).

The authors plunge into India's postindependence public-policy inadequacies with unsparing accounts laden with telling anecdotes and a host of pertinent statistics.

• Part 1 the India StoryPart 11 Social Emergencies A Million Famines Ground Realities Motion Sickness Writing on the Wall A New SlaveryPart 111 Towards Despotism Vote, Or Else Chremacracy Elective Despotism Justice Defiled Bad News Remaking the People Further Reading Illustrations Index

Debasish Roy Chowdhury has written extensively on Indian politics and society and geopolitics. A journalist based in Hong Kong, he has lived and worked in Calcutta, Sao Paulo, Bangkok, and Beijing. He is a Jefferson Fellow and a recipient of multiple prizes, including the Human Rights Press Award, the Society of Publishers in Asia (SOPA) award and the Hong Kong News Award.John Keane is Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney and the WZB (Berlin). He is renowned globally for his creative thinking about democracy, and is the author of a number of distinguished books including The Life and Death of Democracy (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and The New Despotism (Harvard University Press, 2020).

The authors plunge into India's postindependence public-policy inadequacies with unsparing accounts laden with telling anecdotes and a host of pertinent statistics.

• Part 1 the India StoryPart 11 Social Emergencies A Million Famines Ground Realities Motion Sickness Writing on the Wall A New SlaveryPart 111 Towards Despotism Vote, Or Else Chremacracy Elective Despotism Justice Defiled Bad News Remaking the People Further Reading Illustrations Index