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On the eve of a landmark general election, Ruchir Sharma offers an unrivalled portrait of how India and its democracy work, drawn from his two decades on the road chasing election campaigns across every major state, travelling the equivalent of a lap around the earth. Democracy on the Road takes readers on a rollicking ride with Ruchir and his merry band of fellow writers as they talk to farmers, shopkeepers and CEOs from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, and interview leaders from Narendra Modi to Rahul Gandhi.
No book has traced the arc of modern India by taking readers so close to the action. Offering an intimate view inside the lives and minds of India’s political giants and its people, Sharma explains how the complex forces of family, caste and community, economics and development, money and corruption, Bollywood and Godmen, have conspired to elect and topple Indian leaders since Indira Gandhi. The ultimately encouraging message of Ruchir’s travels is that, while democracy is retreating in many parts of the world, it is thriving in India.
From the Publisher
Pop culture: Rahul Gandhi with Uday Shankar and Ruchir after the 2017 rally in Pindra, Uttar Pradesh, where Rahul compared Modi to movie villain Gabbar Singh.
One of the strangest places we have ever visited: Yogi Adityanath in his saffron robe, inside a saffron-coloured room, at the mutt in Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, 2017.
‘I know all of you are biased’: Our meeting with Amit Shah (wearing saffron scarf) in Patna, 2015).
‘What happened here isn’t good’: Our meeting with Modi (second from right) at the Imperial Palace Hotel in Rajkot, Gujarat, 2007.
‘A mythical ‘Greater India’: M.G. Vaidya in front of the borderless map of Akhand Bharat at the RSS headquarters in Nagpur, Maharashtra, 2009.
Trapped in the past: CPI(M) leader Buddhadeb Bhattacharya met us in 2011 at his Kolkata office, which was decorated with a map of the world before the fall of the Soviet Union.
Publisher : Penguin Allen Lane (28 January 2019)
Language : English
Hardcover : 352 pages
ISBN-10 : 0670092207
ISBN-13 : 978-0670092208
Item Weight : 658 g
Dimensions : 15 x 2 x 23 cm
Country of Origin : India
Net Quantity : 1.00 Kilograms
Importer : Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd
Packer : Penguin Random House India Pvt Ltd
Best Sellers Rank: #8,434 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #2 in Journalism Textbooks #5 in Journalism Books #8 in Political Parties (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 417 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
