Twilight Prisoners - The Rise of the Hindu Right and the Fall of Democracy in India

An incisive, lyrical, and deeply reported account of India’s descent into authoritarianism.

Traveling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum, Siddhartha Deb reveals a country in which forces old and new have aligned to endanger democracy. The result is an absorbing—and disturbing—portrait. India has become a religious fundamentalist dystopia, one depicted here with a novelist’s precise language and eye for detail.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party—a formation explicitly drawing on European fascism—has deftly exploited modern technologies, the media, and market forces to launch a relentless campaign on minorities, women, dissenters, and the poor. Deb profiles these people, as well as those fighting back, including writers, scholars, and journalists. Twilight Prisoners sounds the alarm now that the world’s largest democracy is under threat in ways that echo the fissures in the United States, United Kingdom, and so-called democracies the world over.

List of contents

Introduction: The India Racket

Chapter 2. What is India? Why India’s Boom Years Have Been a Bust

Chapter 3. The Violence, Insecurity, and Rage of Narendra Modi

Chapter 4. Arundhati Roy: The Renegade

Chapter 5. The Killing of Gauri Lankesh

Chapter 6. The Worst Industrial Disaster in the History of the World

Chapter 7. Nowhere Land: Along India’s Border, a Forgotten Burmese Rebellion

Chapter 8. Those Mythological Men and Their Sacred Supersonic Flying Temples

Chapter 9. The Detention Centers of Assam

Chapter 10. India’s Political Prisoners

Chapter 11. The Temple and The Mosque

Conclusion

About the author

Born in Shillong, India, Siddhartha Deb lives in Harlem, New York. His fiction and nonfiction have been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and been awarded the Pen Open Prize. His journalism and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Guardian, New Republic, Baffler, n+1, Dissent, and Caravan.

Product details

• Authors: Siddhartha Deb, Deb Siddhartha
• Publisher: Ingram Publishers Services
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 14.05.2024
• EAN: 9798888901267
• ISBN: 979-8-88890-126-7
• No. of pages: 288
• Illustrations: Illustrationen, nicht spezifiziert
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > History > Miscellaneous; Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; Globalization, Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Human Rights, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Globalization, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Comparative Politics, Society & culture: general, HISTORY / Asia / Southeast Asia, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Essays, South East Asia, Asian History, Society and culture: general, Civil rights & citizenship, Human rights, civil rights, South Asia (Indian sub-continent), HISTORY / Asia / South / General