Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope
M. Rajshekhar, "Despite the State: Why India Lets Its People Down and How They Cope"
English | 2021 | ISBN: 8194879019 | 320 pages | EPUB / MOBI | 1.25 MB
English | 2021 | ISBN: 8194879019 | 320 pages | EPUB / MOBI | 1.25 MB
The story of democratic failure is usually read at the level of the nation, while the primary bulwarks of democratic functioning—the states—get overlooked. This is a tale of India’s states, of why they build schools but do not staff them with teachers; favour a handful of companies so much that others slip into losses; wage water wars with their neighbours while allowing rampant sand mining and groundwater extraction; harness citizens’ right to vote but brutally crack down on their right to dissent. Reporting from six states over thirty-three months, award-winning investigative journalist M. Rajshekhar delivers a necessary account of a deep crisis that has gone largely unexamined.