Despite the state: why India lets its people down and how they cope
- Chennai Context 2020
- 289 p. Includes bibliography
Table of content
Introduction The State That Could Not Pay Salaries The State That Wasted Its Iron Ore Broom The State Controlled by One Family The State That Embraced Messianic Populism The Absent State The State That Chose Majorianism Conclusion Annexure: The State Riddled with Conflict Afterword: V. Geetha Notes Acknowledgements
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.
9788194879015
Democratic failure Social crisis Political influence