India Is Broken

Then and now, an introduction -- Part I. Fake socialism, 1947-1964. An uncertain beginning -- The path not taken -- Nehru's dangerous gamble -- Nehru doubles his bet -- Tagore's unheard song -- Mr. Nehru's tragedy, democracy's first betrayal -- Part II. Violence, 1964-1984.Shastri's brave transition -- Through the ferment, a savior rises -- India has an empress -- Anger meets repression -- An autocratic gamble fails -- Democracy betrays again, deindustrialization begins -- When the violence came home -- Part III. The promise, 1985-2004. A pilot flies into political headwinds -- Rajiv unleashes the gale force of Hindu nationalism -- A all-too-brief moment of sanity -- The promise has a dark underbelly -- No, India does not shine -- Part IV. Hubris, 2005 to the present. As two Indias drift apart, democracy creaks -- Modi pushes the economy off the edge -- Modi breaks India's fractured democracy -- COVID-19 bares the moral decay -- Epilogue : a feasible idealism.