Democracy on the Road

For a quarter of a century, Ruchir Sharma has been doing in India what political pundits should have done in the US, UK and France to understand Donald Trump, Brexit and the gilets jaunes protestors: he has left the big cities and listened to voters in the mofussil or provincial parts of the subcontinent. … Above all, the trips allowed Sharma to predict and understand the rise of the Bharatiya Janata party’s charismatic Narendra Modi, the collapse and later revival of the Congress party under the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty, and the enduring influence of regional politicians such as Nitish Kumar in Bihar and the late J Jayalalithaa in Tamil Nadu – Victor Mallet * Financial Times *Sharma’s account of his travels offers a fascinating insight into the quixotic characters populating India’s political landscape. Along the way, we meet mavericks and ministers, holy men and hoaxers. Sharma is a diligent, informed and sympathetic guide – Oliver Balch * Prospect *A high-speed, breezy drive through two decades of electoral politics – Menaka Doshi * Bloomberg *An immediate must-read. A definitive one-volume on the modern India – Tom Keene, Bloomberg’s Editor-at-largePacked with nuance and detail of the many Indias that make India * Vogue *

Ruchir Sharma is a contributing writer at the New York Times. His columns and essays have appeared in Foreign Affairs, the Wall Street Journal, the Financial Times, The Times of India, and many other publications. His earlier books, The Rise and Fall of Nations (2016) and Breakout Nations (2012), both became international bestsellers. In Democracy on the Road, Ruchir brings readers along on his travels through India, where he follows at least one big election every year.

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