Rahul Bhatia on India’s turn towards authoritarianism: Southasia Review of Books podcast #22
Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to the Mumbai-based journalist Rahul Bhatia, joining us to talk about his new book, The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy (Abacus/Context/PublicAffairs, August 2024).
Ten years ago, Rahul Bhatia started hearing the people he once loved revive centuries-old communal disputes and spout venomous slurs directed at Muslims. How was it, he wondered, that “the old norms of secularism and equality—however flawed their execution—were being cast off”?
His new book is his attempt at an answer; to find out “where the poison was coming from” by speaking to those responsible for, and those victimised by, a virulent strain of Hindu nationalism that has swept through India in the last decade. By doing so, he provides a clear-eyed account of “the unmaking of the world’s largest democracy” since Narendra Modi’s premiership in 2014.
The New India chronicles the rise of the supremacist RSS movement, and the tensions around questions of citizenship. It sounds the alarm on how the push for a national identification project and its stated purpose – to curb corruption and improve welfare delivery – could be used instead to “deliver oppression more efficiently.”
This episode is now available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.
Episode notes:
The New India: The Unmaking of the World’s Largest Democracy by Rahul Bhatia (Abacus/Context/PublicAffairs August 2024)
Reading Arendt while India erupts: A young protestor reflects - Nidhi Suresh (Himal Southasian, January 2020)
The NRC’s spillover effect: Neighbouring states in the Northeast follow in the footsteps of Assam - Suraj Gogoi, Rohini Sen (Himal Southasian, October 2019)
A conversation with Nivedita Menon on the JNU attacks (Himal Southasian, January 2020)
Is the mob ruling the roost? JNU violence shows the fringe is at the Centre - Salil Tripathi (Himal Southasian, January 2020)
Finding food in Chandrapur: An up-close account of hunger, food insecurity and ineffective state policies from a district in central India - Paromita Goswami (Himal Southasian, December 2022)
What’s really behind Jammu and Kashmir’s new Family ID? Kashmiris fear the scheme is another tool for surveillance and collective punishment by the Indian state - Maknoon Wani (Himal Southasian, January 2023)
Southasia Review of Books podcast #05: Siddhartha Deb on India’s macabre new realities (Himal Southasian, June 2024)