Kavita Krishnan is a writer and activist who has been involved in India’s Left politics, feminist movements and democratic-rights movements for several decades.
In her new book, De-democratisation, A Global Story: Script, Actors and Enablers (Context, July 2026), she argues that the erosion of democracy is part of a global project that cuts across the familiar “West vs Rest” divide. Looking at political movements and regimes in India and around the world, she traces the shared ideas and strategies behind this de-democratisation, challenging the tendency to see democracy, human rights and international law as Western impositions rather than principles shaped by anti-colonial, feminist and popular struggles.
In this episode of the Southasia Review of Books podcast, Shwetha Srikanthan speaks to Krishnan about the Indian Left’s geopolitical blind spots and the emergence of a global authoritarian consensus. They discuss the limits of multipolarity as an alternative to US hegemony, the Left’s uneven responses to struggles in Palestine, Ukraine and elsewhere, and the connections between authoritarian movements across national borders. At stake, Krishnan argues, is the defence of universal rights and the possibility of reclaiming democracy as a shared inheritance.
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Episode notes:
Kavita Krishnan (Author) Format: Hardcover
Rahul Rao
The Editors
Sukumar Muralidharan