Malevolent Republic

Financial Times Summer Book Pick

Times Literary Supplement Summer Book Pick

After decades of imperfect secularism, presided over by an often corrupt Congress establishment, Nehru's diverse republic has yielded to Hindu nationalism. India, the first major democracy to fall to demagogic populism in the twenty-first century, is racing to a point of no return.

Since 2014, the ruling BJP has unleashed forces that are irreversibly transforming the country. Indian democracy, honed over decades, is now the chief enabler of Hindu extremism. Bigotry has been ennobled as a healthy form of self-assertion. Anti-Muslim vitriol has deluged the mainstream. Religious minorities live in terror of a vengeful majority. Congress now mimics Modi; other parties pray for a miracle.

In this highly acclaimed critique of post-Independence India from Nehru to Narendra Modi, revised and expanded with a new chapter, K.S. Komireddi charts the dismaying course of the world's largest democracy. He argues that the missteps of the nation's founders, the mistakes of Nehru, the betrayals of his daughter and her sons, the anti-democratic fetish for technocracy carried to extremes by Manmohan Singh - all of them prepared the way for Modi's march to absolute power. If secularists fail to wrest the republic from Hindu supremacists, Komireddi argues, India may go the way of Yugoslavia and collapse under the burden of sinister ethno-religious nationalism. A gripping short history of modern India, Malevolent Republic is also a passionate plea for India's reclamation.

'Written with passion and savagery, this is a polemical and highly readable short history of modern India from Indira Gandhi to Narendra Modi.' - Gideon Rachman, The Financial Times

'[E]loquent on the subject of religious tolerance, communal harmony and human decency, all of which appear to be in harrowingly short supply among the acolytes who surround Modi.' - The Times

'In precise and sharp language Malevolent Republic takes readers on a terrifying and yet illuminating journey through the rapidly transforming political, social and religious landscape of Modi's India.' - Times Literary Supplement

'Kapil Komireddi ranks high among the wisest, most astute, and most humane observers of modern India. I rely heavily on his insights to form my own understanding of the past, present, and future of the subcontinent.' - David Frum, Senior Editor, The Atlantic

'A timely intervention at a dangerous moment. ... both the times and the subject demand anger, argument and urgency.' - The Observer

'Dazzling prose . . . arresting, essential, devastating.' - The Spectator

'[F]or anyone trying to understand [India's] momentous transformation, Malevolent Republic should be a must read .' - The Indian Express

'Kapil Komireddi is one of the most thoughtful and thorough journalists writing today. His range of interests is impressive in its breadth and cosmopolitanism; his is a rare voice that can comment on global affairs from a truly comparative perspective.' - Amitav Ghosh

'Komireddi is a writer of flair, originality, and, above all, an absolute independence of mind ... his ability to see through posturing and prejudice makes his work both distinctive and compelling. This book deserves to be widely read.' - Ramachandra Guha