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Democracy Paradox

Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane on the Decline of Indian Democracy

55 min • 15 februari 2022

You treat votes as equal. My vote is equal to your vote. But the state treats our bodies as unequal. That logically makes no sense and it is farcical to call it a democracy in the first place. Forget what implications this will have for democracy in the long-term, but to be called a democracy and to have your bodies treated differently is a farce in itself.

Debasish Roy Chowdhury

A full transcript is available at www.democracyparadox.com or a short review of To Kill a Democracy: India's Passage to Despotism  here.

Deb Chowdhry is a journalist who has published in Time, South China Morning Post, and Washington Times. John Keane is a Professor of Politics at the University of Sydney. They are the authors of the recent book To Kill a Democracy: India's Passage to Despotism.

Key Highlights

  • Who is Mamata Banerjee?
  • How does political violence undermine democracy?
  • How does the failure to tackle social problems affect democracy?
  • Why is Indian democracy in decline?
  • What does India's experience teach other democracies?


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Key Links

To Kill A Democracy: India's Passage to Despotism by Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane

Learn more about Debasish Roy Chowdhury

Learn more about John Keane


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