I lost my possessions, my salary, my status, my career, my country. And in that fall, I gained everything. Bhutan is known as the land of Gross National Happiness, a Buddhist Shangri-la hidden in the Himalayas. But in the late 1980s, Bhutan waged a brutal ethnic-cleansing campaign against its citizens of Nepali ancestry, including Om Dhungel and his family. Bhutan to Blacktown tells Om Dhungel' s remarkable story — his journey from a remote village to a senior position in the Bhutanese Civ...

A colorful and revealing portrait of the rise of India’s new billionaire class in a radically unequal societyIndia is the world’s largest democracy, with more than one billion people and an economy expanding faster than China’s. But the rewards of this growth have been far from evenly shared, and the country’s top 1% now own nearly 60% of its wealth. In megacities like Mumbai, where half the population live in slums, the extraordinary riches of India’s new dynastie...

The ancient birthplace of some of the world's major religions and now a modern nuclear power, India is experiencing spectacular economic growth. In twenty-five years its population will overtake that of China, making it one of the most populous and rapidly-developing countries in the world. We all need to know more about this intriguing country.John Farndon explores the changing face of modern-day India and its fundamental contradictions. The country is leading the world in cutting...

A monumental biography of the subcontinent from the award-winning author of The World Is What It Is: The Authorized Biography of V. S. Naipaul.Second only to China in the magnitude of its economic miracle and second to none in its potential to shape the new century, India is fast undergoing one of the most momentous transformations the world has ever seen. In this dazzlingly panoramic book, Patrick French chronicles that epic change, telling human stories ...

Who would have thought that after sixty-five years of independence, a common man would shake and awake the country and its political system. The past two years saw millions of people come out on streets to fight against the biggest evil of our country “corruption”. The Janlokpal Movement was a call to all the politicians of India to listen to the common man's plea. Anna Hazare and his team with Arvind Kejriwal tried every single way possible to plead their cause to the government from peac...

Since the Indian economy was liberated from bureaucratic, socialist controls in 1991, it has developed rapidly. A country once renowned for the backwardness of its industries, its commerce and its financial market is now viewed as potentially one of the major world economies of the twenty-first century.But there are many questions which need to be asked about the sustainability of this rapid economic growth and its effect on the stability of the country. Have the changes had any im...

‘War Room stands out as an example of real field work and rigorous research… Anyone who wants to understand how decisions are made in India should read this brilliant study of the BJP.’—Dr. Walter K. Andersen, Author of The Brotherhood in Saffron: The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Revivalism‘Ullekh NP has crafted a well-researched and gripping narrative of how the BJP seized the moment in 2014. Its penetrating analysis of the personalities, politics and methods of Mo...

Sharad Pawar is one of India’s key public figures. Through his five- decade-long career, during which he has never lost an election, he has served as chief minister of Maharashtra four times and as India’s defence minister and minister for agriculture. On two occasions he came close to becoming the country’s prime minister. He has often bucked the trend, preferring policy and pragmatism over populism, and won admiration for his administrative acumen and consensual politics.Eyewitne...

H.D. Deve Gowda has been in public life for nearly seven decades. He started at the very bottom, as a member of the Holenarasipur Taluk Development Board and reached the very top as India's eleventh prime minister, in 1996. In between, he was an independent legislator, spent long years as leader of Opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, had been an effective irrigation and public works minister, and finally, chief minister in 1994 after many missed opportunities. Even twenty-fiv...

IN OCTOBER 2019, THE ASSEMBLY elections held in Maharashtra saw a decisive mandate in favour of the pre-poll Mahayuti alliance of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Shiv Sena, against the Maha Aghadi alliance of the Nationalist Congress Party and the Indian National Congress. But what followed shook the very foundations of democracy.With the Shiv Sena unexpectedly staking claim to the chief minister’s post, and the BJP unwilling to give in to their demand, the battle for the coveted...

Parameswaran Iyer, former Secretary to the Government of India, is best known for leading the implementation of the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) - Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship programme, which became the world's largest sanitation revolution.But Iyer is not your typical bureaucrat. With a far-from-usual career combining two distinguished tenures in the government and an eventful stint outside it, he likes to describe himself as an uncommon 'Insider-Outsider-Insider'....

Derek O'Brien dominated Indian television as the country's most well-known quizmaster for over two decades, asking questions to millions across India. Now he plays a key role in the Rajya Sabha raising important questions from the front row in the Upper House. One of the most candid, courageous voices of the Opposition, O'Brien is articulate, incisive and provocative - qualities that are apparent in his writing. In this book, comprising his best political essays, Derek O'Brien reflects on ...