This is more than a work of non-fiction. It is a tour de force of Democracy as it gradually transforms from an empowering tool to a millstone around the neck of India’s poorest millions. Nowhere is the phenomenon more distinct than the eastern Indian state of West Bengal. A political formation led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has managed to stay in power there since 1977 without losing an election, whether to the national Parliament or the local ...
