India is one of the world’s great democratic success stories. In this
rigorously empirical analysis, a comparative social scientist—an
American sociologist based in Sydney—offers a dispassionate assessment
of India’s democratic evolution. Benchmarking India against both
established Western democracies and its own political past, the book
challenges prevailing narratives shaped by ideological biases. Drawing
on quantitative data and primary historical sources, the author reveals a
dynamic, complex, and resilient democratic system operating in a
fractured and deeply traditional society. A must-read for academics and
general readers alike, this book cuts through politicized scholarship to
offer a clear-eyed perspective on the world’s largest democracy.
Salvatore Babones is a quantitative comparative sociologist whose
current research focuses on the political sociology of democracy. He has
also published on economic development in post-socialist transition
economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons. His
2018 book The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of
Experts was named among the “Best on Politics” by the Wall Street
Journal.
Dharma Democracy is a lucid and
dispassionate excursion into Indian politics where the reader experiences the
transformation of India into Bharat, in other words, the making of the Indian
Nation. A highly readable work coming as it does from an "outsider."
- Gautam R.
Desiraju, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru
Salvatore Babones
has written a delightful book on the world's largest democratic country, India.
It amounts to a sceptic's case for India and for its democratic credentials
against the various doubters of today, including the supranational ranking
groups who give India laughably low comparative scores. For instance, they put
India forty countries below the Maldives (whose constitution denies citizenship
to all non-Muslims) and only one country above Iraq. Babones gives you the
historical context. He gives you the present-day situation. He writes with
verve and wit. Babones makes the case for the world’s poorest democracy. As he
says "India’s nation-builders ... and the democracy they produced, though
as flawed as any other, has stood the test of time." This makes India the
poor world’s outlier. Find out why by buying this enjoyable book.
- James Allan, Garrick
Professor of Law, University of Queensland
This book is a
commendable historical and political commentary on the conceptual lineages of
Indian democracy. In Dharma Democracy, Salvatore Babones brilliantly
engages with quantitative analysis of Indian democracy alongside the
qualitative clarity in ancient and modern Indian political thought as the core
site of the very definition and foundational aspects of the political system of
the world’s largest democracy and arguably the third world’s most successful
democracy. The author is lucid and thought-provoking. A must read because it
demonstrates a fine scholarly achievement.
- Maidul Islam,
Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta
India is often
judged on a singular standard of democracy. Yet, no democracy is perfect, no
two democracies are identical, and all evolve in their own unique ways over
time. Loyalty to India does not require every citizen to be a Hindu. However,
does responsible citizenship require respect for the Hindu character of the
Indian nation and can this be reconciled with the core tenets of democracy? In Dharma
Democracy, Dr. Babones makes a compelling case to study the democratic
institutions and practices of the world’s largest, poorest and most
argumentative democracy within its own deeply rooted Hindu, civilisational, and
historical contexts.
- Ramesh Thakur, Emeritus
professor, Australian National University, former United Nations Assistant
Secretary General, and author of The Government and Politics of India.
Most foreigners
who write on India, fall into two categories. Either the judgmental outsider
who sees nothing good or the one who goes native and sees nothing worth
improving. The ideal person to explain India is one who can have the clinical
precision of an outsider, but the loving and deep understanding that only comes
to one who is an insider too. These are contradictory impulses, and Salvatore
Babones bridges these contradictions with rare aplomb. His Dharma Democracy
explains, with insightful detail, what makes democracy so strong and
antifragile in India. This one is a must read for all those who seek to
understand how democracy works in this complex nation that is seemingly
drowning in cacophony and gladiatorial debates, powered by a booming economy,
and adapting to fast-changing attitudes which are, counter-intuitively, also
rooted in a culture that goes back to the dawn of human civilization.
- Amish Tripathi, Bestselling author
& broadcaster
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