Indian Philosophy, Indian Revolution

In their brave and challenging book, grounded in political science and the Continental philosophical tradition, Divya Dwivedi and Shaj Mohan engage with the resurgence of upper-caste supremacism in India and its justification via the legacy of `the Aryan doctrine¿ and Hindu nationalism. Their essays were written from 2016 to 2023, when Indiäs democratic institutions were subverted and caste-based oppression overflowed into public space¿killing and menacing the lower castes of all religions, minorities, women, students and the media.This book chronicles the ascending oppression of democracy in India, a veritable biography of authoritarianism. Dwivedi and Mohan reject simplistic accounts of Indiäs politics as the opposition between `Hindu majoritarian nationalism¿ and `the religious minorities¿, or between `Hindu fundamentalism¿ and `religious pluralism¿. They propose instead a genuinely transformative account of Indian politics, grounded in political philosophy and in the lower- caste majority positionWhat does revolution mean where the constitutional promise of equality is betrayed daily by the millennia- old inequality of caste? What does politics mean where religion serves as the justification for descent- based enslavement and indignity? Revolution has only one sense in India, the annihilation of caste; and `citizen¿ has only one sense, the people of the state shedding caste and racism.