First published 2015
India claims the title of world's largest democracy with over 800 million voters among its 1.2 billion citizens. Yet beneath this democratic facade lies a stark reality that Roy dissects with surgical precision. The nation's 100 wealthiest individuals control assets worth one quarter of the entire GDP, while millions survive on less than two dollars daily. Farmers commit suicide by the hundreds of thousands, crushed by debts they cannot repay. Dalits face expulsion from their ancestral villages as landowners seize property lacking formal deeds for agribusiness conversion. Roy traces how global capitalism has transformed these conditions into what officials euphemistically call economic "green shoots." She reveals the mechanisms through which multinational corporations have stripped India of natural resources while wielding government influence across all regions. The military serves corporate profits through brute force, while networks of NGOs and foundations shape policy formation. Roy demonstrates how billions of people have become subjects of both racist exploitation and capitalist demands, reduced to ghosts within systems that operate beyond their control.
Genres: political-science, economics, non-fiction, 21st-century, global-warming, activism
Vibes: dark, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: investigative-journalism, social-commentary
Setting: India
Period: 21st Century
120 pages · Paperback · Capitán Swing
Content warnings: colonialism, racism