The end of karma : hope and fury among India's young
Somini Sengupta
- 1st ed.
- New York : W.W. Norton & Co., c2016.
- 244 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
An exploration of contemporary India.
Introduction -- Aspiration, like water -- "Hi-fi" : how toout run fate -- Gates : keeping out the lives of others -- Guerrilla : paying for broken promises -- Strongman : aspiration gets into politics -- Facebook girls : speaking up, testing democracy's conscience -- Apostates : when they dared to love -- Curse : a father's fears, a daughter's dreams.
"A penetrating, personal look at contemporary India--the world's largest democracy at a moment of transition. Somini Sengupta emigrated from Calcutta to California as a young child in 1975. Returning thirty years later as the bureau chief for The New York Times, she found a vastly different country: one defined as much by aspiration and possibility--at least by the illusion of possibility--as it is by the structures of sex and caste. The End of Karma is an exploration of this new India through the lens of young people from different worlds: a woman who becomes a Maoist rebel; a brother charged for the murder of his sister, who had married the "wrong" man; a woman who opposes her family and hopes to become a police officer. Driven by aspiration--and thwarted at every step by state and society--they are making new demands on India's democracy for equality of opportunity, dignity for girls, and civil liberties. Sengupta spotlights these stories of ordinary men and women, weaving together a groundbreaking portrait of a country in turmoil."--Dust jacket.
9780393071009
Youth--History--India--21st century Women and democracy--India Youth--History--India Democracy--India