Ruchir Sharma's next: How and why democracy works in India

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Global investor-writer Ruchir Sharma's new book looks into how Indian democracy works and analyses its glaring foibles and surprising strengths.

"Democracy on the Road" is the result of Sharma's travels through India, where he has been following election campaigns - from Naxalite areas on the border of Nepal to the southernmost tip in Tamil Nadu - for the last 20 years.

From Gujarat to Bengal, and from Punjab to Kerala, Sharma has traversed tens of thousands of miles along eight-lane highways and, more often, pot-holed, monsoon-ravaged dirt roads, talking to ordinary voters and leading politicians in remote villages and megacities like Mumbai and Kolkata, publisher Penguin Random House India said.

"Along the way he and his band of up to 20 journalists have interviewed many of the giants of Indian politics, and many of those interviews are excerpted in the book, offering telling and sometimes searing new portraits of figures from the Gandhis, Modi and Advani to Jayalalithaa, Mayawati, Kumar and Gehlot," it said.

The book will be published in February 2019.

"India comes alive at election time and I have been fortunate to witness up close more than two dozen elections since the 1990s. There is no other travel experience that is as fascinating as journeying the Indian countryside during the campaign season and I am now very excited to share my impressions of how and why democracy works in our nation," said Sharma.

According to Meru Gokhale, editor-in-chief (literary publishing) at Penguin Random House India, "The book 'Democracy on the Road' is Ruchir Sharma's deeply insightful take on Indian politics. India needs to read it before the 2019 elections."