Heartland Rising: The Making of Majoritarian India

Heartland Rising is a searing examination of the forces driving India’s contemporary majoritarian turn. From the upheavals of the 1940s—Partition and the framing of the Constitution—to the present, it revisits a foundational debate: should India be anchored in liberty, defined as ‘one man, one vote’, or equality, understood as meaningful political representation for minorities in a federal structure? The early republic chose liberty, and this book argues that it was the wrong choice. It is because of that decision that contemporary India has today reached the point where it finds itself with neither: its democracy is compromised and majoritarianism prevails.
Javed Gaya maps how the partition of the subcontinent and the subsequent elevation of the Hindi heartland reshaped India’s social and economic trajectory, amplifying caste and communal divisions while narrowing the space for pluralism. We see the increasing frailty of constitutional safeguards, the weakening role of the judiciary, the gradual subversion of federalism, the growing fixation with cultural purity, the mythologising of national heroes and the demonising of minorities.
A diagnosis and a warning for the future, Heartland Rising raises an existential question: how do we alter the dire course that India is on?