Modi-fied India: The Transformation of a Nation | Justice For All Now

India is often introduced in a single triumphant phrase: the world’s largest democracy. But democracy is not measured only by the size of an electorate, the spectacle of an election or the strength of an economy. It is measured by whether citizens can speak without fear, worship without intimidation, challenge power without punishment and live as equals under the law. In his new book, “Modi-fied” India: The Transformation of a Nation, scholar and human-rights activist Dr. Habib Siddiqui argues that India is being pushed away from its constitutional promise of secular democracy and toward a Hindu-majoritarian state. He asks a question that reaches far beyond India’s borders: Can anyone who cares about South Asia ignore what is happening inside a country of more than a billion people, a nuclear power and a central actor in the global economy?

In this show, Hena Zuberi speak to Dr Habib Siddiqui and Zahir Adil to examine that argument closely. What has changed under Prime Minister Narendra Modi? What predates him? What does Dr. Siddiqui mean when he describes an “apartheid” system within and beyond India? And what responsibility belongs to Indian institutions, the diaspora, Western governments and citizens who refuse to look away?