India
India has been one of the focus areas of our ‘Challenges to Global Democracy’ project. Toda convened a seminar in Tokyo in 2024 on India’s democratic erosion, and continues to feature research and voices related to the growing Hindu supremacism in the country
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Modi’s Monopolists: Labour and Capital in a Broken Democracy
This report examines the case of India, where the balance between labour and capital has moved decisively against labour, breaking the back of one of the most potent forces of democratisation. Countries where workers’ unions are hit the hardest by neoliberalism tend to offer the right-wing movements the most fertile ground. India’s broken democracy now…
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Slumdogs and the Millionaire: What a Project to Transform Mumbai Says About India’s Democracy
This report investigates why a mega slum redevelopment executed by Narendra Modi’s key business ally has triggered political opposition and charges of opacity, arbitrariness, and cronyism. The development threatens to uproot people from the city and banish them to its peripheries as Mumbai’s turn to capitalist urbanism intensifies along with the suppression of its discontents.…
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Modi’s Mexicans
‘Bangladeshis’ are to Modi what Mexicans are to Trump. Both are proxies that help dress up naked identitarian hate with the logic of nationalism. But Modi isn’t just constructing the fear of the ‘other’, he’s constructing the ‘other’ as well, and using it to remake the citizenry.
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Latest Videos
India Roundtable – five India experts discuss the positive and negative consequences of the 2024 India election result.
July 24, 2024
In Conversation – Debasish Roy Chowdhury and John Keane, authors of To Kill a Democracy: India’s Passage to Despotism discuss their views of India under Prime Minister Modi, and the prospects for Indian democracy. Download the transcript here.
March 4, 2024
System Mapping
In June 2023, Toda Peace Institute’s international working group of researchers first met to explore common factors contributing to a global decline in democracy. The group devoted a session to exploring how the erosion of democratic institutions occurs from a systems perspective. In other words, what are the interactive dynamics and behaviors of key actors that lead to the decline of democracy, often resulting in reinforcing downward spirals? The working group reflected on a draft systems map and embarked on an ongoing process to refine the initial map. The resulting and continually evolving map can be used to complement more traditional analyses and cross-country comparisons. While systems mapping can help us understand how democratic erosion functions as an analytical process, it is best used to explore effective actions to counteract negative dynamics or to reinforce positive ones. The systems maps can also suggest strategic points of entry for pro-democratic practitioners.