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Twilight Prisoners promises to be an incisive, lyrical, and deeply reported account of India’s descent into authoritarianism. Travelling across India, interviewing Hindu zealots, armed insurgents, jailed dissidents, and politicians and thinkers from across the political spectrum, Siddhartha Deb reveals a country in which forces old and new have aligned to endanger democracy. The result is an absorbing― and disturbing―portrait. India has become a religious fundamentalist dystopia, the author argues, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his party,― a formation explicitly drawing on European fascism,―deftly exploiting modern technologies, the media, and market forces to launch a relentless campaign on minorities, women, dissenters, and the poor. Deb profiles these people and those fighting back, including writers, scholars, and journalists. Twilight Prisoners sounds the alarm that the world’s largest democracy is under threat in ways that echo the fissures in the United States, United Kingdom, and so-called democracies the world over.
Born in Shillong, Siddhartha Deb lives in Harlem, New York. His fiction and nonfiction have been longlisted for the International Dublin Literary Award, shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and been awarded the Pen Open Prize.