Price: ₹699 - ₹144.00
(as of Oct 17, 2025 19:02:18 UTC – Details)
The world’s largest democracy is facing the greatest challenge since the end of British colonial rule in 1947.
The Incarcerations pulls back the curtain on Indian democracy to tell the remarkable and chilling story of the Bhima Koregaon case, in which sixteen human rights defenders (the BK-16)-professors, lawyers, journalists, poets-have been imprisoned, without credible evidence and without trial, as Maoist terrorists.
Alpa Shah unravels how these alleged terrorists were charged with inciting violence at a commemoration in 2018, accused of waging a war against the Indian state and plotting to kill Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Expertly leading us through the case, Shah exposes some of the world’s most shocking revelations of cyber warfare research, which show not only the hacking of emails and mobile phones of the BK-16, but also implantation of the electronic evidence that was used to incarcerate them.
Through the life histories of the BK-16, Shah dives deep into the issues they fought for and tells the story of India’s three main minorities-Adivasi, Dalits and Muslims-and what the search for democracy entails for them.
Essential and urgent, The Incarcerations reveals how this case is a bellwether for the collapse of democracy in India, as for the first time in the nation’s history there is a multipronged, coordinated attack on key defenders of various pillars of democracy. In so doing, Shah shows that democracy today must be not only about protecting the freedom of expression and democratic institutions, but also about supporting and safeguarding the social movements that question our global inequalities.
From the Publisher
Publisher : HarperCollins India (14 March 2024); HarperCollins Publishers; Product Safety Manager; enquiries@harpercollins.ie
Language : English
Paperback : 588 pages
ISBN-10 : 9354899862
ISBN-13 : 978-9354899867
Item Weight : 294 g
Dimensions : 215 x 140 x 18 cm
Country of Origin : India
Net Quantity : 750.00 Grams
Best Sellers Rank: #2,774 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #1 in Government (Books) #2 in Civil Rights #4 in Political Ideologies
Customer Reviews: 4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 201 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers say
Customers find the book well researched, with one review noting it’s based on real documents, and they appreciate its readability and writing quality. Moreover, the book serves as an eye-opener, with one customer mentioning it provides a clear understanding of the genesis of certain events. However, the content receives mixed reactions, with one customer describing it as a criminal failure of democratic institutions, while another finds it disturbing.