The end of karma
Subtitle: hope and fury among India's young
By: Somini Sengupta
Edition: First edition.
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 244
ISBN-13: 9780393071009
Subjects: Youth; Social life and customs; Women and democracy; History
Description: "A penetrating, personal look at contemporary India--the world's largest democracy at a moment of transition. Somini Sengupta emigrated from Calcutta to California as a young child in 1975. Returning thirty years later as the bureau chief for The New York Times, she found a vastly different country: one defined as much by aspiration and possibility--at least by the illusion of possibility--as it is by the structures of sex and caste. The End of Karma is an exploration of this new India through the lens of young people from different worlds: a woman who becomes a Maoist rebel; a brother charged for the murder of his sister, who had married the "wrong" man; a woman who opposes her family and hopes to become a police officer. Driven by aspiration--and thwarted at every step by state and society--they are making new demands on India's democracy for equality of opportunity, dignity for girls, and civil liberties. Sengupta spotlights these stories of ordinary men and women, weaving together a groundbreaking portrait of a country in turmoil."--Dust jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.
Table of contents: title: Introduction: Aspiration, like water; title: "Hi-fi" : how to outrun fate; title: Gates : keeping out the lives of others; title: Guerrilla : paying for broken promises; title: Strongman : aspiration gets into politics; title: Facebook girls : speaking up, testing democracy's conscience; title: Apostates : when they dared to love; title: Curse : father frets about rape, daughter dreams of being a cop.