Twenty-something Vikram rebels against his father and the mediocre life his engineering background has ordained for him by travelling to Delhi to become a stand-up comedian. Only, he is forced to see the serious side of his jokes when circumstances compel him to accept the position of a journalist at The Great Indian Democracy, an upcoming political magazine. Life drifts along through plagiarized articles and pub-hopping until one day he finds out why he was hired in the first place. And meets Advaita, the annoyingly beautiful intern with whom he falls in love. Disarmingly funny, The GID is a satirical and thought-provoking take on everything that makes our nation’s democracy the biggest stand-up show.

In this award-winning novel, Tharoor has masterfully recast the two-thousand-year-old epic, The Mahabharata, with fictional but highly recognizable events and characters from twentieth-century Indian politics. Nothing is sacred in this deliciously irreverent, witty, and deeply intelligent retelling of modern Indian history and the ancient Indian epic The Mahabharata. Alternately outrageous and instructive, hilarious and moving, it is a dazzling tapestry of prose and verse that satirically, but also poignantly, chronicles the struggle for Indian freedom and independence.

The eBook contains material drawn from dreams that ordinary folks worldwide see in political frameworks such as the Indian democracy. It is up to governing authorities to actualize these innocent dreams into reality so as to usher in truly public-oriented welfare policies. The book is an extraordinary Work in history of non-fiction literature. It belongs to that rare category of books that appear once in a thousand years' time. It has been dubbed the 'Golden Book.' It has made tremendous positive impact on policy-makers, decision takers and political bosses of various governments including the Indian government. The present Golden eBook discusses diverse public issues threadbare without any Fear or Favour. In short, this is a fine piece of practical philosophical thinking. The book explores and helps broaden intellectual horizon in many diverse fields such as public governance and administration, sociology, politics, economics, political geography, economic geography, business administration, human psychology, international trade, international taxation, world governance, peace. The book is full of interesting unknown facts; answers curious questions in addition to setting out practical agenda for politicians and all other people who are interested in finding out practical solutions to problems of governance to make 21st century a century of peace, prosperity and progress by assuring democracy, human dignity, human rights, women's empowerment, gender parity and equality, free global humane trade, protection of girl child. Interestingly, many of golden suggestions given in instant book have been implemented by several governments worldwide. The book lays down pragmatic intellectual framework for future global world government. Many interesting questions that this eBook gives answers to Why are railway lines and road links from Karachi to north-east tip of Asia linking south Asian and east Asian countries useful? Why did rebel soldiers of Sikh regiments fail to march upon Delhi and capture Amritsar in Punjab in aftermath of Operation Blue Star in 1984? A former Indian prime minister was deep in smuggling? A popular Indian actress gold-courier for notorious smuggler Dawood Ibrahim? What are liberally conservative and conservatively liberal political ethos? Shouldn't Bharat Ratna be withdrawn from Sachin Tendulkar? Why was Bharat Ratna conferred upon Sachin Tendulkar? Why has Bharat Ratna become a big farce? Why did Vishwanath Pratap Singh, former Indian prime minister wish to be a Naxalite? Why did national poet Pradeep refuse to compose patriotic songs? Is secessionism a political crime or benign human craving for freedom? What is psychology and pathology of anti-secessionism? How can loss of Maanav lives and property due to secessionist military fights be stopped permanently peacefully? How can you eliminate extortion by passport issuing authorities in India? How can governance be completely controlled by common citizens? How can menace of paying forcible bribes for getting documents certified from government authorities be overcome? Whom do reservations in government jobs really benefit? What is ulterior political motive behind reserving a particular constituency for a certain community? How can multiple taxes be avoided? Can there ever be single taxation system throughout world? Which is fifth factor of production? What is no taxation without facilitation? How can e-governance effectively help make public governance transparent and corruption-free? How can Indian universities be made fully student-friendly? can there be one world government with flourishing free humane trade? What is Lootarchy, Welfarchy, who is Welfarechist? How is 'Paramatantrataa' better than 'Suraaj' and 'Swaraj'? What is the great Indian dream? Can food insecurity lead to overthrow of powerful regimes? Should India have one common civil code? Is there real danger of military coup and public-revolt against central regime in present India? Does India need be politically reconfigured? What is permanent solution to Kashmir problem faced by India and Pakistan? How can black money be brought back into India from abroad? What are technical and non-technical corruptions? How can inflation be controlled? What is ‘guided market price mechanism'? What is affirmative help? How can buyers be protected against builders-mafia? Should ownership of leased government land pass onto present occupants? Can BJP keep its promise of building ram mandir? Which is one world language, one world religion, one Vasudhiotic world government? What is united states of humanity and its flag? What is ideal age limit for being an elected member of various legislatures? What should be India's golden foreign policy? Should world government be conservatively liberal or liberally conservative? What is ideal approach to deal with human rights’ violation questions?

We are dealing with a new political form of society whose specificity comes from the articulation between two different traditions. On one side we have the liberal tradition constituted by the rule of law, the defence of human rights and the respect of individual liberty; on the other the democratic tradition whose main ideas are those of equa identity between governing and governed and popular sovereignty. There is no necessary relation between those two distinct traditions but only a contingent historical articulation....Let's not forget that, while we tend today to take the link between liberalism and democracy for granted, their union, far from being a smooth process, was the result of bitter struggles. — Mouffe, The Democratic Paradox. The Unity in Diversity is based on multi wheel and not on mono wheel system. Truth has one face while the untruth has many faces. Truth does not seek for any excuse while the untruth always searches for an excuse. Truth cannot be divided; it is the same for one and all. There has been a growing paradoxical environment in the country not genuinely but due to lack of reasoning and reconciliation which are the offshoots of ego, misunderstanding and confrontation. Today, paradoxes in our democracy are multiplying manifold. Time, we need to take them seriously, search for solutions. These paradoxes include Diversity & Division, Fundamental Duties, Governance and Citizens Moral Values and Human Development. I have analysed them in depth and endeavoured to show their patenting effects in the democratic functioning driving towards haywire and disorderliness. This is setting a negative concept for the future generations, the responsibility for that rests on the present generation.

Genres of Modernity maps the conjunctures of critical theory and literary production in contemporary India. The volume situates a sample of representative novels in the discursive environment of the ongoing critical debate on modernity in India, and offers for the first time a rigorous attempt to hold together the stimulating impulses of postcolonial theory, subaltern studies and the boom of Indian fiction in English. In opposition to the entrenched narrative of modernity as a single, universally valid formation originating in the West, the theoretical and literary texts under discussion engage in a shared project of refiguring the present as a site of heterogeneous genres of modernity. The book traces these figurative efforts with particular attention to the treatment of two privileged metonymies of modernity: the issues of time and home in Indian fiction. Combining close readings of literary texts from Salman Rushdie to Kiran Nagarkar with a wide range of philosophical, sociological and historiographic reflections, Genres of Modernity is of interest not only for students of postcolonial literatures but for academics in the fields of Cultural Studies at large.

Selected papers presented at a panel discussion organized by the Indian Political Science Association on the functioning of Indian parliamentary system.

'Indian Democracy' is an attempt to understand the development of democratic polity in India. It covers a wide range of issues - theoretical concepts, political institutions, federalism, electoral process, individual and group rights and mass media - drawing attention to the significant broadening of Indian democracy.

Personal and National Destinies in Independent India is an innovative analysis of the interface between individual lives and national history, between citizen and state in modern India, as reflected in contemporary fiction. It critiques the selected works of a host of distinguished Indian English novelists such as Gurcharan Das, Arun Joshi, Rohinton Mistry, Arundhati Roy, Meher Pestonji, Kiran Desai, Vikas Swarup, David Davidar, Aravind Adiga, Manjula Padmanabhan and Tarun Tejpal. The author offers a new interpretation of twelve major novels with reference to the enormous framework of nearly seventy years of the history and politics, culture and economy of independent India. This is a study of fiction that re-writes the grand Indian narrative from a genuine, subaltern point of view and pays tribute to the heroism of ordinary Indians in times of extraordinary transformation. In these times of conflict and disparity which threaten democratic values, these novelists advocate an inclusive and humane India with a strong moral core instead of aggressive or elitist nationalism. They represent an era of painful introspection, an attempt to keep the soul of the nation alive. This unique project would be of interest to students and scholars of Literature, Political Science and History, especially Post-colonial studies. The vast scope of the time period, geographical expanse, social groups, writers and works covered here makes the work comprehensive and contemporary; very few such works on recent Indian history and fiction exist as of now.