As India’s power and prominence rise on the international stage, its longstanding tradition of democracy is under threat. Since establishing a secular and democratic constitution in 1950, India has held elections at the local, state, and national levels with frequent transitions of power between opposing parties. This commitment to democracy has provided political order to a country that is twice the size of Europe and with a stunning array of social and economic divides.

Despite this rich tradition, India’s democracy faces an unprecedented threat with the rise of Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party, the Bharatiya Janata Party. After decisively winning general elections in 2014, Modi and the BJP have pursued a range of anti-democratic policies in which the state and society are used to undermine the opposition, to stifle free speech, and to harass religious minorities. The Troubling State of India’s Democracy brings together leading scholars from around the world to assess the conditions of India’s democracy across three important dimensions: politics, specifically the state of political parties and the party system; the state, including the condition of federalism and the health of various institutions; and society, including NGOs, ethnic and religious tensions, and control of the media. Even though elements of India’s democracy seem to function—like its commitment to elections—the contributors document a disturbing trajectory, one that not only threatens to undermine India’s own stability, but could also affect the global order.

EDITORS:

Šumit Ganguly is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and holds the Tagore Chair in Indian Cultures and Civilizations at Indiana University, Bloomington. He is also a Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.
Dinsha Mistree is Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution.
Larry Diamond is William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University.

Food adulteration with toxic chemicals is a global public health threat. Lead chromate adulterated spices have been linked with lead poisoning in many countries, from Bangladesh to the United States. This study systematically assessed lead chromate adulteration in turmeric, a spice that is consumed daily across South Asia. Our study focused on four understudied countries that produce >80 % of the world's turmeric and collectively include 1.7 billion people, 22 % of the world's population. Turmeric samples were collected from wholesale and retail bazaars from 23 major cities across India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Nepal between December 2020 and March 2021. Turmeric samples were analyzed for lead and chromium concentrations and maximum child blood lead levels were modeled in regions where samples had detectable lead. A total of 356 turmeric samples were collected, including 180 samples of dried turmeric roots and 176 samples of turmeric powder. In total, 14 % of the samples (n = 51) had detectable lead above 2 μg/g. Turmeric samples with lead levels greater than or equal to 18 μg/g had molar ratios of lead to chromium near 1:1, suggestive of lead chromate adulteration. Turmeric lead levels exceeded 1000 μg/g in Patna (Bihar, India) as well as Karachi and Peshawar (Pakistan), resulting in projected child blood lead levels up to 10 times higher than the CDC's threshold of concern. Given the overwhelmingly elevated lead levels in turmeric from these locations, urgent action is needed to halt the practice of lead chromate addition in the turmeric supply chain.

The November 2023 issue of Democracy and Autocracy features essays from contributors to the forthcoming volume The Troubling State of India’s Democracy (University of Michigan Press, Emerging Democracies Series), co-edited by Larry Diamond (Stanford University), Šumit Ganguly (Indiana University), and Dinsha Mistree (Stanford University). Newsletter authors include Diamond, Ganguly, and Mistree; as well as Maya Tudor (University of Oxford); John Echeverri-Gent (University of Virginia); Aseema Sinha (Claremont McKenna College); Andrew Wyatt (University of Bristol); Kanta Murali (University of Toronto); and Eswaran Sridharan (University of Pennsylvania Institute for the Advanced Study of India in Delhi). Mukulika Banerjee (London School of Economics and Political Science) and Sushmita Pati (National Law School of India University, Bengaluru) also exchange reviews of their recent books, Cultivating Democracy: Politics and Citizenship in Agrarian India (Banerjee, Oxford University Press, 2021) and Properties of Rent: Community, Capital and Politics in Globalising Delhi (Pati, Cambridge University Press, 2022). Anindita Adhikari (U-M) and Nandini Dey (U-M) serve as guest editors.

The Weiser Center for Emerging Democracies at the University of Michigan hosted a roundtable connected to this issue in September 2023, with Diamond, Ganguly, and Mistree presenting as panelists and Adhikari and Dey serving as respondents. Watch the recording here.