Audacious hope: An archive of how democracy is being defended in India

Audacious Hope captures the inspiring stories of everyday Indians standing up to repressive state authority, highlighting their resilience and unity in keeping the spirit of democracy alive.

Democratic backsliding can be resisted. Much ink has been spilled, for good reason, on the erosion of democracy in India. However, as the results of the Lok Sabha elections have shown, Indians have not let such erosions go unchallenged. Their efforts to defend democracy has led many among them to repeatedly stand up to a repressive state during the last decade. 

Recognising the threats to democracy in India, Audacious Hope: An archive of how democracy is being defended in India documents the myriad ways in which ordinary Indians have resisted the erosion of their democracy. It thus compels attention to the social struggles that underpin democratic resistance.

Audacious Hope is a careful, rigorous archive of these struggles, including the protests that united farmers across state borders in 2020 and the national outcry following the controversial CAA legislation. From the myriad ways people came to the aid of their fellow citizens during the pandemic to the testing of free-speech boundaries by cultural activists, this book undertakes the task of documenting the many ways in which Indians are defending democracy.  

About the speaker

Indrajit Roy is Professor of Global Development Politics in the Department of Politics and International Relations at the University of York. He specialises in the study of Indian politics in comparative and historical perspectives. Roy is co-editor of the Cambridge Companion to Indian Politics and Society, forthcoming from Cambridge University Press in 2024. He holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford.

Indrajit Roy will be joined by Pragya Tiwari (senior journalist) and Shoaib Daniyal (Scroll Magazine). 

Image credit: Naveed Ahmed