An impassioned manifesto from the author of Booker-winner God of Small Things, one of the most vocal campaigners in the world. India is a nation of 1.2 billion, but the country’s 100 richest people own assets equivalent to one-fourth of India’s gross domestic product. The rest of the population are ghosts within a system beyond their control. This includes the millions that live on less than $2 a day; or the hundreds of thousands of farmers who commit suicide, unable to escape ruinous debts; where dalits are driven from their villages because the owners want to turn the land to agribusiness. These are examples of a ‘gush up’ economy that has corrupted contemporary India. Capitalism: A Ghost Story examines the dark side of democracy, and shows how the demands of globalized capitalism has subjugated billions of people to racism and exploitation. It is a ferocious attack on the mega corporations that treat India’s natural resources like robber barons, and how they have been able to influence every part of the nation from the government to the army in the rush for profit. But, as Arundhati Roy passionately argues, capitalism is in crisis. The cracks are starting to show in its façade.
