“Violence of Democracy raises urgent, timely, and important questions about democracy, violence, and authoritarianism in postcolonial democracies. Ruchi Chaturvedi examines the nature of modern democracy through a dense, historically engaged, and ethnographically rich exploration of the political lives of young men in North Kerala.”
-- Ritty A. Lukose, author of Liberalization’s Children: Gender, Youth, and Consumer Citizenship in Globalizing India
“Ruchi Chaturvedi’s Violence of Democracy is a fascinating ethnography of party politics and violence in North Kerala that rethinks fundamental issues about democratic competition and mobilization. This original and insightful analysis of the nature and sources of political violence in modern democracies makes a pathbreaking contribution to the study of postcolonial societies.”
-- Karuna Mantena, author of Alibis of Empire: Henry Maine and the Ends of Liberal Imperialism