Journalist Rahul Bhatia shares the latest on his new book exploring Aadhar, India's biometric identification program, and its wide-reaching impacts on Indian democracy and society.
The Identity Project: The Unmaking of a Democracy is a new book by the journalist Rahul Bhatia. Many Grand Tamasha listeners will recognize Rahul’s byline in revered publications like the New Yorker, the Guardian, and Caravan. He’s written celebrated profiles of everyone from Arnab Goswami to cricket chief N. Srinivasan. And his reporting has taken on subjects from Baba Ramdev’s business empire to the COVID-19 pandemic.
His new book is based on six years of research and reportage from across India, where he set out on a quest to understand the ideological moorings of what we have come to call “the New India.” To talk more about his book and the state of democracy in India, Rahul joins Milan on the podcast this week.
The two discuss Rahul’s reporting on Aadhaar—India’s unique biometric identification program—and its precursors, the Hindu nationalist push for a new national citizenship regime, and the inner workings of the Indian state’s coercive power. Plus, the two discuss whether and how the results of India’s 2024 election have been a setback to the cause of Hindu nationalism.
Episode notes:
1. Rahul Bhatia, “The trials of an Indian witness: how a Muslim man was caught in a legal nightmare,” The Guardian, March 2, 2023.
2. Rahul Bhatia, “How India’s Welfare Revolution Is Starving Citizens,” The New Yorker, May 16, 2018.
3. Rahul Bhatia, “The Year of Love Jihad in India,” The New Yorker, December 31, 2017.
4. Rahul Bhatia, “India Loves Data but Fails to Protect It,” New York Times, April 3, 2018.
5. “Governing India's Digital Revolution (with Rahul Matthan),” Grand Tamasha, January 24, 2024.
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
This week, Milan Vaishnav and Abhishek Anand discuss the controversy over India’s GDP estimates, important reforms within India’s statistics ministry, and the debate over the Reserve Bank of India’s policies to defend the rupee. Plus, the two discuss Abhishek’s work on power sector reform and the embrace of non-tariff barriers that stymie the spirit of India’s new bilateral trade agreements.
Milan Vaishnav, Abhishek Anand
Milan and Kabir Taneja discuss India’s emerging political and strategic relationships in the Gulf, the risks the country faces from the Iran conflict, and the potential for India to play a larger regional security role in the Middle East.
Milan Vaishnav, Kabir Taneja
Milan, Yamini Aiyar, and Neelanjan Sircar recorded a special elections episode. They discussed the BJP’s historic win in West Bengal, the demise of the Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee, and the Election Commission of India’s controversial revision of the electoral rolls.
Milan Vaishnav, Neelanjan Sircar, Yamini Aiyar
Milan Vaishnav sits down with Shruti Rajagopalan of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University for a wide-ranging webinar on delimitation, representation, and the reshaping of Indian democracy.
Milan Vaishnav, Shruti Rajagopalan
Rosa Abraham joins Milan for a conversation about the new report State of Working India 2026. They discuss the state of India’s mythical “demographic dividend,” the quality and quantity of higher education, and India’s stalled structural transformation. Plus, the two discuss the high unemployment rate for college graduates, trends in internal migration, and the loosening of caste-based occupational segregation.
Milan Vaishnav, Rosa Abraham
