Azad Nagar
The Story of a 21st-Century Slave Revolt
by Laura T. Murphy
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Pub Date Mar 25 2022 | Archive Date Feb 03 2026
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Description
Millions of people around the world today are enslaved; nearly eight million of them live in India, more than anywhere else. This book is the story of a small group of enslaved villagers in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, who founded their own town of Azad Nagar after staging a rebellion against their slaveholders. International organizations championed this as a nonviolent ‘silent revolution’ that inspired other villagers to fight for their own freedom.
But Laura T. Murphy, a leading scholar of contemporary global slavery, who spent years researching and teaching about Azad Nagar, found that whispers and deflections suggested there was something troubling about Azad Nagar’s success.
Murphy embarks on a Rashomon-like retelling – a complex, constantly changing narrative of a murder that captures better than any sanitized account just why it is that slavery continues to exist in the 21st century. Azad Nagar’s enormous struggle to gain and maintain liberty shows why it is unrealistic to expect radical change without violent protest – and how a global construction boom is deepening and broadening the alienation of impoverished people around the world.
Advance Praise
“A brave and brilliant report on the tyranny of the caste system and continuing feudal practices in India’s villages. Azad Nagar rips apart the cliche of India being the largest democracy in the world and shows us how millions of Indians are deprived of their basic constitutional freedoms and rights.”
—BASHARAT PEER, Author of A Question of Order: India, Turkey, and the Return of Strongmen, contributing writer for the New York Times
“A powerful, damning account of economic growth, beautifully told through the tragic story of the fight for freedom from slavery of tribals in India. A must-read for anyone wanting to understand modern slavery, the fragility of ideas of freedom, the place of violence in bringing about progressive change, and modern India.”
—ALPA SHAH, Professor of Anthropology, London School of Economics, author of Nightmarch: Among India’s Revolutionary Guerrillas
Marketing Plan
The true story of a modern-day slave revolt. A brave and brilliant exploration of a side of India the mainstream never hears about. A damning account of the human costs of economic growth
For fans of work by Sonia Faleiro, Alpa Shah, Basharat Peer, Katherine Boo, Arundhati Roy, Rahul Pandita, etc.
Available Editions
| EDITION | Ebook |
| ISBN | 9789354895630 |
| PRICE | $20.00 (USD) |
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