Speaker(s): Ruchir Sharma | On the eve of India’s General elections in April and May, Ruchir Sharma will in this event, which marks the publication of his new book, offer a portrait of how India and its democracy work. Sharma has covered every election for the last two decades on the road talking to farmers, shopkeepers and CEOs from Rajasthan to Tamil Nadu, and interviewing leaders from Narendra Modi to Rahul Gandhi. Sharma will explain how the complex forces of family, caste and community, economics and development, money and corruption, Bollywood and Godmen, have conspired to elect and topple Indian leaders since Indira Gandhi. The message of his travels is that, while democracy is retreating in many parts of the world, it is thriving in India. Ruchir Sharma is author of the international bestsellers The Rise and Fall of Nations: Ten Rules of Change of in the Post-Crisis World. He is Head of Emerging Markets and Chief Global Strategist at Morgan Stanley, and a contributing opinion writer with The New York Times. His new book is Democracy on the Road. Mukulika Banerjee (@MukulikaB) is Director of the South Asia Centre at LSE. Mukulika’s current research interests are on the cultural meanings of democracy. Her most recent publication is Why India Votes? (2014) in which she explores the reasons behind India's rising trends of voter participation. She is currently completing a manuscript based on 15 years of engagement with a village in India to explain the sources of democratic thinking in Indian social life. Established in June 2015, the South Asia Centre (@SAsiaLSE) harnesses LSE's research & academic focus on South Asia, whose particularities constantly challenge conventional thinking in the social sciences.