India maintains the world's largest democracy with 75 years of continuous constitutional rule - yet international democracy rankings place it alongside countries with military coups and authoritarian regimes. What's really going on?

Former CIS executive director Tom Switzer sits down with author Salvatore Babones as part of the launch of his new book "Dharma Democracy: How India Built the Third World's First Democracy." Babones explores the unique model that enabled India to succeed where many post-colonial nations failed, arguing that Hindu religious and social reform movements created a distinctive civil society structure that Western political scientists have largely overlooked.

The conversation examines why India's democracy rankings don't reflect its actual performance and addresses one of India's single biggest challenges: integrating its 200 million Muslim citizens better into the democratic mainstream.