{"product_id":"burning-pyres-mass-graves-and-a-state-that-failed-its-people-indias-covid-tragedy-9789354475436","title":"Burning Pyres, Mass Graves and a State That Failed Its People India's Covid Tragedy","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe summer of 2021 saw a massive rise in the number of infections and deaths from\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCovid-19 in India. Even by conservative estimates, at least 1.5 million people had\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003elost their lives by June; several times the official figure. As in the first wave of the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003epandemic, this time, too, the chaos and suffering was in large measure, as Harsh\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMander shows, due to mismanagement by an uncaring and cynical state.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe first part of the book, 'Locking Down the Poor', describes the grave humanitarian\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecrisis of 2020, which pushed the urban poor to the brink of starvation. It shows how\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethis was a direct consequence of public policy choices that the central government\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emade, particularly of imposing the world's longest and most stringent lockdown, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewith the smallest relief package. Mander brings us voices of out-of-work daily-wage\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eand informal workers, the homeless and the destitute, all overwhelmed by hunger, \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ehumiliation and dread. From the highways and overcrowded quarantine centres, he\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ebrings us stories of the estimated 3 crore migrant workers whose livelihoods were\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edestroyed, forcing them to walk hundreds of kilometres to their villages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe second part of the book, 'Burning Pyres, Mass Graves', records the horrors\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eof the following year, when everything from hospital beds to oxygen and essential\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003emedicines fell disastrously short. Mander traces the causes for these shortages to the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecriminal neglect of public health in India, a situation made worse under the Narendra\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eModi government, leading to the extortion of a beleaguered population by everyone\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efrom suppliers of oxygen cylinders to pharma billionaires. He holds the state culpable\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003efor indulging in pageantry-with the PM advertising himself as a messiah-when the\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ecountry needed to brace for the impact of the second wave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eCombining ground reports with hard data and first-hand knowledge, Mander chronicles\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ethe greatest humanitarian catastrophe India has faced in a century, the effects of which\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ewill be felt for decades. This powerful, even shattering, book is a necessary record of\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ea national tragedy that too many of us want to forget, when remembering is our only\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003edefence against a similar disaster in the future.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Speaking Tiger Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50457918767378,"sku":"9789354475436","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_158f89a4-a5cf-4dbb-a25f-660486878351.jpg?v=1729946273","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/burning-pyres-mass-graves-and-a-state-that-failed-its-people-indias-covid-tragedy-9789354475436","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}