The articles are responses at a point in time, but why the book is important is because they are relevant even now. They are about the arduous task of building democracy and charting the contours of the justice system, in its everyday guise as well as when it sets out to make and implement policies. Authoritarianism, Balagopal points out, lies immanent in the dominance of the ‘national’ project by the hegemonic classes and castes. The elites have deliberately sought to work this as well as regional contradictions to their advantage. They do this by building a repository of social contempt and negativity against shifting targets - religious minorities, workers, civil rights activists, political dissenters, dalits and adivasis movements, and protesting women.

Balagopal writes about how in India, the alchemy between caste, class and the State creates a uniquely Indian alloy of fascism. Reading them gives the impression that he was standing on top of a tall tower with a powerful pair of binoculars which enabled him to see what nobody else could. In truth there was no tower, and no binoculars, just an extremely fine, courageous, and honest mind, looking around at what others turn away from.