About the Book
The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State
“In this compelling book by the award-winning Indian journalist Josy Joseph, it is not India’s political leaders who are under the spotlight but the murky workings of India’s deep state, from the police to the federal investigative and intelligence agencies.”
Hannah Ellis-Petersen, The Guardian
The Silent Coup: A History of India’s Deep State is the culmination of over two decades of Josy Joseph’s reporting on insurgencies, terrorism, and the inner workings of India’s security establishment. This urgent work exposes how India’s democracy has been steadily undermined, hidden beneath the façade of a vibrant constitutional government.
India, renowned for its unbroken parliamentary democracy, has never faced a military coup—a rare achievement in a region plagued by constitutional instability. However, India’s democratic standing is in peril, with global assessments recently rating the nation as only “partly free” or even an “electoral autocracy.” Josy Joseph delves into this decline and uncovers a disturbing truth: India’s battle with militancy has profoundly twisted its system of governance.
As insurgencies surged in sophistication during the 1980s and ’90s, the security forces became overwhelmed. In response, police, intelligence, federal agencies, and tax departments resorted to extreme measures—faking evidence, staging terror attacks, even creating terrorist organisations. What began as counter-terrorism evolved into a multi-layered business enterprise. From the Kashmiri militancy to the Sri Lankan civil war, and from the Mumbai attacks to the enduring unrest in the Northeast, India’s “war on terror” has led its security institutions to become more nationalistic, chauvinistic, and alarmingly corrupt.
The most dangerous consequence is the near-total capture of India’s security apparatus by the political executive. Once defenders of the Constitution, these institutions now often act as enforcers for political interests. The Silent Coup is a wake-up call for India, demonstrating that democracy can be subverted not only by a coup but by the systematic erosion of institutional integrity. In India, Josy Joseph argues, subversion is already well underway.
Senior journalist and author Josy Joseph’s The Silent Coup WAS awarded the prestigious Global Media Book Prize by the Kerala Media Academy (KMA). The honour, which included a cash prize of Rs 50,000 and a citation, was presented at the International Media Festival in Ernakulam on March 25, 2023.
