First released in 2002, Out of God’s Oven has turned out to be one of the most prescient books published in India in decades. To understand why the country is at the edge of a precipice almost eight decades after it began its experiment with democracy, this brilliant book—updated with a fresh Preface and Afterword in 2023—would be an essential read.
In this perceptive and provocative study of Indian society, the authors examine how, even after years of democracy, India has remained a deeply divided nation, a ‘fractured land’ where, in addition to the old inequities of caste, class and gender, there are new challenges posed by the rise of both religious and market fundamentalism. Drawing upon their personal memories and conversations with rebels, poets, dacoits, policemen, godmen and politicians, Dom and Sarayu revisit moments of conflict and horror in Indian history from the 1950s to 2000—communal riots and massacres, the Naxal and Khalistan movements, caste wars and police brutalities. Unsparing yet always deeply human, this is a revelatory and sobering book.
