India is one of the world's great democratic success stories. In this rigorously empirical analysis, a comparative social scientist – an American sociologist based in Sydney – offers a dispassionate assessment of India's democratic evolution. Benchmarking India against both established Western democracies and its own political past, the book challenges prevailing narratives shaped by ideological biases. Drawing on quantitative data and primary historical sources, the author reveals a dynamic, complex, and resilient democratic system operating in a fractured and deeply traditional society. A must-read for academics and general readers alike, this book cuts through politicized scholarship to offer a clear-eyed perspective on the world's largest democracy. Dharma Democracy is a lucid and dispassionate excursion into Indian politics where the reader experiences the transformation of India into Bharat, in other words, the making of the Indian Nation. A highly readable work coming as it does from an "outsider." - Gautam R. Desiraju, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru Babones traces India's path to realizing "dharma democracy," the concept of nation-building through nationalism and a shared political community. Well aware of India's shortcomings, Babones nevertheless challenges prevailing academic criticism of India's democracy, and posits that India's Hindu civil society actually supports democratic institutions. Babones presents India as a remarkable outlier that, while periodically sliding into hyper-nationalism, has proven to be an enduring and stable democracy. - Elizabeth Freund Larus, Professor Emerita of Political Science and International Relations, University of Mary Washington In Dharma Democracy , Salvatore Babones brilliantly engages with quantitative analysis of Indian democracy alongside the qualitative clarity in ancient and modern Indian political thought as the core site of the very definition and foundational aspects of the political system of the world's largest democracy and arguably the third world's most successful democracy. The author is lucid and thought-provoking. A must read because it demonstrates a fine scholarly achievement. - Maidul Islam, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta In Dharma Democracy , Babones makes a compelling case to study the democratic institutions and practices of the world's largest, poorest and most argumentative democracy within its own deeply rooted Hindu, civilisational, and historical contexts. - Ramesh Thakur, Emeritus professor, Australian National University, former United Nations Assistant Secretary General, and author of The Government and Politics of India Most foreigners who write on India, fall into two categories. Either the judgmental outsider who sees nothing good or the one who goes native and sees nothing worth improving. The ideal person to explain India is one who can have the clinical precision of an outsider, but the loving and deep understanding that only comes to one who is an insider too. These are contradictory impulses, and Salvatore Babones bridges these contradictions with rare aplomb. - Amish Tripathi, Bestselling author and broadcaster Salvatore Babones is a quantitative comparative sociologist whose current research focuses on the political sociology of democracy. He has also published on economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons. His 2018 book The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts was named among the "Best on Politics" by the Wall Street Journal.   Salvatore Babones  is a quantitative comparative sociologist whose current research focuses on the political sociology of democracy. He has also published on economic development in post-socialist transition economies and quantitative methods for cross-national comparisons. His 2018 book The New Authoritarianism: Trump, Populism, and the Tyranny of Experts was named among the "Best on Politics" by the Wall Street Journal.