28th May 2026 — Westland Books today announced the pre-order of Heartland Rising written by Mumbai-based lawyer and academic Javed Gaya, published under their award-winning literary non-fiction imprint Context. This book has been released internationally as Majoritarianism in India: Roots and Consequences.
A must read for the election season, Javed Gaya’s Heartland Rising is an incisive study of India’s democracy since the 1940s, assessing in depth the events, ideologies and personalities behind the Partition and the subsequent drafting of the Indian constitution. The book deeply explores the judiciary’s role in the gradual undermining of minority rights and in the subversion of federalism. With majoritarianism increasingly reshaping the Indian political landscape, Javed Gaya delivers a lucid, necessary read to understand the complex relationship between identity, citizenship and nation-building.
Pre-orders for Heartland Rising open on 27 May 2026 and it will be released on 12 June 2026.
About the book
Heartland Rising is a searing examination of the forces driving India’s contemporary majoritarian turn. From the upheavals of the 1940s—Partition and the framing of the Constitution—to the present, it revisits a foundational debate: should India be anchored in liberty, defined as ‘one man, one vote’, or equality, understood as meaningful political representation for minorities in a federal structure? The early republic chose liberty, and this book argues that it was the wrong choice. It is because of that decision that contemporary India has today reached the point where it finds itself with neither: its democracy is compromised and majoritarianism prevails.
Javed Gaya maps how the partition of the subcontinent and the subsequent elevation of the Hindi heartland reshaped India’s social and economic trajectory, amplifying caste and communal divisions while narrowing the space for pluralism. We see the increasing frailty of constitutional safeguards, the weakening role of the judiciary, the gradual subversion of federalism, the growing fixation with cultural purity, the mythologising of national heroes and the demonising of minorities.
A diagnosis and a warning for the future, Heartland Rising raises an existential question: how do we alter the dire course that India is on?
About the author
Javed Gaya is a lawyer from Mumbai, specialising in commercial arbitration law. He studied jurisprudence at the University of Oxford and has taught law at colleges affiliated to the University of Mumbai. He contributes to various publications on topics including constitutional law, history and foreign affairs, and writes book reviews. He serves as a director on the boards of several companies.
Praise for Heartland Rising
‘Modi’s Hindu Rashtra cries out for a revisionist history of modern India to account for his success. Javed Gaya’s fluent, forensic account of the consolidation of a majoritarian common sense in politics and the law over the last hundred years, is that indispensable book. In a world crowded with illiberal democracies, everyone should read it.’ — Mukul Kesavan, essayist and former Professor of History, Jamia Millia Islamia
‘At a time of rising sectarianism and alarming hate-fuelled attacks on minority communities, it is inspiring and deeply edifying to read Javed Gaya’s beautifully lucid and profoundly erudite book. His exploration of the current “architecture of hate” in contemporary India deserves a very wide audience.’ — Jacqueline Bhabha, Professor of the Practice of Health and Human Rights, Harvard Kennedy School
‘A sobering read. Gaya offers a stark picture of how Partition cemented the sweeping effects of majoritarianism on almost all aspects of the social, cultural and political mechanisms of the post-colonial Indian state.’ — Pallavi Raghavan, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Ashoka University
‘A detailed and fascinating analysis not only of the making of India’s constitution and its law of citizenship, but of the various controversies and judgements that have come to define citizenship differently for Hindus and Muslims. An entirely unique book.’ — Faisal Devji, Beit Professor of Global and Imperial History, University of Oxford
‘A tour d’horizon of Indian politics with a passionate and clearly articulated argument. A very serious and learned book that will be of interest to the broader intelligentsia and to specialists on South Asia.’ — Uday Singh Mehta, Distinguished Professor of Political Science, CUNY Graduate Center
