Capital

WINNER OF THE WINDHAM CAMPBELL PRIZE 2025

WINNER OF THE PRIX ÉMILE GUIMET DE LITTÉRATURE ASIATIQUE 2017

WINNER OF THE RYSZARD KAPUSCINSKI AWARD 2017

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ORWELL PRIZE 2015

SHORTLISTED FOR THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF LITERATURE ONDAATJE PRIZE 2015

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX DU MEILLEUR LIVRE ÉTRANGER 2016

In Capital, Rana Dasgupta reveals the new version of Delhi which erupted out of its economic boom in the 1990s. An unsparing look at the causes and consequences of globalisation, Capital is at once a history, a warning and a looking glass.

Slums and markets bulldozed or burnt down. Luxury shopping malls and apartment blocks erected in their place. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people from the rural hinterland streamed in, looking for work. The transformation of the city was stern, abrupt and unequal. Delhi brimmed with ambition and rage.

In this prescient account of the mayhem and disparity that would emerge from India's globalisation, Rana Dasgupta shows us a city's rebirth, for better and worse, through the eyes of its people. Capital is a book for our times.