There are many ways to assess the content of Katherine Boo’s remarkable book Behind the Beautiful Forevers which is about, in general terms, the disenfranchised, struggling, impoverished underclass of India.

Beyond the general however, is the harsh statistic that India contains one-third of the impoverished people on the planet. This, despite a surging Indian middle and upper class that has burnished the reputation of India as a place where democracy has proven its worth and created an economic transformation which has made India a power player on the global chessboard.

Read more: The Dark Underbelly of Modern India