Through a sophisticated, robust and wide ranging analysis of democratic movements, Chandhoke urges us to rethink the debates on civil society, the state and violence in the global south. This is an important, thought-provoking and challenging book that will influence the thinking of all of us who are interested in questions of political and social justice. Shirin M Rai, Professor of Politics and International Studies, University of Warwick, UK Neera Chandhoke's Democracy and Revolutionary Politics provides a much-needed, careful and imaginative analysis of the ambivalent concept of revolutionary violence. Both with respect to its explanatory and its normative power, combining social context and general principles, it is an exemplary work - political theory at its best. Rainer Forst, Goethe University Frankfurt, Germany