There is a higher court than courts of justice and that is the court of conscience. It supersedes all other courts.'- Mahatma Gandhi India is under siege, both from within and without. Our governance is riddled with the disease of corruption and our politicians work for self-advancement rather than the welfare of the nation. Our economic health is fragile, crime and corruption have become bywords ofife, immorality and unethicality are rampant in every aspect of societaliving. Add to this neighbors such as Pakistan and China, whoooking for the merest crack through which to breach our defenses and we have a country that is teetering on the verge of a cataclysmic collapse. Yet, the greater part of the Indian electorate remains ignorant about these evils and it is in this ignoble situation that we are heading into elections, about to vote into powereaders who can either make or break us and so, in India Shining and Sinking, patriot, thinker and social commentator S.K. Shah takes on the daunting task of informing the Indian citizen about the most crucial developmental and societal challenges we face today. Through essays on a diverse range of subjects-ranging from politics and governance to poverty, crime and morality-Shah sounds a clarion call of awareness for the masses. Passionately argued, this timely book brings to the fore all that we are plagued by today and all that we must struggle to overcome to become a true and functional democracy.