India, June 23 -- Each election, the air in Indian cities and villages hangs thick with the acrid scent of political ambition. Local candidates' voices, amplified by crackling loudspeakers, sliced through the smog and dust: "Remember who you are! Remember your blood, your community, your faith!

Every single day, Dalit labourers shift their weight, eyes hollowed by generations of inherited exhaustion as they await daily work. Youngsters scroll through their phones, algorithms feeding them videos amplifying their perceived religion or caste-based grievances.

In cities, entrepreneurs lament the 'unnecessary divisions' holding back the economy, sipping single-origin coffee in a high-rise tended by silent workers from another state, speaking...