What is it like to be poor in this country? It’s a question the middle and upper classes studiously avoid thinking about as we spend more on a pair of sneakers than a domestic worker might make after three months of back-breaking labour. If we confronted this uncomfortable truth, of course, we’d be forced to ask the next question — why don’t the poor rise up and kill us?

But author Manu Joseph has never been one to turn away from bleak truths, either in his years as a journalist, or his novels, Serious Men and The Illicit Happiness of Other People. In his latest release, Why The Poor Don’t Kill Us: The Psychology of Indians — his debut in non-fiction literature — Joseph brings his trademark dark humour and biting commentary on the dysfunction of Indian society as he seeks to explore the titular question.