Anand Prasad’s Unshackling the Elephant — A Powerful Call to Rebuild Faith in India’s Justice System

New Delhi, November 2025: Unshackling the Elephant by Anand Prasad is a deeply insightful examination of India’s justice delivery system — its challenges, contradictions, and the urgent reforms required to restore public trust. Published by Bloomsbury India, the book is both a mirror and a manifesto for reforming one of the country’s most critical institutions. Drawing from over three decades of legal practice across commercial, transactional, and constitutional law, Anand Prasad takes readers inside India’s courts to reveal both the ideals that shaped them and the structural flaws that now impede their purpose. Written with honesty and clarity, Unshackling the Elephant invites policymakers, lawyers, and citizens alike to rethink how justice can be made accessible, transparent, and truly equitable.

“My three decades as a lawyer practicing commercial, transactional and constitutional law got me to realise a few essential aspects of our justice delivery system: (i) basis text books, it is easy to assert that we have an equitable and fair justice delivery system, which protects all citizens equally, and that sometimes the system does indeed rise to deliver on this expectation; (ii) however, the system has been sliding for the last few decades and has slowly but surely turned oppressive. Everyone, rich or poor, face unfair and arbitrary behaviour. While the rich insulate themselves from such a system using influence and throwing money at lawyers, the middle classes and the poor have to be very lucky to find justice, and are always faced with the risk of getting crushed by the slow, often inadequate and expensive justice system; (iii) the situation is however not beyond repair, and with little tweaks and the use of technology, the justice system can easily be made so much more effective, more fair and truly available to all regardless of their economic or social standing – we could easily be a lot more honest as a society; and (iv) with some additional imagination, transform our nation almost completely, culturally and economically, included,” says Anand Prasad.

He adds, “Each of the topics in the book could easily form the basis of a detailed report or PhD thesis. I hope the book opens the minds of policymakers and those in charge of the state’s affairs — and encourages blue-sky thinking on transforming India through a focused set of legal reforms. Most importantly, I hope it helps the thinking people of our nation understand the reasoning that drives our current legal framework, and how there might be more culturally aligned ways to rethink justice in India.” “We have all experienced the frustration of engaging with India’s legal system — its slowness, its opacity and the sheer cost of it. Anand Prasad proposes radical reforms based on deep analysis and his long experience being part of the system. It is truly exciting to publish this manifesto for legal reform,” — R. Sivapriya, Publisher, Bloomsbury India Through compelling analysis and grounded optimism, Unshackling the Elephant shines a light on how small, practical changes — driven by intent and technology — can have transformative impact. It’s both a critique and a blueprint for a more efficient, fair, and humane justice system.

Published by Bloomsbury India and marketed by The Sunflower Seeds.

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