India: The Siege Within: Challenges to a Nation’s Unity

The Siege Within succeeds in explaining, as no other book has done, the resilient achievements of India’s secular democracy as well as its vulnerability and failures. As such, it makes essential reading for everyone wishing to understand today’s India. Here M.J. Akbar, one of India’s most distinguished journalists, discusses the origins and nature of the strains on Indian unity which have deep roots in history. Taking 1947 as his springboard, he provides a full historical, political and cultural survey of the main pressure points, and brings his analysis up to date to include the removal of Farooq Abdullah in Kashmir, an account of his meeting with Bhindranwale, the army operation at the Golden temple, the assassination of Mrs. Indira Gandhi, and their implications for the future. Rising fundamentalism, separatism, the consequences of partition, unease in Kashmir–on every side it seems that India’s democratic unity is continually at risk.