The key book on India in the postnuclear era, with a new Introduction by the author.Our appreciation of the importance of India can only increase in light of the recent revelations of its nuclear capabilities. Sunil Khilnani's exciting, timely study addresses the paradoxes and ironies of this, the world's largest democracy. Throughout his penetrating, provocative work, he illuminates this fundamental issue: Can the original idea of India survive its own successes?

Praise

"A splid-and timely-book . . . Spirited, combative and insight-filled . . . Khilnani has woven a rich analysis of contemporary India and its evolution since indepence. I am inclined to agree with [him] on the robustness and staying power of the secular idea of India." --Amartya Sen, The Times Literary Supplement

"A masterful rebuttal to all cultural romantics and religious chauvinists . . . [A] splid book about definitions of the Indian nation." --Ian Buruma, The New York Review of Books

"Especially brilliant is Khilnani's attempt to understand the changing nature of India by studying its urban constructs." --Chitra Divakaruni, Los Angeles Times Book Review

About the Author(s)

Sunil Khilnani

Sunil Khilnani, born in New Delhi and educated at Cambridge University, teaches politics at Birkbeck College, University of London. The author of Arguing Revolution, he is at work on a biography of Nehru (forthcoming from FSG).