An overarching exploration of the Indian state's approaches, laws, and organizations that maintain order and contain violence. Maintaining order and containing violence-the core constituents of internal security-are fundamental responsibilities of any government. Yet, developing countries find this task especially challenging. In Internal Security in India, Amit Ahuja, Devesh Kapur, and a cast of leading scholars on the subject focus on India's security and the threats it faces. Since Independence, the Indian state has grappled with a variety of internal security challenges, including insurgencies, terrorist attacks, caste and communal violence, riots, and electoral violence. Their toll has claimed more lives than all of India's five external wars put together. As the contributors in this volume analyze how the Indian State has managed the core concern of internal security over time, they address three broad questions: How well has India contained violence and preserved order? How have the approaches and capacity of the State evolved to attain these twin objectives? And what implications do the State's approach towards internal security have for civil liberties and the quality of democracy? A major reinterpretation of order and internal security in India, this book sheds light on an underanalyzed issue of global import given the changing nature of threats that states face.

In Internal Security in India, Amit Ahuja, Devesh Kapur, and a cast of leading scholars on the subject focus on India's security and the threats it faces, including insurgencies, terrorist attacks, caste and communal violence, riots, and electoral violence. As the contributors in this volume analyze how the Indian State has managed the core concern of internal security over time, they address these questions: How well has India controlled violence and preserved order? How have the approaches and capacity of the State evolved to attain these twin objectives? And what implications do the State's approach towards internal security have for civil liberties and the quality of democracy?

This is an extraordinarily good volume, bringing together experts on all aspects of India's internal security: from its expanding private security businesses, to its overstretched police forces, to the complex structures through which India's political, military, and intelligence leaders respond to internal security challenges. This volume goes far beyond description, to analyze the larger strategies behind these responses, and the ways in which India's internal security state affects Indian democracy, federalism, and the rights of all its citizens. Indispensable.