l thought the nation was coming to an end,' wrote Khushwant Singh, looking back on the violence of Partition that he witnessed over half a century ago. He believed then, and for years afterwards, that he had seen the worst that India could do to herself. Over the last few years, however, he has had reason to feel that the worst, perhaps, is still to come. In this fierce, uncompromising book, he shows us what few of us wish to see: why it is entirely likely that India will come undone in the foreseeable future.

Analyzing the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the burning of Graham Stains and his children, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984 and targeted killings by terrorists in different parts of the country Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the extreme corruption of religion that has made us among the most brutal people on earth. We have always been too easily tolerant of extremist ideologies but the rise of religious fundamentalism among the Hindus threatens our democracy and everything else that we take for granted. With sections of the ruling coalition openly supporting the divisive and retrograde agenda of the fundamentalists, it is the very idea of India that is at stake. 'Unless a miracle saves us,' Khushwant Singh writes. The country will break up. It will not be Pakistan or any other foreign power that will destroy us; we will commit hara-kiri 

A brave and passionate book, The End of India is a wake-up call for every Indian citizen concerned about his or her own future, if not the nation's.