The End of India

Book excerpt: ‘I thought the nation was coming to an end’ When Khushwant Singh witnessed the violence of Partition nearly seventy years ago, he believed that he had seen the worst that India could do to herself. But after the carnage in Gujarat in 2002, he had reason to feel that the worst, perhaps, was still to come. Analysing the communal violence in Gujarat in 2002, the anti-Sikh riots of 1984, the burning of Graham Staines and his children, the targeted killings by terrorists in Punjab and Kashmir, Khushwant Singh forces us to confront the absolute corruption of religion that has made us among the most brutal people on earth. He also points out that fundamentalism has less to do with religion than with politics. And communal politics, he reminds us, is only the most visible of the demons we have nurtured and let loose upon ourselves. A brave and passionate book, The End of India is a wake-up call for every citizen concerned about his or her own future, if not the nation’s.