Updated to cover events between 1986 and 1992, including the destruction of the mosque at Ayodhya in December 1992, the book analyses the secessionist crisis in Punjab which led to Indira Gandhi's murder and examines larger themes of ethnic conflict and threats to Indian unity.

List of Tables and Maps - Abbreviations - Preface - Preface to the Second Edition - Glossary - What Happened to India, 1985-92? - Introduction to the Second Edition - Secularism: What Sort of a State? - Punjab: What Sort of Democracy? - Socialism: What Sort of Economy? - Non-Alignment: What Sort of a World? - The Poor and the Polity: What Sort of a Future? - PART 1 ETHNICITY - Ethnicity - Choice - The Anti-Sikh Riots, November 1984 - Elections, Communications, Ethnicity - The Case for Federalism - PART 2 PUNJAB - Some People's Statistics: The Most Prosperous State - Revolutions: Green - Revolutions: Red - Revolutions: Industrial? - Two-and-a-half Rivers - Partition - Images and Categories - PART 3 SIKHS - Jats - Sikhism: 'We are neither Hindus nor Mussulmans' - Sacrifice - The Misl - Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780-1839) - A Queer Position: The Sikhs and the British - The Akali Dal and the SGPC - Leadership and Partition - PART 4 INNOVATIONS - Underpinnings and Infrastructures - Education: The Cow is a Useful Animal - Reading the News and Making it - History-Making - Weapons: A Cottage Industry - Innovations and Values PART 5 POLITICS, 1947-77 - National Rules: Religion and Language - Nationalist Spirit: The Decline of the Fast - Sant Fateh Singh and the Rise of the Jats - Party and Faction - Emergency and Enforced Tranquility - PART 6 FACTION - Factions: Reliable Relatives - Punjab: Questions of Prestige - Resolutions from Anandpur Sahib - Bhindranwale: A University on the Move - SGPC: The Only Sure Stepping Stone - Politics: New-Style Sants, Old-Time Film Stars - Romantics Overseas: Are Sikhs a Nation? - PART 7 EXPLOSION - Foreign Hands - Indian Talks - Symbols and Violence - Slippery Slopes - Destroying an Institution: The Police - Who are the Extremists? - Storming the Golden Temple - PART 8 WHAT'S HAPPENING TO INDIA? THE TEST FOR FEDERALISM - Centralization: Pressures and Appearances - Centralization: The Needs of Party - President's Rule and the Constitution - TheDecline of the Chief Minister - The Need for Federalism - New Rules? - Reasons for Hope - Notes - Select Bibliography - Index