Internal security scenario of India is troubling; challenges are numerous and extent and scope of threats are complex, varied and vast. No other country in the world confronts so many threats, with so much intensity at the same time, threatening the Indian body politic like a 'cancer'. Their increasing external dimension has falsified conventional wisdom that internal security threats are caused mainly by internal sources. Yet, India's approach to myriad threats to its internal security has been 'segmented, reactive and momentary'. 'Internal Security' has not been seen in its totality. And the mechanisms to deal with these threats have been makeshift. Instead of integrated focus, specific issues of internal security receive separate attention as standalone problems. To realise its national objectives? political, economic, socio-cultural, military and diplomatic-India has to secure itself internally. India cannot become a global power as long as complex threats afflicting its internal security remain. Countering complex nature of threats effectively requires a renewed set of policies and mechanisms. A comprehensive approach, thinking laterally beyond conventional methods, therefore, is urgently required.

The study, in this regard, proposes a 'comprehensive internal security strategy'. What should be the main characteristics of such strategy? What are its components? And who should be the implementing authority? Based on extensive field visits and numerous interviews, the book offers detailed answers to these crucial questions in the backdrop of a framework for understanding various internal security threats confronted by India and how they have been managed so far.