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Synopsis The Book: A Study of the finings of a survey of the border districts of Punjab by the Centre for Research in Rural and Industrial Development, Chandigarh, in the nineteen-eighties, at the height of Sikh militancy, led the Author to seek an understanding of this traumatic development. Those were indeed crucial years for the people of Punjab. The Author has sought the roots of this crisis in the history of Punjab, since the days of the national movement. The result is a comprehensive study of the historical, cultural, political, economic and social experiences of the people of Punjab -the blood-letting of partition, the problems of the social and cultural integration of the people of the two parts of Punjab, repeated changes in the political and administrative boundaries of he state and the problems left behind. He provides a comprehensive and analytical study of the data available from the CRRID study and relates them to the crisis of the nineteen-eighties. The Author analyses the violence in Punjab in relation to similar happenings in different parts of the country. He believes that such violence, more often than not with secessionist aims, is an expression of the crisis of development. The militant articulation differs from state to state, according to its specific experiences. In their totality they raise issues of regional autonomy within the federal structure of India. The failure to address this vital question, according to the Author, threatens the unity and integrity of the country and provides neighbouring countries opportunities for subversive interventions. In this context the Author has considered in some detail the rarely discussed question of the crucial importance of the strategic location of Punjab for the security of India and particularly of Kashmir. He has drawn specific attention to the role of the people, in such situations, in helping the armed forces, with reference to the experience of the war with Pakistan in 1965. The book is an exhaustive study with a strong database. The framework is interpretative, which helps an attempt to look at possibilities for solutions to the issues that continue to be ignored even today. The study assumes some significance today in view of recent expressions of growing discontent among some sections of the farming community in Punjab. The book has a foreword by Mr. P.H. Haksar.