The author has discussed six insurgencies that have taken roots in India from its inception. He has gone into the details of its causes and spread as relevant to various insurgencies in different parts of India. The author has supported most of the reasons of its spread with his personal experience, having served in various capacities in these affected areas.

Many scholars have written about the causes that lead to insurgencies all over the world, lessons learnt by them and remedial measures adopted by them. Regrettably, the author feels we did not learn any lessons from these.

Our oldest insurgency of the Nagas in Nagaland and the Manipur Hills is still festering though ten years of a ceasefire has led to no conclusions. In Kashmir it is the Centre that triggered off the insurgency that Pakistan had failed to initiate on several occasions from 1947 to 1989. Good governance has never been achieved in any of these insurgent states with the sole exception of Tripura. We are in the throes of a Maoist Communist led insurgency in Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Bihar and part of Maharashtra. All this has been discussed in the book in detail.