Ethnicity, Security, and Separatism in India examines the connections between internal and external policy and the ways in which domestic ethnic conflicts shape a state's international security perceptions and policies. Chadda focuses on three ethnonationalisms and their international dimensions: Kashmir and Punjab in India-Pakistan relations and the Tamil issue in India-Sri Lanka relations.

Chadda shows that India does not seek hegemony in South Asia; instead, it acts to protect its nation-building efforts from problems faced by neighboring countries. Paradoxically, this goal requires India to intervene in neighboring ethnic conflicts and impinge upon state boundaries and sovereignty.

In an age of attempts at ethnic cleansing and brutal civil war, Chadda offers a powerful critique of cultural and territorial nationalism, using the Indian experience to draw conclusions about other ethnic conflicts and the hazards they pose to regional and global stability.