The Hindutva prototype

Gujarat is calm on the surface. People appear to have overcome the trauma of the 2002 killings, business seems back to usual, and the government is grappling with normal administrative and political problems – flood relief, health hazards, foreign investment MOUs, minding matters of legislation. But as we discover in this issue's cover article, the state's social fabric has collapsed. Hindu-Muslim relations are spiralling out of control, as polarisation deepens.

Though it is true that relations between Hindus and Muslims have an undercurrent of tension in India, it is only rarely that a conflagration consumes so many lives and properties. There are occasional riots, some sparked off by an unfounded rumour, others a part of a larger political conspiracy. Polarisation is present across the country, in varied degrees. Gujarat itself has had a history of communal tension over the past few decades. But what we are witnessing here is not a Hindu-Muslim spat, with any one community having an upper hand. Neither is this about a tiny band of extremists from either side trying to arouse emotions.