Gujarat has a long history of communal strife that is a result of a complex mix of politics, economics and old-fashioned mistrust. When riots broke out last year after a train compartment carrying kar sevaks was set on fire in Godhra, one of the biggest man-made calamities in recent times ensued. Hundreds died on the streets and in their own homes. The VHP conveyed through many of its voluble men that this was a "spontaneous reaction". A police officer remarked just after the riots: "In my experience, a spontaneous riot lasts for 15 minutes." While the political nature of the riots has been established beyond any doubt, it is also true that the Gujarat which Narendra Modi inherited had already been vitiated by years of hatred. Both sides have wounds to show that the other has inflicted. It’s in the midst of this mistrust and for all the tall ‘concepts’ of general goodness that life goes on in Gujarat.
