Bloody Finale
In life, Phoolan Devi combined the brutal underbelly of India with political fame and glamour. Gunned down in Delhi, her death could become the occasion for a new round of caste conflict in Uttar Pradesh. Phoolan
is being reinvented posthumously.
A report.

Rule Of Outlaw
Dons and politicians enjoy a symbiotic relationship in Uttar Pradesh.

Back To The Trenches
Determined not to let up on its Kashmir-centric agenda, Pakistan has stepped up violence in the Valley. Indian security forces gear up to deal with the situation.

Revenge Of Badla People who lent money to stockbrokers for financing speculators through the badla system find themselves at the receiving end of yet another scam. And with little evidence to nail the accused, chances of recovery are dim.

The Peacenik
S.B. Deuba's rapport with the Maoists helped him become prime minister. Now he has to deal with their radical demands about the monarchy and secularism.

BOOKS

The National Mind

Making sense of the idea of Hindutva

By Francois Gautier

At last, a book on hindutva written by someone who is knowledgeable, worldly, well-versed in western culture and fluent in English. Western critics of Hindutva have often made fun of the poor mastery of English and the lack of academic knowledge of its proponents. Prafulla Goradia makes no such mistakes-his book is full of references and annotations. Firstly, what is Hindutva? "Hindutva," says Goradia, "is a dialectical or logical concept which rests on the basic explanation of life given by Hinduism or sanatan dharma." Yet, there is nothing particularly Hindu about dharma. "After all, what civilised human being, whether Muslim, Christian, Buddhist or Jain, would deny that he has a faith to keep and a duty to perform?" And here Goradia reminds us of the greatest trait of Hinduism: that it's not a religion, but a living universal spirituality, probably the last of our planet.

No nation can rise without a degree of nationalism. India has been colonised, raped, humiliated, bled economically for centuries: "swaraaj is our ultimate goal and the way to achieve this objective is with the help of nationalism," he writes. And who was India's greatest nationalist? Sri Krishna, "who first personified the unity of India by becoming president of the confederation of five Yadava republican committees". Goradia places great emphasis on temples destroyed by Muslim invaders. For some it might be unnecessarily raking up past animosities, but for Goradia it is not only a matter of re-establishing historical truth, but also of restoring India's pride. Nothing for the author symbolises more the desecration and humiliation of India than Ajmer: "there is not a single statue there whose face has not been cut off. Nowhere in Europe did one see such acts of vandalism."

Of course, this book will not convince everybody, specially many western India specialists who have made an art (and a living) of Hindu bashing for 50 years. France's leading Indologist Christophe Jaffrelot, for instance, who has consistently advised France's political intelligentsia that the BJP Government is "fascist and fundamentalist" (which is why French prime minister Lionel Jospin hasn't bothered to visit India), lambasted the book, calling it "full of contradictions". But it is a must -read for those who want to understand the Hindu psyche.

MetroScape

Looking Glass

Kolkata Restaurant: Ambi

Bangalore Rock Concert: Scorpions

Starved of resources and bogged down
by mismanagement, pilferage and irregularities, Punjab's civil aviation is in an utter mess. INDIA TODAY's Special Correspondent Ramesh Vinayak reports in
Airsick