Unfit to Vote

Culture or Barbarism?
WE are greatly shocked that a journal with unimpeachable radical credentials like the EPW should fall a prey to the current cant about some mysterious undercurrent of 'Hindu Civilisation' inspiring a mass-upsurge against the Muslim' phase of our history (see the editorial note, 'Assembly Polls: Issues and Fake Issues', November 13-20). It recalls V S Naipaul's demagogic claim that the destruction of the Babri masjid by rabid mobs was an instance of such "an awakening of a Civilisation".