The British came up with it first, as a formula to keep the natives under control. But in a quintessentially Indian way, the brutal ways of the coloniser have become that of the colonised. Successive governments have used “divide and rule” as a substitute for governance and this year, in a violent and interminably long campaign for the Lok Sabha elections, it has been elevated into a promise for a better future — bring us in and we will ensure that there is no “other”.
Unnervingly, however, all of this is being presented under the cloak of tradition: That it is
