How to be a bigot

In this season of inspired mean-spirited campaigning, we have had almost daily lessons in bigotry and inappropriately wrapping oneself in the uniforms of our troops

The morning assembly at a large primary and middle school, not far from Begusarai in Bihar, seemed like a rainbow after the endless torrents of abuse for which this election campaign will be long remembered. The boys and girls in blue uniforms were solemnly reciting passages from the Indian Constitution as if they were verses from a prayer. The TV anchor Ravish Kumar remarked on the beauty of this tradition, but the principal and senior teachers were matter-of-fact about the daily ritual as if they regarded it as a building block of education, as routine as learning to count. 

Perhaps