Tribute to Kushwant Singh | Jayaraj Vellur

[RELEVANT MATERIAL ADDED BY THE EDITORS

"Every fascist regime needs communities and groups it can demonize in order to thrive. It starts with one group or two. But it never end s there. A movement built on hate can only sustain itself by continually creating fear and strife. Those of us today who feel secure because we are not Muslims or Christians are living in a fool’s paradise. The Sangh is already targeting the Leftist historians and “Westernized” youth. Tomorrow it will turn its hate on women who wear skirts, people who eat meat, drink liquor, watch foreign films, don’t go on annual pilgrimages to temples, use toothpaste instead of danth manjan, prefer allopathic doctors to vaids, kiss or shake hands in greeting instead of shouting ’Jai Shree Ram’. No one is safe. We must realise this if we hope to keep India Alive" — Excerpt from ’The End of India’ by Kushwant Singh (2003) Penguin. ]