Survival of the friendliest: One of India's transformations under Modi

The concept is relevant in an India where hate speech flourishes, where legislated and street violence can be unleashed against a chosen community, or those too weak to resist, writes T N Ninan

It is hard to think of another time, post-Independence, when a Cabinet-ranked official would ask police officers to go to war against civil society. The only exception would be the period of Indira Gandhi’s Emergency rule. It is even harder to imagine another time, including the Emergency, when a four-star general from an army immersed in discipline would welcome the lynching of (presumably mob-identified) “terrorists”. That such statements can be made in all seriousness marks one of the transformations in India under Narendra Modi.
 
India has a long history of violence -- by invaders and others. This was masked