The Saffron Tide
The Saffron Tide Published in Rainlight by Rupa Publications India Pvt. Ltd 2014 7/16, Ansari Road, Daryaganj New Delhi 110002 Sales centres: Allahabad Bengaluru Chennai Hyderabad Jaipur Kathmandu Kolkata Mumbai Copyright © Kingshuk Nag 2014 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted, or stored in a retrieval system, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. eISBN: 9788129134295 First impression 2014 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 The moral right of the author has been asserted. Printed at [PRINTER'S NAME, CITY} This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated, without the publisher's prior consent, in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published. In the memory of my friend, Alok Mukherjee, with whom I spent hours discussing everything under the sun and who, alas, departed early. Contents Introduction: The Battle for Hindu Votes 1 A Party Is Founded 2 RSS Takes Control 3 The Decade of Deen Dayal 4 The Turbulent Seventies 5 Jana Sangh and the Minorities 6 The Metamorphosis 7 The Ayodhya Movement 8 Sputtering to Power 9 Aiming to Be a Great Power 10 The Party in Power 11 The Northern Conquest 12 Western Consolidation 13 Combating the East and the South 14 Hardliners versus Softliners 15 The Wilderness Years 16 Rising from the Ashes Epilogue Acknowledgements Index Introduction The Battle for Hindu Votes n December 1967 at Jana Sangh’s plenary session at Calicut (now Kozhikode), the newly elected president of the party, Deendayal Upadhyaya, thundered: ‘The enlightened mind of the country regards untouchability in social life as a sin.
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