For the millions of Indians who are old enough to remember the tumult of 1990-92, the past decade may as well not have existed. Once again religious violence is searing the land. Once again the economy is in the doldrums. Once again pessimism and hopelessness are having a field day. Once again politicians, self-appointed national leaders and a whole flurry of religious characters are parading themselves before the media saying little that is relevant, much that is incendiary. There is one profound difference between the world of a dozen years ago and today. Especially after September 11, 2001, the global community is less tolerant of religious bigotry and the violence it foments. More than merely 9/11, this abhorrence is rooted in the fact that through the 1990s the most pernicious religio-regimes and agencies held large parts of the world to ransom. They gripped domestic politics, grabbed whole countries, hijacked societies-and eventually assaulted New York City. In this atmosphere, civilised discourse is as likely to be uncomfortable with Acharya Giriraj Kishore as with Osama bin Laden. It doesn't matter if one bears a gun and the other a rosary-in the contemporary reckoning they are blood brothers.

The outrage in Godhra, the genocidal massacres of Gujarat-complete with a chief minister who can't think beyond one-liners-and the numbing familiarity to the dispute in Ayodhya have not helped matters. Even if Indians ignore international opprobrium, their innate sense of decency and fairplay will not allow them to stomach the events of the past weeks. As new shankaracharyas and imams emerge every day, millions of perfectly middle-class citizens-the sort who want good governance, a better economy and limit their religiosity to private practice-find themselves marginalised. They may or may not want a temple or a mosque in Ayodhya but they certainly don't want a return to Golgotha. A social action cannot be independent of its context. Due to a variety of reasons, the Ram Janmabhoomi movement became a mass phenomenon a decade ago. The mood has passed. It is no longer the number one issue on people's minds. Rather, it is the number one cause of fear. That is Gujarat's warning, for the killers of Godhra, for the extremists in the VHP-for Mother India.