I began to fantasise about Mahatma Gandhi as I saw houses and mosques gutted in the communal violence of northeast Delhi, and heard despairing voices narrate the story of horror through which they had lived. Gandhi swamped my imagination, as he has of many, because his life prescribes a course of action in a scenario in which police connive with murderous mobs to devastate an urban sprawl, as was largely the case in Delhi last month.

Gandhi's prescription entails combating communal violence without arms. It implies that the unarmed defender must be willing to die before those whom he or she protects are mowed down. This display of moral courage will dissuade assailants from pursuing their darkled intent — or so Gandhi believed.