A pluralistic Indian state based on Ganga-Jamuni syncretic culture was always a transitory bargain, a holding pattern until the underlying reality asserted itself. Ambedkar's Constitution was as alien to the casteist realities of India as he was to the religion of his birth. It was merely a face-saving arrangement for a Westernised elite to prepare the world for India's eventual descent into prejudiced madness. Fundamentally, this secular republic was a loan underwritten by the real owners of the land: the businessmen whose panic over Liaquat Ali Khan's 1947 tax-heavy budget helped dictate the borders of partition. The so-called Brahmin-Bania alliance, if you will. Today, that debt is being collected with interest.

What is this underlying reality? In his foundational 1966 text, "Bunch of Thoughts", the second supremo of the RSS, MS Golwalkar, laid out the blueprint. The goal, he wrote, was clear: "The most important and effective step will be to bury deep for good all talk of a federal structure of our country's Constitution, to sweep away the existence of all 'autonomous' or semi-autonomous 'states' within the one State viz., Bharat and proclaim 'One Country, One State, One Legislature, One Executive'." A long journey which begins with One Nation, One Election.

But to what end? On 30 November 1949, just four days after the Constituent Assembly adopted the document, the RSS mouthpiece Organiser openly lamented that it ignored the caste-based hierarchies of ancient India: "To this day his (Manu's) laws as enunciated in the Manusmriti excite the admiration of the world and elicit spontaneous obedience and conformity. But to our constitutional pundits that means........

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