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There is peace in Uttam Nagar. And yet the air is tense with the apprehension of violence. Something untoward might happen. Both statements seem to be true at the same time. The local administration, if we are to believe it, is doing commendable work. It has ensured that the mob that wishes to massacre Muslims has not been allowed to carry out the violence it so openly desires. At the same time, it has not stopped such mobs from taking out processions and raising violent, anti-Muslim slogans – slogans that openly express a murderous desire.

Whether this counts as actual violence, or whether it will be treated as merely symbolic violence may perhaps be debated by philosophers and psychologists. But one might ask a simpler question: what happens to the members of a community who repeatedly hear slogans that threaten even their graves with desecration?

If you were to ask the administration why it allows such mobs to gather, the answer might well be that people must be allowed to vent the anger in their hearts. They wish to ensure that the slogans about playing Holi with the blood of Muslims remain confined to the realm of slogans. If Muslims say that such mobs and such slogans terrify them, they may be advised to regard this as the natural reaction of Hindus to the killing of a Hindu, and therefore to bear with it.

After all, has not a Hindu died? Would the blood of other Hindus not boil? Muslims, we are told, should count themselves fortunate that matters are limited only to threats and slogans. The police, so far, have not agreed to the mob’s demand that they withdraw from the scene for fifteen minutes and give the mob a free hand.

One wonders, however, why those who wish to carry out violence demand that the police withdraw. The house of the accused in the murder of Tarun Khatik was burned under police supervision; it was looted as well. The police cooperated fully with the violent mob. This, of course, is entirely consistent with the normal record of the police in India.

In 1984, not only in Delhi but in other parts of India as well, the police allowed Hindus enraged by........

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