Debate cause, not label, of Assam riots

Last week, as one part of Assam burned, some TV channels were engaged in an utterly grotesque exercise: trying to ascertain whether the clashes were ‘communal’ or ‘ethnic’. The deliberations also had a definite sub-text. In the hierarchy of repugnance, a ‘communal’ riot was unacceptable while an ‘ethnic’ conflict was somehow understandable. In the political context this meant that while the 2002 riots in Gujarat were beyond the pale...

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