Does anyone even remember the communal violence that tore apart Bhagalpur in Bihar in 1989? Acc­ording to official estimates, around 250 villages and 50,000 people were affected. The official death toll was estimated to be over 900 although the unofficial toll was higher. It was a familiar story because it had happened before. And since then it has happened again. And will do so in the future.

The partition of India after the British left is now history. But everyday there are partitions taking place in inde­pendent India, where people who have coexisted, tolerated difference, even celebrated it, are now being forced into separate territories, their differences highlighted and exacerbated by a dominant politics that has given a new twist to the old divide and rule policy of the British.