Chaos theory in the Hindu cosmos

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Earlier this year when L K Advani released his memoirs, My Country My Life, his contribution to Indian public life was hailed. Advani was credited with creating a "bipolarity" in Indian politics, for creating, for the first time, an ideological and political alternative to the brute dominance of the Congress throughout the first decades of Independence. It was Advani, it was said, who changed the entire debate on "secularism" and "pseudo secularism", and coined words as "minorityism" and "cultural nationalism." Indeed, the BJP during the NDA rule years did succeed to some extent in becoming the robust opposite number of the Congress, notwithstanding the lurking dangers of militant Hindutva. The BJP under vikaas purush Vajpayee was seen as pushing towards a modern stance. A stance that was anti-family privilege, anti-dynasty, pro-market, pro-upward mobility, pro-America, pro-reform, tough on law and order, and unapologetic about the majority community viewpoint. This was....