The Indian prime minister must reassure Indians that he is committed to democracy and pluralism

IN A SMALL town in Gujarat in the early 1960s, the teenage son of a local grocer staged a school play. It was about a Dalit mother whose son falls ill. No doctor will treat the “untouchable” child. Even a priest shoos away the woman when she begs for the flowers that worshippers offer to the gods, which are said to have healing powers. At last he relents and hands her a single yellow bud.

The young playwright was Narendra Modi and the story gives an early hint at his desire to improve the lot of India’s most downtrodden. The problem is that, even though he now has the power to do much more than hand out flowers, he still seems to prefer symbol over substance.

That is not to say that the lives of dalits have not improved. In Sapawada, a village near Mr Modi’s home town, half a dozen Dalit families share a narrow alley. Ramesh, a day labourer, says that being an untouchable used to be brutal. Now, though, Dalit women are seldom molested or kidnapped. Their children have long since been allowed to go to the village temple and government school. Yet they are still told to sit at the back of class and ask no questions, so they fall behind. Other streets in the village have piped water, and toilets too, except for the dalits’ lane, which relies on wells and the neighbouring fields. “They still expect us to do demeaning work...

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