ARCHITECTURE OF VIOLENCE

A former prime minister was not the lone victim of an assassination in a decade of cataclysmic rage. A nation's intrinsic tendency to peace and order lay bloodied, too, amid riots, terror and insurgency

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NO major nation ever writes its history without traumatic passages penned in blood and cordite, but outside of wars, it's perhaps rare for one decade to contain events of such a cataclysmic nature, that too on such disparate fronts, all of them leaving profound and lingering effects. From assassinations to riots, bomb blasts to social conflagrations, the 1985-95 phase held India in a miasma of dread intense even by its sanguinary standards. Here's a limited doomscroll:

Kanishka bombing, June 23, 1985: A documentary or two and one dark comedy, all in Canada. Besides that, "the world's deadliest act of aviation terrorism until September 11" has received a lot of amnesia. All 329 people on board were killed when Khalistani terrorists blew apart Air India Flight 182 in mid-air. After a prolonged trial with meagre returns—one conviction—the attack has receded to become a point of diplomatic contretemps between India and Canada.