India, Aug. 27 -- In the spring of 2020, this author went on a sabbatical to the Centre for Advanced Studies of India at the University of Pennsylvania. Like many journalists, the idea was to work on a book. Like most such ideas, it never materialised. I had planned to call the book, which aimed to explain the BJP's political rise, "Alchemy via Exorcism."

The central idea was simple. At the core of the BJP's political success was an appeal that it was undoing previous policy/historical wrongs which, according to it, had held back India and Indians from achieving well-being. The transient pain, whether it was universal or targeted, was for larger good. Demonetisation was the biggest example. It was temporary pain to fight the larger evil ...