The despairing events from India attracted widespread editorial comment. It seemed almost all foreign correspondents covering South Asia and most television and radio networks were at Ayodhya on October 30th. The accounts were varied and extensive.

One eyewitness account appeared in the Independent (London) whose correspondent marched with the kar sevaks:

The police protecting the mosque were also sickened. They disobeyed orders and waved the sadhus in through the main gate.

The Observer's (London) correspondent, Peter Hilmore in an article sought to analyse the situation running dangerously out of control with the muscular Hinduism unleashed by events at Ayodhya and as feuding politicians jockeyed for position. The writer wondered at the reporting codes adopted in India. "There is a strange convention, dating back to Partition, that prevents the media from actually spelling out the cause of the violence. The papers report the death as a result of 'communal violence', but never tell you which communities were involved, how many of the dead were Hindu, how many Muslim, never describe who went on the rampage. But it fools no one."

The Guardian's Derek Brown viewed the convulsions in the subcontinent as a whole and wrote: "In his unceasing manoeuvres to broaden his electoral base, the PM (V.P. Singh) has unleashed two of the most dangerous forces in Indian society: Casteism and communalism. Mr. Singh's proposal to extend the reserved job system has provoked a storm of protest. Some of it is genuine outrage at the institutionalising of caste: a lot is old fashioned bigotry."

The Financial Times' David Housego in an extensive analysis titled "Turmoil Erodes the Nehru Legacy" warned that democracy in India is sorely tested by communal unrest, political instability and separatist movements. "What does seem clear is that the 'old order' - the India of Nehru's vision with the priorities on maintaining a secular, democratic and unified national framework - is facing its most serious challenge since India became independent in 1947."

(Source: The Times of India, New Delhi, 11 November, 1990)