It's the biggest laboratory of its kind - a-state that is a test-case for the BJP-RSS brand of social engineering.  Gujarat is not just the realisation of the Sangh's vision of a saffronised landscape. The results of its exertions here, believe its proponents, shall influence the future shape of Indian polity. Why is Gujarat a natural choice for locating this experiment? Because, for historical and contemporary reasons, ideal laboratory conditions exist here.

It's the only state where the BJP rules with the benefit of an absolute majority

This means little interference from Opposition parties or allies. The BJP, thus, has no need for 'hidden' agendas - it can openly employ the Hindutva one.

In Keshubhaj Patel, they have a helmsman who even flaunts his RSS credentials.

The total identification of the government apparatus with a saffron 'infrastructure' was never more evident than with the ... decision to lift restrictions on state employees from participating in RSS activities ... Gujarat, always a solid base for orthodoxy, had moved overtly into saffron mode with the mass-scale riots of 1969. That process was now close to fruition.

... A Bill seeking a total ban on religious conversions ... A Bill on enforcing checks on population  growth is on the anvil ... A ... campaign to implement anti-cow slaughter laws ...

... Part of the state government's strategy is working in tandem with the Sangh Parivar - should the government find it difficult to implement a decision, the more rabid cousins of the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, come to the fore. Indeed, having a friendly government in place means the Bajrang Dal has acquired the status of a thought police which unleashes itscadres on whoever it thinks is against Hindutva.

During the last five years the Bajrang Dal has methodically targeted minorities in different parts of the state. If has disrupted beauty contests, burnt copies of the Bible in a school in Rajkot, threatened Muslims in Randhikpur after two Muslim youths eloped with Hindu girls ... The VHP-Bajrang Dal directed their wrath against Christians in the Dangs area in '98 ... It's all part of the well-synchronised march of the saffron brigade in Gujarat.

And the government no longer denies that it's implementing the partisan ideology of Hindutva. Home minister Pandya admits, "Good governance is no doubt our priority but it's equally necessary to see that the finer points of the ideology are also implemented". Political observers feel the process of saffronisation that began with the '69 riots has been accelerated after the BJP came to power with an absolute majority ... Indeed, the secret of the BJP's success lies ... in breaking the Kshatriya-Harijan-Adivasi-Muslim (KHAM) alliance forged by the Congress.

The great Sangh dream is gradually being accomplished - that of a dominant and aggressive Hindu society. The communal riots of Surat after the Babari demolition is considered by the RSS family as one of the indicators of the growing "capability" of Hindu society to "retaliate". .In 'these riots, Muslim women were stripped and paraded naked, an event recorded by video cameras.

The P. Jagmohan Reddy Commission on Inquiry looking into the biggest-ever communal riots in Gujarat had indicted the Jana Sangh in '70 when it was still a fledgling in Gujarat politics. Notes the report: " ... the agitation had received the blessings of the local Bharatiya Jana Sangh workers who did not want to involve themselves directly but suggested the formation of an organisation known as Hindu Dharma Raksha Samiti with Harishchandra Patel, an old RSS worker, as its convenor".

For the RSS, Gujarat is a unique model where the glimpses of a larger Hindu dream can now be seen ...Vaghela now predicts (a) downslide ... But for the RSS it's just a. small step in the direction of achieving its ultimate goal of Hindu rashtra. (Source: The Outlook, 31 January, 2000)