The terrorist outrage in Bombay which killed 52 people and wounded 150 was a calculated attempt not just to maim and murder but to bring India's financial capital, and hence the country itself, to its knees.
It succeeded in the former but must not be allowed to achieve the latter. Equally, however, India's leaders - political and religious - need now to display Gandhian restraint and wisdom. It was Gandhi who preached, and lived by, the creed of non-violence - "the greatest force at the disposal of mankind... mightier than the mightiest weapon of destruction devised by the ingenuity of man" - a lesson which those who followed him as leaders on the sub-continent have sadly failed to learn. Gandhi's other legacy, his instinct for tolerance and pluralism, was never more needed in India than today.
Early indications suggest that while those behind Monday's atrocity may have been inspired by the example set by terrorists in Bali, New York and elsewhere, the real motivation for their action lies closer to home. As our correspondent, Rahul Bedi, has reported, India's ruling BJP party bears much responsibility for the heightened communal tensions that have accompanied its five years in power at federal level.
India is a heady mix of ethnic groups, as evidenced by the violence that attended independence in 1948. Tensions then could not be overcome to persuade Pakistan to remain within a single federal state. The underlying cause of the division was religious: Pakistan is almost wholly Muslim, while India is almost wholly Hindu. But within India itself, some 12 per cent of the population of a billion are Muslim.
The BJP has consistently postured and threatened the Muslim minority, grandstanding and hectoring them, more than willing to turn Gandhi's inclusive dream into a cold house. Specifically, the BJP has campaigned for Hindu hegemony in Gujarat, a state it has ruled for just under a year. Prominent figures have promised that Gujarat will become a Hindu state within two years. An indication of what proponents have in mind came from one well-known BJP supporter, an admirer of Adolf Hitler, who predicted that those who opposed Hindu hegemony would be liquidated. Bombay, also known as Mumbai, is the capital city of Maharashtra, the neighbouring state to Gujarat, and appears to have become engulfed in the hatred that is fuelled by such sentiments.
Indian politicians openly linked Pakistan with the atrocity yesterday, despite denials and condemnation from Islamabad. The rest of the world watches the posturing of these two nuclear powers.