About 15 years or so ago, it became clear to me and many other observers that the chief minister of Gujarat was bringing something new and fresh to Indian politics. What he was communicating to his audience and how he was connecting was a departure from the past.

What I mean is this: At the national level, India’s leaders had played down majoritarianism even when they indulged in it. The Congress said it adhered to or pretended to adhere to a Nehruvian secularism which saw India in civilisational terms but not necessarily through the prism of a particular faith. For the first few ...