Assassin's Ashes: The Hindu Right's Quest for Greater India

India’s dangerous dream of empire

Every year, the descendants of Nathuram Godse gather in a parking lot to honor the man who assassinated Mahatma Gandhi and renew his dying wish: that his ashes not be scattered until the Indus River flows through a united Hindu India. Behind the ritual is one of the most enduring and least understood ideas in modern Indian politics: Akhand Bharat, an “Undivided India” that would include all or part of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, ...