T
HE BROCHURE writes itself: a scattering of coral ringlets, each encircling its own turquoise lagoon within the Arabian Sea, Lakshadweep is India at its most alluring. These 36 islands, together totalling just 32 square kilometres of land, are peopled by a matrilineal, mostly Muslim society where families make their living through seafaring and coconut harvests.
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In the past fortnight this drop in the Indian bucket, just 70,000 people among 1.4bn, has come to exemplify a sort of controversy that is becoming incessant. The national government of Narendra Modi and his Hindu-first Bharatiya Janata Party (