Ten Indian activists are arrested over a far-fetched conspiracy

JUST one person died in the riot that broke out on January 1st this year in the riverside village of Bhima Koregaon in the western state of Maharashtra. But shockwaves from the violence, which pitted higher-caste agitators against an annual gathering of out-of-caste Dalits (once known as untouchables), have spread far. As the Maharashtra police tell it, they include a plot to kill Narendra Modi, the prime minister, and topple his government. Liberal activists retort that the riots have provided a pretext for a crackdown on dissent that bodes ill for looming national elections, and for Indian democracy.