I refuse to say that the following factors did not ease the way for the undoubtedly redoubtable bulldozer that is Narendra Modi.
Few fault lines to be a hindrance - the caste fights petered out in the 80s (KHAM out of steam), the Muslim population of approx 9%..
Industrious nature of Gujjulog,
Homeland of almost all major captains of Industry
Key location as a maritime region with good ports and infra
Vast diaspora and huge remittances from NRIs
Historically weak State Congress
BTW, I don't fully subscribe to the "Gujarat is a Hindutva Laboratory" Theory..... Godhra might have brought things to the limelight but the "behavior" shaped much before. I wish to quote a nice write-up on Gujaratis..... and Indians in general. Guess who?
Gujaratis are from the heartland of India, and they exhibit many of its mystifying characteristics... they have a long tradition of ahimsa, one that caused the rise of a certain Mohandas, son of Karamchand. They are vegetarian, "non-martial", mainly known for being devout lovers of Lakshmi. Their idea of an adventure is to sneak across the border to Rajasthan for VAT Shikshtinine, or to the local dhaba for Cheeken Teeka. Most look and act like they would not hurt a fly - yet, these are the same people who periodically organize themselves in terrifying gangs that overwhelm all attemts to maintain or impose control. These gangs, with typical Gujarati attention to detail, arm themselves with voter rolls and ration card records, then they proceed to root out intended victims from hiding places, then they rape, mutilate and murder wives and daughters while husbands are tied and watch helplessly... and the rest of the country reels in horror and pretends that there is no evil Gujarati lurking in its heart. Yet, the ugly Gujarati lives in every Indian, and manifests himself ever so often: against Sikhs in Delhi, Muslims in Bombay... the list is as long as it is dishonorable. And so it was in Khadia, Ahmedabad, that nervous and watchful eyes of IB, CBI, RSS, and every other Indian organization in the alphabet soup began to pick up the first warning signs.
Every Indian politician worth his (or famously, her) salt knows about this ugly Indian, knows about that emotional but not irrational tipping point that can change an often callous or indifferent citizenery into a frothing, ravening horde... a horde that can rip apart in days what has taken the country decades to nurture... So priority number one for every ruling dispensation in New Delhi and in every state and union territory is the same: prevent this ugly Indian from coming out, whatever it takes. The easiest way is to be brutal, and few countries can be as brutal on its citizens as India is. But even brutality stops working after a point, so every ruler of India tries, first and foremost, to avoid that eventuality. Indian politicians, truth be told, are not afraid of Indians dying. Thousands of avoidable deaths take place in India every day, thousands of indignities that pass with barely a ripple across the psyche of the nation. And yet, even a single act of omission or commission can sometimes cause the amorphous mass to crystallize into Vishnu's Vikraal Swarup, into Shiva's Rudra Swarup, into Kaali, Durga, Mahachandi.
