Mr. Guha pointed out that about half of India's current population is too young to remember the gruesome, nation-wide violence of the 1990s and how opportunistic politicians cracked open religious fissures in the past.
An army attack on a protest encampment last week brought only wider violence.
Rape has become normalised – and is only one, dramatic, dimension of a far wider violence taking place throughout the region.
He added: "I have sought, by word, deed, and official act, to unite this sorrowing and troubled nation against further and wider violence".
Father Dawoud, a priest at the Virgin Mary church, described the incident as symptomatic of the wider violence currently plaguing the country.
The Central African Republic's neighbors took steps Friday to address the crisis, as rebels advanced toward the capital, Bangui, stoking fears of wider violence.
"The tactic of trying to provoke a response in the hope of causing wider violence and mayhem is long established on the far-right and among extremist groups.
The attacks threatened to ignite wider violence after more than six weeks of protests that seek to bring down the government and force a new election.
That volatile imbalance has resulted in mass killings for 40 years on both sides, and many experts worry about wider violence as the nation works to find peace.
Thousands of protesters remained defiantly in downtown Hong Kong on Monday night after days of confrontations with police that observers fear could spark wider violence.
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — The killing of an exiled Pakistani politician in London shut down most of Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, on Friday as the police contained unrest and moved to prevent wider violence.
