All over the old non-West, as well as in Western Europe and America, the symbols of belonging – race, religion, language – are being repurposed for a confrontation between what David Goodhart has referred to as the ‘somewheres’ and the ‘anywheres,’ the rooted and the rootless. I, with no tribe or caste, no religion or country, have had nowhere to go but to the cities of the West, where I hoped to wait out the storm. But, as my break with India acquired a cold new finality, exile turning into asylum, I could not help but ask whether any harbor would survive the destructive wrath of what may be
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