A heatwave has been sweeping through parts of India over the past few days but it was hardly noticeable with the country on the boil following a violent assertion of Hindutva supremacy: from across India, there have been reports of communal violence, rape threats to Muslim women, mosques and Muslim traders being attacked.

Indian cartoonists have tried to make sense of a country on the brink. Several of them have noted how the tide of hate has distracted Indians from the precarious state of the economy amidst rising inflation, soaring prices of fuel and essential goods, and unemployment.

Fuel prices continued to inspire some grim humour.

For another, it was a throwback to promises of development and progress.

The police have largely remained mute spectators to the shrill fanaticism. At the same time, the mobilisation of Hindutva supremacists and other right-wing groups against the azaan, or the Muslim call to pray, has not been stopped.

The violent turn that many Ram Navmi processions took found reference along with the growing impunity of hate crimes and targeting of Muslims, particularly in Karnataka.