END OF A DYNASTY .sx Rajiv Gandhi has paid the price of doing away with the security with which he had surrounded himself since the murder of his mother Indira Gandhi seven years ago .sx Only last week in Uttar Pradesh , he protested that the masses were being kept away from him .sx " Let them come forward , " he declared , driving in an open jeep .sx Now he too has fallen victim to political assassination .sx Will Indian democracy die with him ?sx It was already clear before yesterday's tragedy in Tamil Nadu that this election was marred by some of the worst violence , corruption and thuggery in modern Indian politics .sx The rise of Hindu extremism as a force has alarmed not only Indian Muslims but also the many friends of Indian democracy abroad .sx There is a long tradition of Indian secularism , which Rajiv Gandhi's grandfather , Jawaharlal Nehru , sought to bind into the newly independent country's political institutions .sx That tradition has been under attack not only from the Hindu nationalists of the Bharatiya Janata Party but also from fanatics playing on caste hatreds .sx Their militancy has clearly blinded them to the overriding goal of maintaining the unity of the state and the democratic guarantees it offers - in theory at least - to all ethnic and religious minorities .sx Rajiv Gandhi's critics would blame Mr Gandhi himself for much of the instability and political turmoil which followed his last administration .sx His defeat at that time was largely due to the perception that his government was corrupt and too weak to deal with the apparently intractable problems of caste , poverty , inequality and , most immediately threatening , factional Hindu-Muslim violence .sx Yet Mr Gandhi , for all his faults , remained a politician of greater stature than those who came after him - and not just for the family tradition that he had come to represent .sx For the past 18 months India has been ruled by weak coalitions .sx Chandra Shekhar , the prime minister , uttered the ultimate cynicism of Indian politics , that his sole ambition was to hold his particular office .sx Mr Gandhi was the product of a dynasty steeped in public service .sx The 1985 election which followed his mother's assassination gave him a landslide victory based on hopes that he would modernise the Indian economy , bring 20th-century technology to its industry and do away with the archaic ideological baggage that had become an encumbrance to the Congress ( I ) Party .sx He lost public confidence because he was aloof , because of the Bofors corruption scandal and because , in the end , the tasks he confronted simply overwhelmed him .sx Yet he proved in opposition that he was capable of humility , coupled with an ability to listen to public discontent and learn from his own past mistakes .sx His loss is a grievous blow to his party as well as to his country .sx Congress ( I ) has proved in the past to be a clumsy and imperfect instrument of government .sx But at least it was a party of government , of strong centralised authority .sx India needs a party opposed in principle to the extremes of religious fanaticism .sx It also seemed to yearn again for a family dynasty which , through its charisma and experience , could lead India's huge population through at least a semblance of democratic respectability .sx Three of that family's members have been killed .sx It will take a mighty effort of collective political will for India's leaders now to rise above the factional hatred which threatens the country with chaos and bloodshed , just when it faces its greatest trial .sx GLORIES OF THE GARDEN .sx The sun , stubbornly absent for most of the spring , is shining this week to welcome nearly 200,000 people to the Chelsea Flower Show .sx The numbers have been limited to avoid a crush , and the show is likely to sell out .sx An Englishman's home these days is his garden - or somebody else's .sx The National Trust has declared 1991 the Year of the Garden , and expects visitors to its gardens to exceed last year's 7.6 million .sx Gardening is one of the few pursuits at which Britons excel .sx Blessed with a climate that generally furnishes enough rain to keep plantlife lush , the British cultivate gardens that are the envy of the world .sx Unlike continental Europeans , who are happy to live in flats , and Americans , who dismiss their garden as a 'yard' , the British think no house is complete without a real garden .sx One of the pleasures of the British countryside is not just the architecture of its villages , but the flowers and lawns that enliven them .sx The best British gardens eschew the geometry and formality of the Italians and the French , in favour of a studied asymmetry .sx Just as Capability Brown designed landscapes to look as perfect as they might in nature , the British herbaceous border , though tended , has to have a hint of wildness and overabundance in its arrangement .sx Gardening has become a boom industry in this country .sx About 85 per cent of British adults have a garden and last year they spent around pounds2 billion on horticultural products , more than twice as much in real terms as in 1980 .sx Plants are now easier to buy :sx in the past , keen gardeners used to have to write off the nurseries in the autumn to buy seeds or plants for the following year by mail order .sx Now , with the proliferation of garden centres and do-it-yourself megastores people can buy ready-grown plants and flowers whenever they like , even on a Sunday in most areas .sx Nearly half of all garden-related shopping is done in these shops .sx But most important is the rise in home ownership .sx Garden centres report a big increase over the past decade in the number of young couples coming in for plants to prettify and thereby increase the value of their new houses .sx Hanging baskets are taking off in every sense .sx Meanwhile the pattern of gardening has changed away from vegetable-growing and towards the more aesthetic cultivation of flowers .sx With the constant availability of fresh vegetables in supermarkets , there are now half as many allotment-holders as there were in 1950 .sx Many now have their own garden in which they can plant lobelia instead of lettuce .sx Gardening is not quite immune to the recession ; this year the Horticultural Trades Association is expecting no real growth in the market .sx But those who forgo the holiday in Spain for financial reasons will no doubt potter round their gardens instead in true British style .sx Why did it have to be a Frenchman , Voltaire , who concluded that , in order to lead a better life , il faut cultiver notre jardin ?sx .sx BAD TO WORSE IN LONDON .sx Does London need a new Greater London Council ?sx Both the Government and the Labour party reply no .sx For the government the argument ends there ; for Labour it does not .sx In a policy document published yesterday , Labour declares that , while it is not for recreating the GLC , it does need to create a Greater London Authority .sx One thing should be understood from the start :sx Labour's GLA is nothing but GLC reincarnated .sx The GLA would have 'strategic' powers covering virtually every local government activity in the capital , including transport , health , police , housing and planning .sx Indeed it has a vastly more extensive remit than that originally proposed for the GLC by the Herbert commission in 1960 .sx That body was also meant to be " lean and hungry " and established on " modern managerial principles with a small highly-professional staff " , in the words ( referring to the new body ) of Labour's shadow environment secretary , Bryan Gould , yesterday .sx The GLC had been specifically charged only to be strategic , with the new London boroughs delivering local services .sx Within a decade , it had become one of the most interventionist , extravagant , wasteful and boastful bureaucracies in a capital well - stocked with such beasts .sx But even so it did not run the hospitals and the police , as is now proposed for the GLA .sx The old GLC housing department , one of the County Hall's worst scandals , is to be reborn with a complete " land-use planning framework " and " housing development powers " .sx The London boroughs should shudder at the thought :sx even their new education functions are to be exposed to a six-month enquiry into how they might be " improved" .sx Not a word in Labour's document , rife with platitudes , suggests that the party has shed its old big-government-is-beautiful obsession - except its hope ( unconstrained by any statutory limit ) that it would never need more than a small staff .sx The hand of grasping local government unions is heavy on the document .sx Recreating not just a regional authority but a tier of government with the widest possible powers , and one that previously proved flawed , is no way to reform London government .sx Nor is it the way to answer Michael Heseltine's failure to include London in his current review of local government .sx So what should Labour , and Mr Heseltine , have proposed ?sx The answer is what Labour claims to want but is too in love with the old GLC model to propose - a truly " lean " body to stand at the apex of the capital's government .sx Londoners have shown time and again in polls that they do want some symbolic focus for city-wide identity .sx Reformers should be able to evolve a body that can answer this need .sx There are some functions appropriate to an elected authority for the capital , some consultative , a few regulatory and many ceremonial .sx Mr Heseltine should not leave Labour to make the running .sx He should respond to Labour's challenge by proposing a minimalist version of a London authority .sx It should be based on a single elected mayor , plus a senate composed of borough representatives .sx The mayor's office would be less potent than any of its County Hall predecessors .sx Its functions would be consultative and exhortatory , liaising between the boroughs , central government and the London quangos , notably in matters of transport and development planning .sx As with the London mayor's New York equivalent , elected status would give the office considerable public clout .sx It might also enjoy some of the regulatory functions proposed by Labour , for instance in environmental , conservation and arts matters .sx While the mayor would deliver no services , the office would have a small budget , fixed as a percentage of the London - wide council tax , to give exhortation some weight .sx There is a world of difference between these modest , mostly symbolic aims , and the hands-on management of major services that Labour is proposing for its new GLA .sx Should Labour return to power , London will clearly have to experience another round of costly empire-building by a union-dominated County Hall .sx The Tories could best avert this monster by stealing , not Labour's entire suit of clothes , but a few modest undergarments , restyled sic !sx . SOUNDING THE RETREAT .sx In his prayer for generosity , St Ignatius Loyola tells those who carry out his spiritual exercises " to toil and not to seek for rest , to labour and not to ask for any reward save that of knowing that we do Thy will " .sx Such selfless devotion to a cause without the promise of success in this life is nowadays not merely rare - as it always was - but seemingly at odds with the ethos of a secular society .sx Yet the words of St Ignatius , along with other Christian guides to the inner life , still help many whose days are indeed spent in toil , not for any divine purpose but to sustain their families and realise their ambitions .sx An increasing number of these not necessarily churchgoers nor even Christians , are nowadays finding rejuvenation and meaning to their lives in the ancient custom of retreat :sx a few days of quiet prayer and introspection in a Christian community or retreat house .sx Many retreats are supervised by Anglican and Roman Catholic monastic or conventual orders .sx Others are led by clergy or laymen of various Christian denominations .sx Demand for places exceeds supply .sx Some 160 houses offer retreats , and most are booked up in advance throughout the year .sx For lay persons , the cost may vary between pounds15 and pounds30 a day , but some are asked only for donations according to means .sx Those who go might find themselves in eminent company - the Archbishop of Canterbury is at present on retreat .sx There is no social appeal :sx a normal retreat of eight days might involve little conversation with anyone .sx