He obviously is referring to the current round. Other than the religiously-based warfare associated with the separation of India and Pakistan, there hasn't been a lot of Islamic "extremism" since the Mongols cleaned out the Sect of the Assassins (who were Persian Shiites, btw).
This time around, since AQ started up, India's had more or less observer status except in Kashmir, which goes back to Indo-Pak issues more than Wahhabi-generated ones. If you catch the distinction.
The issues between Delhi and Islamabad started on Mountbatten's desk, and the current round of worldwide terrorism on Bin Laden's and Zawahiri's.
So support for the Kashmiri terrorists by the Paki ISI under the previous governments was old business, whereas support for them by AQ is new business. It remains to be sorted out whether the motives behind these bombings were old or new business. If they're about Kashmir, they're old business. If they're AQ lashing out at the Indian government, to warn them off cooperating with the United States and the Europeans, then it's new business. Both are possible. The former is more likely, since it's already produced similar events over the last couple of years, including attacks on the Indian government itself.
"But go ahead. Indians were accustomed to such condescending remarks when India was colonized by people who were condenscending and worse "
Oh boy - are we ticklish...
Sounds like you carry a lot of psychological 'baggage'