Enormous fear among minorities, but more frightening is silence of majority: Harsh Mander

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I observed that in the minority community, particularly among Muslims, but also among Christians in tribal areas and among Dalits in some areas, there is enormous sense of fear all across the country. They are living everyday with fear: Former IAS officer Harsh Mander

Ghazanfar Abbas, IndiaTomorrow.net,
New Delhi, Sep 25: There is enormous fear among Muslims, Christians and Dalits, but more frightening is the silence of the majority community on the murderous attacks and killings by cow vigilantes or Gau Rakshaks, former IAS officer Harsh Mander says in an exclusive interview with IndiaTomorrow.net, after leading Karwan-e Mohabbat (journey of love) in eight states of the country.

“Our call in the Karwan is for the majority community to look into their own hearts and see what is explaining their silence – is it fear, indifference or is it hate,” asks Mander.

Excerpts from Interview:

“We started from Assam, then went to Jharkhand, from there to coastal Karnataka, then we reassembled in Delhi and went to Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and Gujarat. So we travelled a long long journey.

In each of these states, we visited families who were affected by violence, lynching and police encounters. There was so much suffering in these families. And they have even lost hope of any justice. In places like Western UP and Haryana, we found that people are not filing even a case because they believe there is no point (of doing so). They are not filing a police complaint. They think that for example if their son has been killed by cow vigilantes, there are chances that the police would register case against him as being guilty rather than a victim.

I observed that in the minority community, particularly among Muslims, but also among Christians in tribal areas and among Dalits in some areas, there is enormous sense of fear all across the country. They are living everyday with fear.

We did not find much remorse from the local majority community who would have felt badly and stood with the victims. And this shows a very divided society.

During our Karwan, we also faced some violence – like in Behrore (Alwar, Rajasthan), where we wanted to lay flowers at the site where Pehlu Khan was lynched. People gathered there and started throwing stones on us. In other places, there was no violence, but there was anger while we were setting out on this journey (Karwan-e Mohabbat).


Ex-IAS officer Harsh Mandar with Dr John Dayal, Rashid Hussain and others near the site of Pehlu Khan lynching in Alwar, Rajasthan on 15 Sep 2017.

There is just a small group of people which is doing all this (violent cow vigilantism) but silence (of majority community) can have at least three reasons. One of them is fear. The second is indifference – a feeling that I am not a Muslim, I am not a Dalit, so how it should bother me. But there can be a third reason also, which is the most frightening – that in my heart, I actually share the same sentiments of hate and I am happy that somebody is acting on it.

Our call in the Karwan is for the majority community to look into their own hearts and see what is explaining their silence – is it fear, indifference or is it hate?

They are not speaking out and in times like this, if you don’t speak out, that becomes like a consent. I think people don’t realise that once you allow this (attack) to happen, today somebody else is the victim, tomorrow you can also be a victim.

India Spend did a quick survey of cow-related attacks from 2010 to the present date. It found that 86% of the people killed were Muslims. And 97% of these attacks have happened after Narendra Modi came to power (in centre). That cannot be a coincidence. They have created an enabling and permissive environment for people to act out on the hate – so you not only lynch but you also take pictures and videos including of yourself because you are sure that nobody is going to catch you. The Police respond by registering cases against the victims rather than the attackers.

In a criminal justice system, if you are a victim you don’t have to fight your case, the state fights for you. But if the state is not on your side but against you as a victim, then what would you do? That is why we feel that we need to create much stronger human right responses.”

Also Read:
Stones in Alwar, Rose Petals in Ajmer: Harsh Mander Recounts Journey of Karwan-e Mohabbat
No amount of state intimidation will silence me: Harsh Mander

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