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The Anatomy of Hate
‘The most terrifying truth about a mob is not that we can’t understand how they operate, but that we can.’ What makes a man stand by and watch violence being done to another? What does a woman do after her husband has killed a pregnant stranger? What latent tensions and complexes did the instigators of violence draw upon to unleash the carnage of 28 February 2002? Investigations into mass violence in India, and Gujarat 2002 in particular, have focused on the consequences, the victims, the political apparatus. The mob has always been a faceless, unidimensional machine. But the act of turning around and looking at individuals from that crowd changes everything. If we see the mob as amorphous and their hate as shifting, given to complex personal motivations and vulnerabilities, we are much closer to understanding it—and to opening up conversations that can lead to change. Revati Laul’s unforgettable narrative, built on a decade’s worth of research and interviews, is the very first account of the perpetrators of 2002—and a crucial new addition to the literature on violence. ‘Choice, however, is a vexing word. What part of choice applies when a tidal wave of anger tears through a state? What part of it is the moment, the madness, the collective, and what part individual, personal history?’
222 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 10, 2018
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June 25, 2019
28 February 2002 was a black day in the history of India. On that day, a crazed Hindu mob went berserk on the streets of Gujarat, murdering Muslims by the hundreds. Though ostensibly in spontaneous retaliation to the
Godhra Train Burning Incident
where one coach of a train containing Hindu "pilgrims" (actually, Hindu activists carrying stones to build a temple to Rama at Ayodhya, on the spot where the
Babri Masjid
, a Sixteenth Century mosque which they had demolished, stood) was set on fire allegedly by Muslim miscreants, killing 59 people, it was in fact planned and orchestrated by the Hindu communalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and its more extremist wings, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and the Bajrang Dal. In a carnage which went on for a couple of days, during which the authorities (of a government run by the Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the political arm of the RSS) turned a deaf ear to the victims' cries for mercy, more than two thousand Muslims were slaughtered. Many women were gang-raped and unspeakable atrocities (of the level of ripping open a pregnant woman's belly and skewering the foetus) were carried out - all while the authorities maintained a stubborn silence.
Let's take them, one by one.
Suresh
Suresh Langdo is a criminal. But then, maybe his life was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Born into a tribe of traditional thieves (as defined by India's former colonial masters),the "Chharas", in a country where one's caste decides what one could and could not do, there was perhaps no other path he could have taken.
Suresh lived across the street from Naroda Patya, a largely Muslim tenement which was the worst affected in the riots. Initially he was not anti-Muslim; like the average Indian Hindu in Gujarat, he instinctively distrusted them, but that was all. But then, his sister married a Muslim, and it was a great blow to his ego. He vowed revenge on the community by promising to marry a Muslim girl - which he eventually did, when he seduced the under-aged Farzana. Their marriage was one long episode of gruesome domestic violence, relieved by period bursts of affection from the part of Suresh.
When the riots broke out, it was a natural outlet for Suresh and people of his ilk to vent out their hatred. He waded into it with glee, and committed the most unspeakable acts - whatever pent-up rage was there which couldn't be exorcised by violence on his wife, found outlet on the hapless victims. But in the end, destiny caught up with him. Suresh bragged about his exploits to a reporter who had come under the guise of the member of a Hindu organisation. The resulting expose succeeded in putting not only him, but many others including Maya Kodnani, a State Minister, behind bars (she came out later, however, absolved of all charges - once the BJP came to power in India).
Dungar
Dungar was also from an underprivileged caste - a Bhil tribal. But his father was adamant that he should not remain underprivileged; so he was sent to school regularly. Due to the kind of humiliation he received there from the forward castes, however, Dungar frequently played hooky and took refuge in the forest: until one day-
Pranav's story is different from these two. Born in an upper-caste liberal Hindu family, he had privileges the other two could never dream of. There were certain inbuilt prejudices; and Muslims were still considered very much the other - but the freedom to choose one's life was available. So Pranav became a rebel, took an arts stream when his father wanted him to do science, and started living away from home in the college hostel.
Pranav's participation in the riots was incidental, more in the form of a boyish prank, as he joined a gang of kids looting a store. As the riots died down, he thought no more about it - except for a nagging sense of disquiet, of something wrong, at the back of his mind.
Life changed for him when he took up work with an NGO, helping out riot victims. He did it as rebellion, but it ended up transforming him. In the midst of the refugee camp, Pranav understood that life did not fit neatly into the boxes he thought it did.
What do we learn from the saga of these three lives, so different, yet entwined in that one moment of madness?
In the case of Suresh, the hate was endemic, part of a cursed social ancestry: in case of Dungar, it was manufactured from a sense of inferiority: in the case of Pranav, it was engendered as inbuilt prejudice. It will always be there to a certain extent; removing anger totally from human minds is an utopian idea. But it can be controlled, transformed, channelised and even made positive - but we can't do that by the carrot or the stick. What is needed is change at the fundamental level, through social justice and education.
There is a blankness to his description of how his mother-in-law’s polyester sari had melted in the fire so that the two daughters who had clung to her—Afreen Bano and Shaheen Bano—were found stuck to the grandmother in their charred state.Much has been written on this dark period - most from the point of view of the victims, and also from political perspectives (especially relevant, as the person who remained a mute spectator as Gujarat's Chief Minister in those days - and some say, actively colluded in the atrocities - is currently India's Prime Minister). Revati Laul departs from the beaten track in this book and looks at it through the eyes of the perpetrators. As the title indicates, it clearly is an exploration into the anatomy of hatred - how can one hate one's fellow man to such an extent that such unspeakable acts can be performed? Out of the multitude of people she interviewed, the author has taken three people from different backgrounds, and provided us with their story. They are: (1) Suresh Langdo, the member of a traditional "thieving" tribe and a habitual criminal; (2) Dungar, a Bhil tribal and a BJP functionary; and (3) Pranav, an upper-caste Hindu rebel student.
...
He only heard later, when he went to claim his wife’s body, of how Suresh Langdo, Babu Bajrangi, Jai Bhawani and Guddu Chhara had surrounded her, murdered her, ripped out the foetus within her with a sword and killed it. He was sure of it, because of the state her body was found in, and also because her fourteen-year-old nephew Javed saw it while hiding under a pile of bodies, pretending to be dead. He described it in court eight years later.
...
Farzana followed the crowd until she saw something that caused her to stop abruptly and turn back. A head stuck in the wheel of an abandoned bicycle. A head without a body.
...
He had also run out in the direction of the crowd till his eye stopped at an open window billowing with thick, grey smoke. It was the window of a small mud hut with a thatched roof. Inside it was the body of a burning woman tied to a pole. She was on fire, flames leaping up from her feet, her sari ablaze. Her eyes were open. There was no sound at all, her screams long snuffed out by death.
Let's take them, one by one.
Suresh
Suresh Langdo is a criminal. But then, maybe his life was a self-fulfilling prophecy. Born into a tribe of traditional thieves (as defined by India's former colonial masters),the "Chharas", in a country where one's caste decides what one could and could not do, there was perhaps no other path he could have taken.
The colonisers were terrified of nomadic tribes like the Chharas and their constant movement, especially after the Great Revolt of 1857. So they labelled them ‘criminal tribes’, people who were ‘addicted to the systematic commission of non-bailable offences’. All 150,000 Chharas were stuffed into internment camps, with a daily roll call and head count. Robbed of their traditional livelihood, the Chharas found that the only way they could now live was as outlaws.Maybe he would have turned out better if he had a loving or understanding family; but as things were, his father hated him, and he was constantly mocked for his limp, the result of childhood polio (hence the "langdo" - limpy). Growing up in an atmosphere of domestic violence, Suresh was slowly pulled into the darkness that was his ultimate destiny.
For Suresh, growing up was about the light going out of his eyes. There was no pride in being the son of a thief, no family history to be reiterated, no folklore to draw on. There was, in fact, no story. There were only ruptures and disaggregated pieces of his life that could later be used to describe the void.Expelled from school while in class two for attacking a teacher, he eventually took on his family trade of larceny. But he didn't stop there. He added hooliganism and rape to it. Many a time, he and his cronies carried off girls and gang-raped them over a period of days at their leisure.
Suresh lived across the street from Naroda Patya, a largely Muslim tenement which was the worst affected in the riots. Initially he was not anti-Muslim; like the average Indian Hindu in Gujarat, he instinctively distrusted them, but that was all. But then, his sister married a Muslim, and it was a great blow to his ego. He vowed revenge on the community by promising to marry a Muslim girl - which he eventually did, when he seduced the under-aged Farzana. Their marriage was one long episode of gruesome domestic violence, relieved by period bursts of affection from the part of Suresh.
When the riots broke out, it was a natural outlet for Suresh and people of his ilk to vent out their hatred. He waded into it with glee, and committed the most unspeakable acts - whatever pent-up rage was there which couldn't be exorcised by violence on his wife, found outlet on the hapless victims. But in the end, destiny caught up with him. Suresh bragged about his exploits to a reporter who had come under the guise of the member of a Hindu organisation. The resulting expose succeeded in putting not only him, but many others including Maya Kodnani, a State Minister, behind bars (she came out later, however, absolved of all charges - once the BJP came to power in India).
Dungar
Dungar was also from an underprivileged caste - a Bhil tribal. But his father was adamant that he should not remain underprivileged; so he was sent to school regularly. Due to the kind of humiliation he received there from the forward castes, however, Dungar frequently played hooky and took refuge in the forest: until one day-
On the instructions of his teacher, Dungar was carried kicking and screaming to school by two boys. It was two in the afternoon and classes were over. He was taken to the empty classroom and a desk was brought down on his fingers. He had to stay that way for three hours.After this horrific punishment, he stayed at school - but switched his loyalties to the teacher instead of his father. He even began to stay with him. Filled with self-loathing for being a "low-caste", Dungar found refuge in the fold of Hinduism. The television serial based on the Hindu epic Ramayana, being aired on the national TV channel Doordarshan at that time, completed his "conversion".
His adolescent mind took his personal history and tied it to the notion that he came from a failed society. There was about him a shiftiness of gaze, a hunching of the shoulders, a polite smile that drooped slightly awkwardly at the edges. And a permanent desire to be someone else—his guru. Everything his father was not. Everything a Bhil was not.The Hindu Right, always on the lookout for Dalit recruits, could not be expected to ignore Dungar.
The new identity Dungar was forging for himself made him an even better target for the Hindu right. This low self-esteem is what allowed the Sangh Parivar to draw him so easily into its fold as a forever-insecure Hindu.When the riots broke out, Dungar was the perfect person to take charge. That he did by burning down the houses of wealthy Muslims he has already been envious of. Thankfully, there were no murders to his account. And as time progressed, Dungar became more and more of shrewd and duplicitous politician. He took the initiative to rebuild the houses that he himself had burned down! As the story closes, we find him, unethical and corrupt, having switched alliances to the Congress party as a more fertile hunting ground. Yet, something is missing...
It was all there, right in front of him, whether he liked it or not—the life his father had forced on him. The life he was born into. Where he was still the slightly apologetic boy hiding in the body of a strong and confident man. Perhaps he would always have to be a bit of a juggler, balancing his old life with the new. Pieces of him split many ways, like his tribal-ness. Now Hindu, now not. Now Muslim baiter, now peacemaker. Always in the twilight zone, searching for one place to be.Pranav
Pranav's story is different from these two. Born in an upper-caste liberal Hindu family, he had privileges the other two could never dream of. There were certain inbuilt prejudices; and Muslims were still considered very much the other - but the freedom to choose one's life was available. So Pranav became a rebel, took an arts stream when his father wanted him to do science, and started living away from home in the college hostel.
Pranav's participation in the riots was incidental, more in the form of a boyish prank, as he joined a gang of kids looting a store. As the riots died down, he thought no more about it - except for a nagging sense of disquiet, of something wrong, at the back of his mind.
Life changed for him when he took up work with an NGO, helping out riot victims. He did it as rebellion, but it ended up transforming him. In the midst of the refugee camp, Pranav understood that life did not fit neatly into the boxes he thought it did.
Kutch was also crawling with international aid workers—from the Red Cross and Oxfam to Christian, Jewish and Islamic aid organisations—and also media teams from all over the world. It gave Pranav an insight into the cruel and harsh world of aid that unfolded in the middle of the disaster. He saw that the speed at which a particular set of people got assistance depended on the access they had to power, and therefore to resources. The invisible matrix of caste and class that had held him up had suddenly become visible. There was no escaping those stark differences in the middle of this calamity.This almost led to a nervous breakdown - but Pranav weathered that. He learned the most valuable lesson - that his whole concept of identity was based on prejudice. Once he let go of that, he emerged stronger from the broken shell that was his previous life. Now he spends his time, handing out the wisdom he learned. Like Joseph Campbell's mythical hero, he has returned from the "Belly of the Whale" a transformed person.
‘We are often proud of things that we have had absolutely no control over. That we have not decided. For instance, I did not decide to be born in a Hindu household.’ The audience would go silent. Pranav went on, ‘And this is the beginning of most of our problems in this world. They are based on choice-less identities. Hardly any of our conflicts are centred on choice-based identities.’***
What do we learn from the saga of these three lives, so different, yet entwined in that one moment of madness?
The phenomenon of hate is one that the Sangh Parivar would like to paint as fixed, because that is the only way for their politics to grow. But on closer inspection, we find that the minute we think we have nailed it, the anatomy changes on us. This is the part of the story that, in most retellings of acts of violence, lies buried in the rubble along with the dead. There is an unconscious assumption that, once an act of mass violence takes place, the changes it effects are permanent. But that would be to undermine history, time and the nature of forging. For every new piece of metal, once laid out to cool and dry, starts to acquire a new life, new hues, new patinas, heat, dust, dirt and rust.Hate lies within us, same as love. It can be tapped by unscrupulous entities like the RSS (or the Ku Klux Klan, or the ISIS) and used for their ends. But it is never permanent.
In the case of Suresh, the hate was endemic, part of a cursed social ancestry: in case of Dungar, it was manufactured from a sense of inferiority: in the case of Pranav, it was engendered as inbuilt prejudice. It will always be there to a certain extent; removing anger totally from human minds is an utopian idea. But it can be controlled, transformed, channelised and even made positive - but we can't do that by the carrot or the stick. What is needed is change at the fundamental level, through social justice and education.
February 14, 2021
Great book following the lives of three participants in the Godhra progrom who took part in violence against Muslims, as part of the Hindutva machine. The writer is to be commended for carefully documenting just how each of the three individuals drifted into the arms of Hindu nationalism- none were particularly ideological or committed believers but for varying reasons found a home in the Sangh Parivar.
Their trajectories after the Godhra programme is also sensitively but plainly documented, showing the real impact of after-effects that participating in such violence causes and the toll it takes on even the participants involved.
An excellent and compulsory read!
Their trajectories after the Godhra programme is also sensitively but plainly documented, showing the real impact of after-effects that participating in such violence causes and the toll it takes on even the participants involved.
An excellent and compulsory read!
March 2, 2019
Even though the narrative seems matter-of-fact most of the time and is very obviously well-written from the get go, there's a glaring flaw in this anatomy of hate - the effect is researched and analysed, but the cause is not. While the riots are condemned and what not, there is no mention of the burning of the Sabarmati Express at Godhra. It seems unfair that such an act of hate, that triggered more hate, was left out from the book. How can you talk about the effect without investigating the cause?
Read
October 21, 2020The book follows the narratives of the lives of three different men who took part in the 2002 Gujarat pogrom, with different degrees of complicity. It attempts to trace the thread of their lives, to examine what it is that made them monsters in that one week, if there was anything at all.
Suresh is portrayed as a remorseless murderer, rapist, domestic abuser, that way partly because he was a victim of his caste status and of the abuse at the hands of his father. Dungar, a man with ambitious political aspirations, who uses Hindutva machinery for his purposes as much as the Hindutva machinery uses him in their anti-Muslim agenda. Pranav, an arts graduate who has a rebellious streak.
Of course, there is the active presence of Sangh parivar in each of their lives, providing various incentives to indulge in their worst characteristics during the pogrom.
The book is a decent character study that takes quite some pains to paint the nuances in each of the protagonists' lives, (turns out to be extremely difficult in Suresh's case), with Pranav's supposed to be the story of redemption. That said, I'm not sure the purpose of this book wouldn't have been served better as a long form essay. At this length, it becomes far more interested in the trajectories of the individuals, and I just didn’t want to know all this much about these particular people. Also, Pranav’s NGO career narrative seems to take the form of “what could work”, which is just incredibly naive. NGOs organising cricket tournaments will not make any difference.
Suresh is portrayed as a remorseless murderer, rapist, domestic abuser, that way partly because he was a victim of his caste status and of the abuse at the hands of his father. Dungar, a man with ambitious political aspirations, who uses Hindutva machinery for his purposes as much as the Hindutva machinery uses him in their anti-Muslim agenda. Pranav, an arts graduate who has a rebellious streak.
Of course, there is the active presence of Sangh parivar in each of their lives, providing various incentives to indulge in their worst characteristics during the pogrom.
The book is a decent character study that takes quite some pains to paint the nuances in each of the protagonists' lives, (turns out to be extremely difficult in Suresh's case), with Pranav's supposed to be the story of redemption. That said, I'm not sure the purpose of this book wouldn't have been served better as a long form essay. At this length, it becomes far more interested in the trajectories of the individuals, and I just didn’t want to know all this much about these particular people. Also, Pranav’s NGO career narrative seems to take the form of “what could work”, which is just incredibly naive. NGOs organising cricket tournaments will not make any difference.
August 25, 2019
A Poison Tree By William Blake
I was angry with my friend;
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.
And I watered it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears:
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles.
And it grew both day and night.
Till it bore an apple bright.
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine.
And into my garden stole,
When the night had veild the pole;
In the morning glad I see;
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.
Many times I wonder, what drives certain individuals to perform the most heinous of acts on another with who they have no personal enmity, how intense is their hate that beast in them comes out to perpetrate monstrosity on another on the basis of an identity, that the victim had no choice of selecting. Why did a Nazi usher in hundreds of unsuspecting Jews into a gas chamber and asphyxiate them to death, why does a Jihadi blow up himself to kill hundreds of innocent bystanders, sometimes the very people he himself intend to protect, why did some of the Hindu nationalists kill hundreds of Muslims with unspeakable atrocity during the 2002 Gujarat riots.
Revati Laul, a veteran journalist, tries to analyze this hate, that germinates through societal bias, simmers through propaganda, vents out on provocation and wreaks havoc as consequence. However, neither doing an objective analysis of the cause and effects of the riots as a whole, nor painting a heart wrenching tale of macabre death of the victims, but through the stories of three disparate individuals, with completely different background, thought processes, professions, ambitions, but connecting them with one common thread - intense hate for another community that led to their acts during the Gujarat riots. The stories of these perpetrators don't necessarily induce a sense of anger towards them, but confronts the reader of how ordinary (and sometimes unrelatable) lives can be affected by a systemic propaganda. A professional criminal, a wannabe politician and an idealistic student - The before ( a life of crime, of troubled upbringing, of rebellious ambition), the event (of murder, of arson, of plunder) and the after (of punishment, of political opportunism, of remorse) of these three individuals provide a thought provoking viewpoint of the anatomy and aftereffect of hate.
A brilliant depiction. An audacious attempt.
February 6, 2021
I simply cannot recommend this book enough. Revati Laul's crowd-funded book is an essential read for everyone, especially in a time of ever-increasing hatred around the world. Even if you are not interested in the 2002 Gujarat genocide's actual incidents, just treat this book as a nail-biting psychological thriller novel, and give it a go. Laul writes about three people who were part of the mob, their background, the events that culminated into the things they did, and how those things shaped their lives afterward. It's hard to review this book without giving out any spoiler.
November 28, 2020
The book revolves around three characters to outline the state of affairs before and after the abominable massacre that took place in 2002 in Gujrat after the infamous Godhra incident. The characters are real and so are the stories that are based on meticulous research. The narration is fluid and the reader can visualize each event that is so vividly outlined. Each story is relevant in the context of understanding the anatomy of hate but one relating to Suresh and Farzana is the most poignant one.
June 16, 2023
Author gives us the perpetrator’s point of view in Gujarat riots of 2002. As one goes through each of the individual’s story mentioned it questions us the importance of environment, circumstances/situations, people you surround with, and choices one makes with one’s conscience.
January 16, 2021
The title "Anatomy of Hate" is a little misleading in the context of what the book really offers. A more accurate title would have been "A limited examination of hate and it's transformative effects in the restricted context of the lives of three different individuals". Of course it would not have been as catchy!!
The title promises deep insights. The synopsis even promises us that "we can understand how a mob operates". Frankly the book does not deliver on this promise. It simply traces three lives. And sets them in the context of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Only one person among these three has actually anything close to a transformative affect. And only one pays for his crimes.
However the fact that the book does not offer sophisticated analyses ,does not mean that the book has no value. In fact its value perhaps lies precisely in not attempting to be grandiose .
I was more confused after reading this book. There was even a sense of despair that set in. Because we do not really have any means to prevent this from happening in the future and because of the horrifying realization that this may happen in the future anytime , anywhere in New India. While there are no grandiose explanations in the book we do get some insights ,some glimpses into how it all came to be. And it combines good prose with great storytelling.
I was particularly struck by the following : 1) How well organized the Hindu right actually is. Organization is truly their strength. An organization that they have built over a long period of time. Ready to be mobilized either in the service of electoral work or hate whatever the need of the hour may be. 2) It is not ideology that motivates either the Hindu right or the set of actors who were active in the riots. True there was anger . But looting and raping are more deliberate acts . They are not explained by spontaneous outbursts or anger. It is petty prejudices that masquerade as an ideology. And in New India it is these petty prejudices that have been given legitimacy. 3) Ordinary people are capable of unspeakable acts of horror. That is a unpalatable yet undeniable fact of human nature. We just need the right circumstances. 4) We are worse off than where we were in 2002. This can happen again and most probably will. That's the sobering , scary truth. It is a cause for despair. Eternal vigilance and mindfulness of our own prejudices perhaps are our only defenses.
The title promises deep insights. The synopsis even promises us that "we can understand how a mob operates". Frankly the book does not deliver on this promise. It simply traces three lives. And sets them in the context of the 2002 Gujarat riots. Only one person among these three has actually anything close to a transformative affect. And only one pays for his crimes.
However the fact that the book does not offer sophisticated analyses ,does not mean that the book has no value. In fact its value perhaps lies precisely in not attempting to be grandiose .
I was more confused after reading this book. There was even a sense of despair that set in. Because we do not really have any means to prevent this from happening in the future and because of the horrifying realization that this may happen in the future anytime , anywhere in New India. While there are no grandiose explanations in the book we do get some insights ,some glimpses into how it all came to be. And it combines good prose with great storytelling.
I was particularly struck by the following : 1) How well organized the Hindu right actually is. Organization is truly their strength. An organization that they have built over a long period of time. Ready to be mobilized either in the service of electoral work or hate whatever the need of the hour may be. 2) It is not ideology that motivates either the Hindu right or the set of actors who were active in the riots. True there was anger . But looting and raping are more deliberate acts . They are not explained by spontaneous outbursts or anger. It is petty prejudices that masquerade as an ideology. And in New India it is these petty prejudices that have been given legitimacy. 3) Ordinary people are capable of unspeakable acts of horror. That is a unpalatable yet undeniable fact of human nature. We just need the right circumstances. 4) We are worse off than where we were in 2002. This can happen again and most probably will. That's the sobering , scary truth. It is a cause for despair. Eternal vigilance and mindfulness of our own prejudices perhaps are our only defenses.
January 19, 2021
Some books you have to stop reading in between because the words make your world spin.
This is real.
This is honest.
Honesty is brutal.
This is real.
This is honest.
Honesty is brutal.
September 4, 2022
This wasn’t my planned Gujarat read for my #ReadingIndia challenge. I had planned to read Jenny Bhatt’s much lauded translation of Dhumketu’s short stories. But Revati Laul’s Anatomy of Hate was on my shelf and the ‘sanskaari Brahmin’ men who had raped Bilkis Bano and slaughtered her family had been released from prison by the Gujarat government. I felt like this book needed to be read right now.
This is the first time I am reading anything other than news reports about the Gujarat carnage. And for that reason, the first few pages of Laul’s book made for a terrifying read. People coming together and pooling Rs 10-20 per head to buy fuel to burn Muslim houses is the kind of thing that make violence real in a way that a news piece on TV cannot.
Revati Laul attempts in this book to investigate the lives of three men who participated in violence against Muslims in Gujarat following the burning of a train coach carrying Hindu passengers in Godhra. Both in the run-up to and in the aftermath of the violence, these three men lead very different lives but the common factor is a question about identity. A Bhil man who is ashamed of his alcoholic and abusive tribal father but finds a role model in his upper caste teacher who abstains from alcohol and meat. A Chhara man who grows up to the profession the British ascribed to his entire community, thievery, and whose father has brought him up on a diet of abuse and humiliation. An upper caste collegian who comes to feel shame for his role in the violence and chooses atheism but continues to grapple with his Hindu identity, linked as it is to family and community.
The book was an interesting read but I feel deeply cynical after reading it. It was heartening to note, that Chhota Chharanagar and Bada Chharanagar, two localities with similar demographic profiles have different personalities, simply because the latter has a library and a theatre group that is changing people’s minds. However, it is deeply disappointing that twenty years after this vicious crime, the main perpetrators are free and the politicians who facilitated this violence have more power than before and are disseminating their brand of politics further, continuing to feed hunger with hate.
Revati Laul’s research and persistence in writing this book is laudable. However, one wonders what if anything will change when systemic problems remain unresolved.
This is the first time I am reading anything other than news reports about the Gujarat carnage. And for that reason, the first few pages of Laul’s book made for a terrifying read. People coming together and pooling Rs 10-20 per head to buy fuel to burn Muslim houses is the kind of thing that make violence real in a way that a news piece on TV cannot.
Revati Laul attempts in this book to investigate the lives of three men who participated in violence against Muslims in Gujarat following the burning of a train coach carrying Hindu passengers in Godhra. Both in the run-up to and in the aftermath of the violence, these three men lead very different lives but the common factor is a question about identity. A Bhil man who is ashamed of his alcoholic and abusive tribal father but finds a role model in his upper caste teacher who abstains from alcohol and meat. A Chhara man who grows up to the profession the British ascribed to his entire community, thievery, and whose father has brought him up on a diet of abuse and humiliation. An upper caste collegian who comes to feel shame for his role in the violence and chooses atheism but continues to grapple with his Hindu identity, linked as it is to family and community.
The book was an interesting read but I feel deeply cynical after reading it. It was heartening to note, that Chhota Chharanagar and Bada Chharanagar, two localities with similar demographic profiles have different personalities, simply because the latter has a library and a theatre group that is changing people’s minds. However, it is deeply disappointing that twenty years after this vicious crime, the main perpetrators are free and the politicians who facilitated this violence have more power than before and are disseminating their brand of politics further, continuing to feed hunger with hate.
Revati Laul’s research and persistence in writing this book is laudable. However, one wonders what if anything will change when systemic problems remain unresolved.
June 6, 2020
What a great book on the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002 - in this book Laul looks at three people who participated in the violence, three Hindus, she gives us their stories of what they did in that time (from the heinous of rape and murder to the less lethal looting); but what makes this book so fascinating is that she than gives us a bit of the three people's backgrounds, how they grew up, their thinking, their status in society - which very much shapes what they did during the Gujarat violence. Those who were lower on the social strata were more prone to violence and horrific acts; its clear that the Hindutva powers let it be known that they could fight their insecurity by lording over the Muslims, "do what you want with them" was the motto from police and government at the time. It was Rwanda, Bosnia, Nazi Germany all over again. The sad part is that the victims honestly believed they were safe among their neighbors of different faiths (and in some instances they were saved but those stories are far and few between). The author shows us through these three stories how the victims were dehumanized and how politicians fed the inferior personalities of the goondas, so they were embolden to attack.
But what I particularly enjoyed with this book was that the author followed these three people 10 - 15 years after the violence and we the reader get to see how minds get changed or not changed, how some of the perpetrators felt regret and tried to atone, I was moved by the story of Pranav, who came from a high caste Hindu family but through his work with an NGO does a complete 180 and sees that all people are part of humanity, regardless of faith. If only more people could do such a self reflection as he did we would live in a better world.
I would recommend this book to anyone studying India or coming to live/work here. This is great for incoming diplomats and even for students of psychology or sociology to see how people behave in times of extreme violence as well as how they change or don't change.
Its a small book, easy to read in a week, but definitely deep.
But what I particularly enjoyed with this book was that the author followed these three people 10 - 15 years after the violence and we the reader get to see how minds get changed or not changed, how some of the perpetrators felt regret and tried to atone, I was moved by the story of Pranav, who came from a high caste Hindu family but through his work with an NGO does a complete 180 and sees that all people are part of humanity, regardless of faith. If only more people could do such a self reflection as he did we would live in a better world.
I would recommend this book to anyone studying India or coming to live/work here. This is great for incoming diplomats and even for students of psychology or sociology to see how people behave in times of extreme violence as well as how they change or don't change.
Its a small book, easy to read in a week, but definitely deep.
February 13, 2019
The book is very unique with respect to the way in which it tries to reveal the anatomy of hate. The book delves deeper into the minds of three individuals, a hotheaded and extremely violent man, an university student who is excellent in his studies and loved by all and a hardworking tribal man who falls into the lure of Sangh parivar in his quest for relevance and power in a society that always looked at him with disgust for being a tribe.
The book explores the lives of these three individuals, thus taking us through the different social structures in Gujarat and how those structures lead to the creation of hate. The book is divided into two parts where we get to see how things soared up to February 2002 and then the book tries to uncover their life after 2002. During my time with the book, there were moments that left me shocked in disbelief about the nature of human beings which is capable of striving for violence of that degree. A must read for anyone who want to understand how communal violence works in India, which is very relevant to this day.
The book explores the lives of these three individuals, thus taking us through the different social structures in Gujarat and how those structures lead to the creation of hate. The book is divided into two parts where we get to see how things soared up to February 2002 and then the book tries to uncover their life after 2002. During my time with the book, there were moments that left me shocked in disbelief about the nature of human beings which is capable of striving for violence of that degree. A must read for anyone who want to understand how communal violence works in India, which is very relevant to this day.
February 24, 2022
“Of all the signs telling Abdul Majid his world was about to crumble, the khichdi is the one that truly hit home. It was the middle of the afternoon on 28 February 2002, when the mob closed in on Naroda Patiya. Majid was hiding on a terrace when Jai Bhawani spotted him from below and went up to talk to him.
‘Majidbhai,’ he said, ‘you guys have been hungry since the morning. Come down and bring me those large cooking vessels from your kitchen. I’ll make some kadhi khichdi.’ Majid stood up suddenly. ‘Kadhi khichdi? Kadhi khichdi! But that’s food for a funeral,’ he said, feeling a sudden surge of panic. ‘Yes,’ Jai Bhawani replied. ‘You are all going to die.’
Majid ran down the stairs. He had locked his wife and kids and mother-in-law in a temple right behind the house, where he assumed that Jai Bhawani would keep them safe. The friendly neighbour he thought he could trust. Majid scrambled to let them out. They ran together. Separately. Then in broad daylight, everything went dark. Majid lay in a heap near Teesra Kuan, the Third Well, struck in the back of his head by what felt like a sword. As he was fading in and out of consciousness, he heard his daughter calling out to him from the nearby park. ‘Abba, abbaaaaa …’ By the time he came to, her body was cold. He had lost six children, his pregnant wife and mother-in-law. Looking back, Majid counted the signs he had missed the day before.”
‘The Anatomy of Hate” by Revathy Laul is a book that makes for a very disturbing reading. The author had interviewed more than a hundred people who had been part of the Gujarat riots , some who had been the survivors and some who were part of the mob that wreaked violence and mayhem . But it would have been impossible to trace cogently each of those stories starting from their backgrounds and where they ended up eventually .
The narrative therefore proceeds around three men, Suresh Langdo, the man with the bad leg (result of being afflicted by polio ), Dungar belonging to the Bhil tribe and Pranav , from a well to do family.
The book is not a mere reporting of the horrible events, but delves more deeply into the childhoods and into the psyches of these three young men in an attempt to understand the individual motivations of those who become part of that nameless crowd when a riot happens. What happens to their lives after the event ? Does guilt set in ? Are they able to retreat from their positions of animosity or do they get sucked in further? Are they able to find some redemption?
What about their families?
“Among the survivors of the twenty-eighth, was someone who took thirteen years to see herself as a victim. She did not lose her family that day. She was, in fact, married to a man from the mob. A man who had helped kill Abdul Majid’s family and Kauser Bi. His name was Suresh Jadeja, better known in these parts as Suresh Langdo, the man with the bad leg.
Farzana’s story is what haunted me most .
“There was a part of Dungar that was always ashamed of not having a pucca house with a marble floor like the ones he had seen some Muslim traders build for themselves. On trips to the nearby town and farther out to big cities, as he watched people in fancy cars and air-conditioned homes, the poison was slowly building up like a slow poison. How small and insignificant his life was. And how uncomfortable. Now was the chance for that long-suppressed rage to merge with the tidal wave sweeping across Gujarat. Anger with a purpose. He was a member of the VHP. A Hindu revivalist group that was designed to harness anger.”
“It felt good. Like something was finally moving. He wasn’t sure how things would improve for him if Muslims were pushed out of the country, but for now there was something to soak up all his anger, and that was purpose enough.”
That is how we are introduced to Dungar from the Bhil tribe and afterwards, he did manage to pave his way forward in the organisation and in the political filed, gaining importance as a local leader. This passage towards the end of the book , kind of sums up his story:
“At the bottom of the hill, across from Dungar’s new marble establishment, was the house of his father and brother, where his old wife lived with his three grown-up children. It was all there, right in front of him, whether he liked it or not—the life his father had forced on him. The life he was born into. Where he was still the slightly apologetic boy hiding in the body of a strong and confident man. Perhaps he would always have to be a bit of a juggler, balancing his old life with the new. Pieces of him split many ways, like his tribal-ness. Now Hindu, now not. Now Muslim baiter, now peacemaker. Always in the twilight zone, searching for one place to be.”
“The twenty-eighth was not a calendar day. It was a black hole that bent time. In the lives of Suresh, Dungar and Pranav, it re-arranged all previous days and experiences. There were always many choices to be made; what part of their identities to sharpen, what to suppress. Choice is a vexing word. What part of choice applies when a tidal wave of anger tears through a state? What part of it is the moment, the madness, the collective, and what part individual, personal history?”
Pranav’s involvement had been the most incidental and he is the one who goes through the most exhausting and excruciating phase of guilt and introspection. He does manage to redeem himself. In one of the workshops that he would later hold, these words were what hit home most, amongst the small crowd of eager participants:
‘We are often proud of things that we have had absolutely no control over. That we have not decided. For instance, I did not decide to be born in a Hindu household.’ The audience would go silent. Pranav went on, ‘And this is the beginning of most of our problems in this world. They are based on choice-less identities. Hardly any of our conflicts are centred on choice-based identities.’
A must read book .
‘Majidbhai,’ he said, ‘you guys have been hungry since the morning. Come down and bring me those large cooking vessels from your kitchen. I’ll make some kadhi khichdi.’ Majid stood up suddenly. ‘Kadhi khichdi? Kadhi khichdi! But that’s food for a funeral,’ he said, feeling a sudden surge of panic. ‘Yes,’ Jai Bhawani replied. ‘You are all going to die.’
Majid ran down the stairs. He had locked his wife and kids and mother-in-law in a temple right behind the house, where he assumed that Jai Bhawani would keep them safe. The friendly neighbour he thought he could trust. Majid scrambled to let them out. They ran together. Separately. Then in broad daylight, everything went dark. Majid lay in a heap near Teesra Kuan, the Third Well, struck in the back of his head by what felt like a sword. As he was fading in and out of consciousness, he heard his daughter calling out to him from the nearby park. ‘Abba, abbaaaaa …’ By the time he came to, her body was cold. He had lost six children, his pregnant wife and mother-in-law. Looking back, Majid counted the signs he had missed the day before.”
‘The Anatomy of Hate” by Revathy Laul is a book that makes for a very disturbing reading. The author had interviewed more than a hundred people who had been part of the Gujarat riots , some who had been the survivors and some who were part of the mob that wreaked violence and mayhem . But it would have been impossible to trace cogently each of those stories starting from their backgrounds and where they ended up eventually .
The narrative therefore proceeds around three men, Suresh Langdo, the man with the bad leg (result of being afflicted by polio ), Dungar belonging to the Bhil tribe and Pranav , from a well to do family.
The book is not a mere reporting of the horrible events, but delves more deeply into the childhoods and into the psyches of these three young men in an attempt to understand the individual motivations of those who become part of that nameless crowd when a riot happens. What happens to their lives after the event ? Does guilt set in ? Are they able to retreat from their positions of animosity or do they get sucked in further? Are they able to find some redemption?
What about their families?
“Among the survivors of the twenty-eighth, was someone who took thirteen years to see herself as a victim. She did not lose her family that day. She was, in fact, married to a man from the mob. A man who had helped kill Abdul Majid’s family and Kauser Bi. His name was Suresh Jadeja, better known in these parts as Suresh Langdo, the man with the bad leg.
Farzana’s story is what haunted me most .
“There was a part of Dungar that was always ashamed of not having a pucca house with a marble floor like the ones he had seen some Muslim traders build for themselves. On trips to the nearby town and farther out to big cities, as he watched people in fancy cars and air-conditioned homes, the poison was slowly building up like a slow poison. How small and insignificant his life was. And how uncomfortable. Now was the chance for that long-suppressed rage to merge with the tidal wave sweeping across Gujarat. Anger with a purpose. He was a member of the VHP. A Hindu revivalist group that was designed to harness anger.”
“It felt good. Like something was finally moving. He wasn’t sure how things would improve for him if Muslims were pushed out of the country, but for now there was something to soak up all his anger, and that was purpose enough.”
That is how we are introduced to Dungar from the Bhil tribe and afterwards, he did manage to pave his way forward in the organisation and in the political filed, gaining importance as a local leader. This passage towards the end of the book , kind of sums up his story:
“At the bottom of the hill, across from Dungar’s new marble establishment, was the house of his father and brother, where his old wife lived with his three grown-up children. It was all there, right in front of him, whether he liked it or not—the life his father had forced on him. The life he was born into. Where he was still the slightly apologetic boy hiding in the body of a strong and confident man. Perhaps he would always have to be a bit of a juggler, balancing his old life with the new. Pieces of him split many ways, like his tribal-ness. Now Hindu, now not. Now Muslim baiter, now peacemaker. Always in the twilight zone, searching for one place to be.”
“The twenty-eighth was not a calendar day. It was a black hole that bent time. In the lives of Suresh, Dungar and Pranav, it re-arranged all previous days and experiences. There were always many choices to be made; what part of their identities to sharpen, what to suppress. Choice is a vexing word. What part of choice applies when a tidal wave of anger tears through a state? What part of it is the moment, the madness, the collective, and what part individual, personal history?”
Pranav’s involvement had been the most incidental and he is the one who goes through the most exhausting and excruciating phase of guilt and introspection. He does manage to redeem himself. In one of the workshops that he would later hold, these words were what hit home most, amongst the small crowd of eager participants:
‘We are often proud of things that we have had absolutely no control over. That we have not decided. For instance, I did not decide to be born in a Hindu household.’ The audience would go silent. Pranav went on, ‘And this is the beginning of most of our problems in this world. They are based on choice-less identities. Hardly any of our conflicts are centred on choice-based identities.’
A must read book .
January 11, 2020
A chilling, but essential and revealing narrative account of the individual lives that make up the mob. Personal histories, complicated motives and sometimes surprising outcomes flesh out that defining moment of India's recent history - the 2002 Gujarat riots, which focused much of the violence against Muslims. An important read at any time, but especially ours
May 16, 2020
An interesting perspective to the 2002 riots.
How many were manipulated and how they manipulated the situations.
Hate is real. Hate is difficult to contain. Hate leads to destruction.
People antagonise and manipulate the hate.
It's here to stay. Maybe like Pranav each of us need to confront it but maybe like Danguar we would use it to catapult us?
It's on you. It's not only on you.
How many were manipulated and how they manipulated the situations.
Hate is real. Hate is difficult to contain. Hate leads to destruction.
People antagonise and manipulate the hate.
It's here to stay. Maybe like Pranav each of us need to confront it but maybe like Danguar we would use it to catapult us?
It's on you. It's not only on you.
November 21, 2025
That the only two 'new' titles I've read this year, after a years-long slump, are non-fiction books would surprise my friends. After all, there was a time when I proudly declared 'escapist fiction can offer much deeper commentary on our world and society than any non-fiction writing can be.'
It certainly surprised me, because the choices weren't made consciously, and because I still hold to that opinion. Kinda.
The Anatomy of Hate by Revati Laul, however, did make me strongly reconsider that view. Why? Because it is, at its core, a story - and a damn good one at that. There are characters who are evolve, and there are characters who remain as they were at the beginning of the tale. Characters from different backgrounds, different educational qualification, different socio-economic statuses. The only thing that connects them are their actions during, and contribution to, one of the most prominent modern-day pogroms in India: the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
The book doesn't pontificate, doesn't seek to tell the reader what is right and what is wrong. It simply doesn't need to. It humanises its characters and lets them speak for themselves, describing their motivations for what they did and their lives leading up to that moment and beyond it. Revati Laul does an excellent job of presenting these stories within the broader tapestry of communal resentment that has always been present in India - regardless of what anyone will tell you about 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - and the role that our political, theological, and media ecosystems play in nurturing that resentment into hatred for their own gain.
Will the book change anyone's mind about communalism in India? Probably not. People are far too entrenched in their belief systems, too comfortable within their own echo chambers, too familiar with being fed the same slop in different packaging, to actually consider a different opinion. I include myself in this; after all, I remain of the opinion that fiction can offer a better commentary on contemporary society than non-fiction, because the labels the latter comes attached with can draw partisan responses, even from otherwise reasonable, everyday people. This book shows how that works.
Should I have read this book earlier? Maybe, maybe not. I am glad I did pick it up when I did, though. A strongly recommended read.
It certainly surprised me, because the choices weren't made consciously, and because I still hold to that opinion. Kinda.
The Anatomy of Hate by Revati Laul, however, did make me strongly reconsider that view. Why? Because it is, at its core, a story - and a damn good one at that. There are characters who are evolve, and there are characters who remain as they were at the beginning of the tale. Characters from different backgrounds, different educational qualification, different socio-economic statuses. The only thing that connects them are their actions during, and contribution to, one of the most prominent modern-day pogroms in India: the 2002 Gujarat Riots.
The book doesn't pontificate, doesn't seek to tell the reader what is right and what is wrong. It simply doesn't need to. It humanises its characters and lets them speak for themselves, describing their motivations for what they did and their lives leading up to that moment and beyond it. Revati Laul does an excellent job of presenting these stories within the broader tapestry of communal resentment that has always been present in India - regardless of what anyone will tell you about 'Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam' - and the role that our political, theological, and media ecosystems play in nurturing that resentment into hatred for their own gain.
Will the book change anyone's mind about communalism in India? Probably not. People are far too entrenched in their belief systems, too comfortable within their own echo chambers, too familiar with being fed the same slop in different packaging, to actually consider a different opinion. I include myself in this; after all, I remain of the opinion that fiction can offer a better commentary on contemporary society than non-fiction, because the labels the latter comes attached with can draw partisan responses, even from otherwise reasonable, everyday people. This book shows how that works.
Should I have read this book earlier? Maybe, maybe not. I am glad I did pick it up when I did, though. A strongly recommended read.
January 1, 2023
What makes a person stand quietly and watch another kill? What makes a person burn down houses of people he grew up with? What makes a person rape, kill, and pulverize without an ounce of guilt?
Literature examining massacres, lynchings, and atrocities conducted on groups disadvantaged by caste, religion, and gender has mainly focused on their consequences, on the lives of the victims, and the political apparatus driving them. While all these aspects are crucial, understanding the sympathisers, the supporters, and the perpetrators of hate violence is equally important.
The 'mob' is usually seen as a homogenous, absolute, and faceless entity that engages in frenzied killing, raping, and vandalising. But who are these rioters? Why do they kill, rape, and destroy? What do they do with their lives after acting out the hate? We don't stop and reflect that these are people with individual lives, with aspirations, with dreams, with families. We don't stop to take into account the psychological, social, cultural, economic, sectarian, gender, and familial dimensions that shape the actions of the people who constitute the mob.
Revati Laul's book attempts to make sense of the mob, the Hindu extremist sympathiser and supporter, with the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre in background. It shows how childhood abuse created violence to be the main mode of communication, how politics and religious indoctrination led to gaining recognition and respect in society, the pain of uprooting one's prejudiced past, and confronting the hateful conditioning of the psyche.
Laul's book has portrayed decades of propaganda being instilled. It has attacked the indifference, complicity, and apathy of the Hindu middle class. It has brought into notice the psychology of the mob. It has shown who we are, who we have become. It has shown that the personal is political and the political is deeply personal.
Literature examining massacres, lynchings, and atrocities conducted on groups disadvantaged by caste, religion, and gender has mainly focused on their consequences, on the lives of the victims, and the political apparatus driving them. While all these aspects are crucial, understanding the sympathisers, the supporters, and the perpetrators of hate violence is equally important.
The 'mob' is usually seen as a homogenous, absolute, and faceless entity that engages in frenzied killing, raping, and vandalising. But who are these rioters? Why do they kill, rape, and destroy? What do they do with their lives after acting out the hate? We don't stop and reflect that these are people with individual lives, with aspirations, with dreams, with families. We don't stop to take into account the psychological, social, cultural, economic, sectarian, gender, and familial dimensions that shape the actions of the people who constitute the mob.
Revati Laul's book attempts to make sense of the mob, the Hindu extremist sympathiser and supporter, with the 2002 Naroda Patiya massacre in background. It shows how childhood abuse created violence to be the main mode of communication, how politics and religious indoctrination led to gaining recognition and respect in society, the pain of uprooting one's prejudiced past, and confronting the hateful conditioning of the psyche.
Laul's book has portrayed decades of propaganda being instilled. It has attacked the indifference, complicity, and apathy of the Hindu middle class. It has brought into notice the psychology of the mob. It has shown who we are, who we have become. It has shown that the personal is political and the political is deeply personal.
July 10, 2019
How do present a book in 2018 based on a pogrom that has been extensively covered by every possible form of mass media?
Revati Laul has the answer to the question and she does it by changing the perspective through which the stories are told. This book offers us an account of lives of three people who were involved — some more than others — in the riots of Gujrat 2002. She offers us an account of precisely what happened before the night of 28th February that led to these men taking actions that they took. This book also talks about the aftermath of the incidents and how the lives of the three men changed forever.
If you want to go inside the mind of the mob and see what is the recipe that certain organisations have for turning an individual to a mob, you should definitely read this book. While it may seem to drag at a couple of places and could have been about 25 pages shorter, I still dont have a lot to complain as it tends to offer a lot more than it takes.
The author has spent a significant time in the research for the book and that is evident from the massive details that she knows about the characters most of which have not faced public limelight. She risked her life and didnt care much about her financial conditions for the pursuit of the best content for this book. The author deserves more than just praise for the book.
Happy reading!
Revati Laul has the answer to the question and she does it by changing the perspective through which the stories are told. This book offers us an account of lives of three people who were involved — some more than others — in the riots of Gujrat 2002. She offers us an account of precisely what happened before the night of 28th February that led to these men taking actions that they took. This book also talks about the aftermath of the incidents and how the lives of the three men changed forever.
If you want to go inside the mind of the mob and see what is the recipe that certain organisations have for turning an individual to a mob, you should definitely read this book. While it may seem to drag at a couple of places and could have been about 25 pages shorter, I still dont have a lot to complain as it tends to offer a lot more than it takes.
The author has spent a significant time in the research for the book and that is evident from the massive details that she knows about the characters most of which have not faced public limelight. She risked her life and didnt care much about her financial conditions for the pursuit of the best content for this book. The author deserves more than just praise for the book.
Happy reading!
December 14, 2024
I just finished reading this, Gujarat riots were the first of such incidents which were reported live on tv instead of papers in India due to 24/7 News Channel.
The perpetrators of the crime like most riot case have been gone scott free, and in some cases Gujarat government has gone out of the way to pardon the rapists who have been convicted by the court.
Revati Laul focuses on 3 individuals who were part of rioters 1) Suresh the tribal from thieving community 2) Dungar the bhill tribal 3) Pranav the upper caste Hindu who get involved in riots due to circumstances and realise the gravity of what they have done.
Only Suresh seems to have been unrepentant. While Dungar tries to tip toe NGO and VHP, Pranav faces an identity crisis.
The book makes it clear, everything is not in black and white how it is a complex thing to make sense of these animosity but given a chance we can figure out and co exist peacefully.
It is ironical when Muslim men who are victims ask for money to give their statement in court while Muslim women stand bravely to identify the Hindu rioters at the same time how a Hindu working in NGO is surprised that Muslim contractors who are working in rehabilitation arr corrupt.
The fourth character is Farzana, the wife of Suresh who tries to make sense of the world and only victim of Suresh is alive, women always have to pay the price for things men do.
The perpetrators of the crime like most riot case have been gone scott free, and in some cases Gujarat government has gone out of the way to pardon the rapists who have been convicted by the court.
Revati Laul focuses on 3 individuals who were part of rioters 1) Suresh the tribal from thieving community 2) Dungar the bhill tribal 3) Pranav the upper caste Hindu who get involved in riots due to circumstances and realise the gravity of what they have done.
Only Suresh seems to have been unrepentant. While Dungar tries to tip toe NGO and VHP, Pranav faces an identity crisis.
The book makes it clear, everything is not in black and white how it is a complex thing to make sense of these animosity but given a chance we can figure out and co exist peacefully.
It is ironical when Muslim men who are victims ask for money to give their statement in court while Muslim women stand bravely to identify the Hindu rioters at the same time how a Hindu working in NGO is surprised that Muslim contractors who are working in rehabilitation arr corrupt.
The fourth character is Farzana, the wife of Suresh who tries to make sense of the world and only victim of Suresh is alive, women always have to pay the price for things men do.
May 7, 2025
**Review of "Ashoka's Secret" by Chinmay Patgaonkar**
In "Ashoka's Secret," Chinmay Patgaonkar spins a tale that feels like a whispered secret in the night. Set in the shadow of Emperor Ashoka, the story unfolds around "The Nine Unknown," a hidden society tasked with protecting ancient wisdom. After the Kalinga War, Ashoka's heart shifts, and he knows knowledge must be shielded from those who seek power.
Fast forward to today, and Ananya, a curious PhD student, finds herself caught in a battle between "The Nine Unknown" and a rival group,
"The Sword of Power," desperate to steal those
precious manuscripts. With every turn of the page, there's a tension that feels almost electric—a race against time to protect a legacy that could change everything.
Patgaonkar's writing is a blend of lyrical beauty and gripping adventure, capturing the essence of courage and the weight of history. It's a journey of discovery, revealing how the past whispers truths we must fight to keep alive. A mesmerizing read that reminds us that some secrets are worth safeguarding, even if the world is trying to take them away.
In "Ashoka's Secret," Chinmay Patgaonkar spins a tale that feels like a whispered secret in the night. Set in the shadow of Emperor Ashoka, the story unfolds around "The Nine Unknown," a hidden society tasked with protecting ancient wisdom. After the Kalinga War, Ashoka's heart shifts, and he knows knowledge must be shielded from those who seek power.
Fast forward to today, and Ananya, a curious PhD student, finds herself caught in a battle between "The Nine Unknown" and a rival group,
"The Sword of Power," desperate to steal those
precious manuscripts. With every turn of the page, there's a tension that feels almost electric—a race against time to protect a legacy that could change everything.
Patgaonkar's writing is a blend of lyrical beauty and gripping adventure, capturing the essence of courage and the weight of history. It's a journey of discovery, revealing how the past whispers truths we must fight to keep alive. A mesmerizing read that reminds us that some secrets are worth safeguarding, even if the world is trying to take them away.
April 21, 2019
Thank you Revati for your brilliant portraits of three faces of the mob of 2002. I remember very distinctly that you came as our first ever guest lecturer at Young India Fellowship for the batch of 2018 and I gathered the courage to pick up the mic and ask you the most trite, unyielding question: "How does one live with the realities of what happened in Gujarat in 2002, how does one reconcile that humans are able to do what they do?" And you answered in the most succinct way - to live with it you have to know what really happened, and to thoroughly renounce the evil things around us - we need to understand the minds of people behind the evil. Besides the stories of people like Pranav, Farzana and Naseemo, the one thing that especially haunts me, and can perfectly encapsulate the book, is the quote: "The most terrifying thing about a mob is not that we can't understand how they operate, but that we can"
August 17, 2020
Reliving the incident which for myriad reasons has gone into the amnesia compartment of the minds of the masses of India, except for Gujarat itself. Yes, its a tale of 2002 Gujarat riots told through the lives of three individuals who were complicit in the incident one way or the other and the event had profound life changing consequences were them. The writer has made them representatives of the mob and has done autopsy of "hatred". Deeply rooted hatred, which was the chief reason behind the massacre of hundreds.
March 25, 2019
An amazing book that tries to tell the tale of the build up to, and post impact of the 2002 Gujarat riots through the lives of 3 men that were part of the Hindu-right mob. Revati has tried her best to give us an insight into the psychology of these men. The experience of reading this book was enlightening to me, it changed a lot of my views around the violence, and the people that were involved. It really did break down "hate" for me.
November 27, 2019
Outstanding book
The story of the three protagonists in this book could well be the story of any of the people you know.
In an age where hate is the way of life this book is an excellent reminder of how lonely the love affair with hate is.
Would definitely recommend reading this if you have ever asked yourself the question "What if everything I believed in was a lie?"
The story of the three protagonists in this book could well be the story of any of the people you know.
In an age where hate is the way of life this book is an excellent reminder of how lonely the love affair with hate is.
Would definitely recommend reading this if you have ever asked yourself the question "What if everything I believed in was a lie?"
January 23, 2020
Must Read
I was young to when the riots happened and didnt know much about it. This book made me get a insight of hate developed from tje roots of social - economical differences, religion-caste based politics, secularly agnostic and most importantly how not to prejudice a fellow human/Indian immediately.
I was young to when the riots happened and didnt know much about it. This book made me get a insight of hate developed from tje roots of social - economical differences, religion-caste based politics, secularly agnostic and most importantly how not to prejudice a fellow human/Indian immediately.
March 13, 2020
A close look into the lives of the people who were perpetrators and victims of the 2002 Godhra riots. Some passages which detail the violence are blood curdling. The author has brought out the human aspect of the mob, the hatred, the guilt and of the gut wrenching violence and its effects on its victims, its perpetrators and on the society as whole.
April 19, 2020
Excellent story-telling by the author, Revati Laul.
The book follows the stories of 3 men, their past, their reasons for 'hate', their action, and after-effects.
Without explaining the reasons behind their action, Laul has presented the background so the reader can identify clearly the complex politics that goes behind communal violence.
The book follows the stories of 3 men, their past, their reasons for 'hate', their action, and after-effects.
Without explaining the reasons behind their action, Laul has presented the background so the reader can identify clearly the complex politics that goes behind communal violence.
May 2, 2021
Fascinating insight into the minds of three characters who had a part in what many consider to be state-sponsored ethnic violence in Gujarat, India. As an aside, the then Chief Minister of Gujarat when the violence took place, is presently the Prime Minister of India. This book had me hooked from about a quarter way in till the end.
February 3, 2025
Story of personal lives of 3 persons involved before and aftermath of Godhra train burning incident and the violence followed.
Tried to stitch a narrative from that why they acted in such a way and all but vaguely has anything to do with the title. Why the Hate and how the hate cultivated is barely understood.
Tried to stitch a narrative from that why they acted in such a way and all but vaguely has anything to do with the title. Why the Hate and how the hate cultivated is barely understood.
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