For the past two weeks, a group of 40 people have been travelling across the country to visit the families of those who have been lynched. The Karwan-e-Mohabbat, or Caravan of Love, conceptualised by Harsh Mander has been travelling through Uttar Pradesh and Haryana for the past three days. Newslaundry joined the caravan three days ago. This morning as we finish our tour around Haryana and head to Alwar, Rajasthan, the VHP and Bajrang Dal in Alwar have demanded that the Karwan be restricted entry into the state. Nevertheless, the Karwan is determined to travel to Rajasthan.

As the journey continues, Newslaundry caught up with Mander.

As we move towards Alwar, the Karwan has been told by Hindu organisations that we won’t be allowed to pay our respects to Pehlu Khan who was lynched. But we’re still continuing our journey.

These kinds of threats are a commentary of our times. A bus talking about love and camaraderie is seen as a threat. This is exactly what we’re trying to talk about. So, now it is more important than ever for us to continue.

What was the trigger behind such a journey?

I see a rising darkness across the country. There is a sense of everyday fear which is being extensively normalised. I am troubled by the absence of large public outrage to the systematic manufacturing of hate against the minorities and this permissive environment for the acting out of hate. In most lynching events, you see the by-stander either participating, filming the violence or watching the violence. You almost never hear of people intervening and trying to save people. The silence of this by-stander worries me.

Why do you think there is such a silence?

I see three reasons:

1. People are frightened to speak.

2. People just don’t care

These two reasons apply to many people. There is definitely a sense of fear about speaking out against this government and its ideology. There’s also a sense of indifference which is scary.

3. The most disconcerting of the three reasons is when a mob watching the violence, deep down shares the same sentiment with the people inflicting the violence. This is a form of outsourcing violence and is no less violent.

So, I feel the immediate need to express solidarity with minorities who are living in fear. Their everyday fear has started to slowly transform into a pained acceptance as a second class citizen. For example, we had visited an old Muslim Gujjar man in UP who’d lost his son four years back. He said, ‘mein sabr karloonga’ (I will endure it). That man had no expectation of justice. For me, that is heartbreaking. This indicates how he has decided to live in this country despite not feeling safe, protected and stripped of dignity. Dalits have almost always felt like second class citizens and now this dalitisation is slowly creeping into the Muslim community.

The caravan is only looking at the narratives of a certain section of the population. Does the lack of ‘other’ voices make your stories less credible?

I’m charged with this all the time. Anyone opposing the violence is seen as taking the ‘side of the Muslims’. It isn’t about taking a side, it’s about still wanting to have faith in humanity and love despite all the violence. Mahatma Gandhi said that Hindus and Muslims are like his two eyes, and was killed because he was seen as taking the Muslim side. When Gandhi had been questioned about this, he admitted that there was no doubt he was taking the Muslim side but more importantly he was taking that side because he always took the side of suffering. It’s almost as if human suffering is no longer an issue for us. It is either Muslim suffering or is it Hindu suffering and depending on your own identity, you chose which one to address.

Another point to note is that, we’ve built a picture around the Muslim. Nothing in this constructed picture is embedded with truth but the Muslim is to have a unique history of violence. Because of this constructed image the Muslim is somehow easier to blame. On the other hand, the Hindu is somehow constructed as an innocent. So it is easier for the Hindu to be let off. More than secularity or democracy, I believe that it is fraternity which is truly under threat today.

How do you articulate a non-violent, forgiving, compassionate solution to people who have faced so much violence?

Most of what I’ve found is that there is a mass acceptance of fate. That is what is disconcerting. I thought a lot about what a family who suffers hate or violence must go through. I believe that the first step is for us, as outsiders to acknowledge that we’re with them because we too agree that they’re being violated. To simply acknowledge the suffering, means a lot to them. Truth and reconciliation are built on the ideas of acknowledgement and remorse. Then comes reparation, which means a lot more than mere monetary compensation. It is very crucial for families in pain to know that the state and society are helping them rebuild their lives. In fact, we owe this to those families. The fourth is justice which is an essential feature of reparation. The rest of us can move on from all of this pain only when the families in pain have healed and moved on themselves.

How do you think the media frames these narratives of violence?

We have a large number of unreported lynching today. The way the cases of Mohammad Akhlaq or Pehlu Khan were reported was quite good. Although, I do think that the press has allowed the state to get away with narratives that are statistically triggered, with unreliable numbers or words like ‘stray’ cases.

And what about the state?

The state makes statements which are not only too late but also very vague. These statements don’t really address or embody any pain. Moreover, Modi doesn’t call these hate crimes. If he made one strong reprimand, or even if the home minister did so, these crimes can definitely be halted.

Do you think an ethnic cleansing is happening?

I wouldn’t call it ethnic cleansing. The attempt seems to be to push minorities to accept that they’re second class citizens of the country. Accepting the position of being subordinate to the Hindu dominant culture and political beliefs has been the RSS’s imagination for India. This is a problematic concept because then we have to question what really is Hindu. When this becomes a problem, a group of self-appointed people decide what is Hinduism. Lynching is a part of a larger process of cleansing. Lots of loopholes which are obvious, are not being picked up by the media

Is that a coincidence that they’re not picking it up?

No, it’s absolutely not a coincidence. The media is ensuring a political respectability to the politics of communalism that characterises this government. The idea is to give it a benign face while on the ground the minorities live under dire consequences. The attempt to give respectability is abetted by large sections of the media. Only alternate media does any constructive reporting consistently. This is also why this caravan is so important, to point out the patterns of this hate, violence and fear.

Could you elaborate a little on these patterns?

I’ve been to Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka and now UP and Haryana to trace these events and the patterns are so strikingly similar. The response of the state is that of a bystander of hate crimes like lynching. Which is why most of these cases are somehow closed and not spoke about. Also, there is a rise in cross cases being filed. Cross cases happen when two communities file cases against each other and equal numbers of people are imprisoned from both communities. The filed cases needn’t be directly connected to each other. So if a Dalit community files a case of hate violence against another community, the community will find a way to accuse the minority community of a crime that is equally grave. Often judges even hear these cases together as an acknowledgement that they’re somehow connected. The word ‘cross case’ is not a legal term but seems to very much exist in judicial practice. This is also a form of silencing. For the minorities, they’re suffering the violence, fighting it in court as well as having cases filed against them. So at some point they’re brought to their knees and made to say ‘It’s okay, I give up’.

The Karwan-e-Mohabbat is currently in its second phase of this journey. What has it been like for you?

It’s been heavy on the soul to witness so much pain. That makes it more important for all of us on this journey to listen to these people and suffer with them. We’ve also got a lot of love and support for doing this so while I’m overwhelmed, I’m also very grateful. The amount of support we’ve received shows that there is a sense of a certain collective conscience rising among people. For me, that is hope.