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Rana Ayyub

lines on the record: 59
first: 2022-11-02
most recent: 2022-11-02
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“Well, that's something we all need to introspect, right? I mean, we are electing these people to power and we are buying into this victimhood narrative, the supremacist narrative that I think it's time for us as citizens of the world to introspect on where we are going wrong. Yes, yes, Italy is selecting a far-right leader. Yes, yes, Paris, France is electing leaders. Europe is going the fastest way. But deep down, who are the people who are getting influenced by these politics? And what is this victimhood that we are revelling in? I think we need to take a big reality check ourselves before blaming these leaders. There is a churn globally, and this churn, I think, is here to stay for a while. And so what is some prospect for us as a global community?”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“The situation in India. I mean, when the Leicester episode took place, people were like, oh, is this what is happening? Is this also what happens in India? Yes, this is a regular feature of what happens in India on a daily basis. So it does not need to happen in Leicester for the world to wake up to this communal project that's unfolding in India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, the worst part is each time I come to the United States or I go to any other European countries for that matter, the UK, I see there's so little awareness of what's happening in India. People are so unaware of this communal program that is taking place in India. They always, for the longest time, the world saw Modi and India as this big economy, this big development project. The economy still puts Mr. Modi on cover as the leader who believes in development. And this idea of a lead of Modi being a leader who means development and change in a democratic India has been sold to the White West and to the European countries for far too long. So I think belatedly though, we need to alert the world about the everyday fascism that is unfolding in the country. At this point of time, the biggest contribution that you can make to secularism is the awareness that you can create.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think the Ambit Kharaid movement that were just led by people who believe in Dr. Baba Saab Ambitkar, who's also seen as the messiah of people of the backward classes and caste, especially the Dalits who are the backward caste in India, the marginalized in India, every odd day you see stories of Dalits students being thrashed for daring to speak or daring to sharing the kitchen with the upper caste Hindus. So caste problems and caste discrimination is the reality that India cannot do away with and whether it's the Ambedkar movement or the Periyar movement or the movement by Muslims. These are movements that one expects to be the bulwark against hate politics in India. These have been movements that have consistently stood up and spoken against the tyranny of the state in the past. So I do see a glimmer of hope there. Yes, they have been.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lincoln has called out the anti Muslim hate in India, the ambassador for religious freedom in the United States has published a report where calling out the Islamophobia in India by Mr. Modi's government. So there have been bits and pieces, but not the kind of solidarity and not the kind that Indian Muslims would expect or Indian citizens would expect from neighboring countries.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, if that means that criticism by the other government of Mr. Modi's rule, I think that's rare and it has not happened except for when there was a remark by the party spokesperson against Prophet Muhammad that Islamic countries did rise up and speak up against Hindu nationalism. But these are countries that are themselves complicit in totalitarianism and authoritarian politics, whether it is Saudis or the Saudis have given Mr. Modi the highest civilian honor. Dubai has always honored and given Mr. Modi the legitimacy. But for the longest time, I think for this audience, it is important to know that Mr. Modi was not allowed to visit America for the longest time for his alleged role into the Gujarat wires. So yes, there have been times, but the United States Secretary Blake”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Being vilified so students and student movements in India, yes, they have been for the longest time universities have acted as a bulwark against hate politics, but those very universities are being silenced with their students being arrested every day.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thank you for that question, Alan. In SAT, India's universities, especially those built like the Jawaharlal Nehru University, which was, and the Jamia Milia Islamia and Aligur Muslim University. These are some of the most terror universities in India that have produced some of the finest minds and activists and freedom fighters. And these universities are now being besmirched and their activists are being targeted and jailed. Their students are being jailed for campus politics, for resenting Mr. Modi's Hindutva project. So there is, yes, JNU is being demonized. The Javahla Nehru University in recent Islamophobic film called Kashmir Files, which is supposed to be in the genocide of Kashmiri puntits, but that film has been used to dogmasil against Muslims. And the center point in that film is a university like JNU, which”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Often, and it's not a trap, I think the narrative of the oppressed, it is very easy right now to fall in that narrative. But although I do not see the hope, we have to live with hope. We have to speak up. We have to speak up for the marginalized. We have to speak up for the secular values of India. We have to uphold the secular values of India in India and abroad and that's the only way out. Dialogue is the only way out. Understanding and empathy is the only way out of the situation as I see it.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Indian Muslims should become more vocal, should voice their opinion. I know, I mean, right now when I'm speaking here, it's a legit fear that whatever I'm speaking here could be used against me as somebody who's trying to discredit the government or just create Hindu nationalists. So it is a legit fear that people are not speaking up. But that's the only choice you have when you're oppressed. I think, and I would urge Muslims in India and abroad that a backlash to Hindu nationalism by indulging in similar violence or disinformation is not the solution. Yes, there is an attack on Muslim values and Muslims across the India. And the only way to deal with this is dialogue, to speak up and to try to make sure that we do not fall in the victim for trap that”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“They have, however, in recent times tried to develop a spine where they have taken the Indian government to court for when the Indian government asked to take down critical tweets of Mr. Modi. So they are trying, but they have been enablers of the modi government and the Hindutva project.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Social media platforms have played a huge role in the popularity of Hindu nationalism, whether it's Facebook or whether it's Twitter or Instagram. I'll give you an example. Earlier with these Hindu nationalists with saffron flags in their DP calling themselves Sanatanese, they would post explicit rape threats against me and when I would call them out, they would delete them. They send these rape threats to me and others on post in public and when you call them out others come in solidarity with them. And despite writing to Twitter and Instagram other platforms, they are not removed. In fact, Twitter often censors or Instagram often censors or shadow bans post when we post videos of protest in India. So they have been enabled, social media has been enabler of majoritarian politics in India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Produced that 50% of the tweets on the Leicester violence came from emanated from India. There is another study recently that more than 75% of hate tweets against Muslims across the world emanate from India. So yes, Hindu nationalism that is emanating from India, this toxic anti-Muslim politics is now becoming its wings across the world and we must be very worried considering we are living at a time when fascists are all over Europe, fascists are gaining popularity all over the world. So at this point of time we must be very wary in Leicester, Hindus and Muslims both in small numbers where responsible using disinformation and we must be extremely worried about this right-wing nationalism that threatens to destroy this. The communal, the signal fabric of not just India, but countries across.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, on the 75th year of Indian independence in New Jersey, there were Hindu nationalists who took out a rally with the bulldozers. Now, the bulldozers have been assigned of oppression of Muslims in India, where Muslim houses are being bulldozed by the government. So when bulldozers are being taken out in processions in America, right here where I am, or in Leicester violence where a BBC investigation has recently”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Politics has always been a part of the Indian landscape, Indian social and cultural landscape. For the longest time all of us know that if you tell a Hindu family that their daughter or son is going to marry a Muslim or if you tell a Muslim family that their child is going to marry a Hindu, it is not something that is still something we agree upon to this day. So this is who we have been. It's just that it has been made more acceptable in the times we live in.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I always believed, and it's not a popular opinion. I've always believed that we have been a communal country despite the word secularism and pluralism enshrined in the Indian Constitution by Ambedkar and Nehru and Gandhi that we have been. We have resented each other. Let's face it, during the partition movement, Muslims were killed and Hindus were killed. And there was a resentment. The resentment was allowed to fester by nationalist to use it for their opportunistic politics at various stages in India. We have got glimpses of this eight out in the open, whether it was the 1984 genocide of Sikhs, whether it's 1992 attack of Muslims. This communal piejois have always existed. It has just been legitimized under the Modi government as a way of life. It has always existed. I think we have always communion.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, Mr. Modi and the leaders before him have sowed the seeds of Hindu of toxic Hindu nationalism. And it won't stop at Modi because once, you know, it's a thing once this poison spreads across the country. It is difficult to contain it or contain it because this victimhood, this persecution complex that Indian Hindus believe they face at the hands of Muslim invaders, which might be unreal, is something that has been lapped up by the collective imagination and irrespective of Mr. Modi being around or not, this is going to fester for a long time to come. And yes, Mr. Modi is being an opportunist leader by using it to stay in power, but it has damaged the foundations of India. It has damaged the psyche of India. We are at a stage where we might be beyond redemption.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Convenient enemy to continue to stay in power. And that's something he has done for decades now. This is Mr. Modi's brand of politics.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, if you see at all the fascist playbooks, whether you see what Trump was doing in America, when you tell the white supremacists and what was originally yours, the resources that were originally yours are being taken away from you by those who do not deserve it. And that's exactly what you see in India. Muslims are being sold as invaders and intruders who don't belong here, who are increasing in population every single day, who will take over India by 2050. If you are to believe WhatsApp. But this myth-making is being sold by the Indian government to, like I said, in absence of any jobs, in absence of giving any hope to the unemployed, you sell them victimhood. And that victimhood, the latch onto because it gives them a convenient enemy. Mr. Modi has used Muslims as a”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Thought that would be shared by others who are critics of Modi, but I do not have much to celebrate or much to cheer or hope for the present day India where we are headed right now because I see a very dismal picture. I see a very hopeless situation back in the country.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I've been looking for the good news for a while. I've been looking for that glimmer of hopes somewhere. It's not visible right now as much as I could want to tell you right now that there is a generation that wants peace, that there's a generation that wants harmony, that there's a generation that wants the India that our forefathers envisaged for the country. But I see that Indians are revelling in the kind of hate and dictatorship that we are witnessing right now. Yes, there is a section that is silent, that might not be very vocal in its criticism of the government. It's a silent section. And I do have great hope that these people will speak up, but it's a very tiny section of the Indian population. And I hope that they can continue with their optimism and their faith in the ideals of India. But at this point of time, and I'm not sure if this is a...”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Popular front of India planning a terror attack in India. Now, this media is consumed by a large section of the Indian population. And then, you know, they, and then it kind of validates their fears that we told you Muslims are coming to attack us, Muslims are not loyal to the nation. So this benefits more in 2024 elections, the general elections, as we see, Mr. Modi, despite his failures, despite being unable to provide employment to a large section of unemployed in India, despite being unable to alleviate poverty in India will continue to be a leader because he continues to be a Hindu leader who is the savior of the persecuted Hindus in India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Leadership in India for a 220 million Muslim population there are these plinter parties that do not actually represent Indian Muslims. There is nobody to speak for Indian Muslims in a country with one of the largest Muslim populations in the world. And if they do come up, then we have seen in the past how Muslim organizations have been demonized by Modi government as organizations that have affiliation to Pakistan, as learned that Muslims are so used to hearing, but terrorism charges that are so common for Muslim activists in India. So which is why Mr. Modi has consistently and has silenced every Muslim voice that could speak for them. So right now, when I was coming to Chicago, I was looking at the newspapers in Delhi and there were eight newspapers. The front page of all newspapers was Muslims planning a terror attack in India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, it means everyday humiliation, it means Muslims being jailed indiscriminately as we are talking members of the popular front of India. It's a Muslim organization. They are being jailed all over India in rounds in multiple raids across the country. The enforcement rate is charging Muslim activists and journalists with money laundering charges. So what we saw in 2020 when the anti-Muslim riots broke down that some of the best voices amongst the Muslim community, activists and journalists who are speaking up for the community are being consistently silent. So right now we are at a speed that those who actually spoke about these issues are either jailed or on the verge of being jailed or others are just have just received the message that shut up. You're not supposed to speak because if you do speak you will have you'll have a battery of allegations. We do not have a most”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“upliftment of Muslims. The Sri Krishna Commission report was supposed to look into the genocide of Muslims in 1993. If Muslims were to appease, the bare minimum that would have been given to us was the justice we deserve. Muslims are not being appeased. Muslims are being treated as second-class citizens. And whether it is the Congress or the BJP or Mr. Modi's government, they believe that secularism is a pejorative word where they want to appease Muslims. And I do fear that they are going to get rid of the term secularism so that they can legitimize their attack on the Muslim population in India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I fear that Kavika, I do fear that the government of India might rewrite the Indian Constitution and get away with the term secularism which really haunts them. It's like it bricks them every day. It pricks the collective conscience of this country that secularism in a way is a term that is used to appease minorities in the country. I mean, which I think is a myth, the greatest myth that has been sold to the country that India believes in minority appeasement. If India did believe in minority appeasement, then a maximum number of Muslim populations would not remain underpresented in the government institutions, in the Indian Army. The Muslim representation in across the board, whether it's the bureaucracy, diplomacy, Indian army, the forces is less than 1%. So some of the commissions of inquiry which have been said to look into the issues of Muslim, the Sacher Committee report, which was to look into the”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Burkha, where is your hijab? I mean, so basically they are not opposing or criticizing what I say. These are people who are there who have been made to see me as an enemy of the state, an enemy of Hindus in a country where 82% or 80% Indian Hindus are being made to feel like victims in their own country. So we end up becoming the collateral damage. We, the storytellers, we the truth tellers, we the people who are bearing witness are the ones who have to pay this price offline and online.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Against you, and this platform with this Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp is now used as a tool by the government, a tool of propaganda. So yes, there are fact-checkers in India who do fact-checking, but by the time of fake news is used to target dissenters and journalists like me, that fake news spreads faster than the fact-checked news that later goes on. We saw what happened in London during the communal situation in London between Hindus and Muslims, the role that disinformation played, as rightly put out by a BBC story about the role of disinformation played in triggering the communal tension in London. Well, the same situation has prevailed in India where Hindu nationalism, along with disinformation, has played a crucial part in labeling us as the enemies of the state. I mean, I have done this experiment. Some days I just put a full stop on my Twitter. I don't even tweet anything. Just one full stop and I'll get a thousand replies. Jihadi, Jain, where is”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, when I said it's a democratic space, so at a time when independent journalists are being silenced by the Modi government and they are resorting to writing blogs and tweeting about what's happening on the ground, so it is a space where in the absence of gatekeepers we are able to tell the truth that the mainstream media is not telling India. Having said that, the Twitter has taken on the Indian government, has taken the Indian government to court because the Indian government has asked Twitter to take down tweets by journalists including me. So there is an attack on Twitter as well. Having said that, while in the absence of gatekeepers, there is also this fear and this legit fear that we face every day where a lynch mob, a virtual lynch mob attacks us on a daily basis to an extent that I mean it is overwhelming. It is overwhelming and intimidating because you go on Twitter. Every word that you say is being is being used.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Lived experience in my writings and my report touch. Does that mean I discriminate against the Hindu majority? I don't think if the Indians who criticize my reporting of Mr. Modi's politics were to just go back five years ago and see my reportage of the Congress ruled UPA government of eight years and the targeting of Dalits and Adivasis and the backward classes in India, then they would not be leveling these allegations.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Judiciary, and on the other side, you have the marginalized, the Muslims and Dalits against whom these powers are being used. And at a time like this, you see the media doing the false equivalence. I don't think there is space for objectivity in time of authoritarianism and at a time when Muslims in India are almost at the verge of ethnic cleansing. I don't see objectivity as a matter of pride. In fact, I desire that we identify the oppressor from the oppressed. And that's something it's not just about India. It's globally when we as journalists report from a country. It is disheartening to talk about India, but I think my Muslimness does come into my reportage and I won't deny that. I mean, when I say my Muslimness, it's my lived experience. I cannot deny my”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Honestly, I think Kavita objectivity is a myth that journalism, journalists need to do away with because objectivity does not allow us to define the oppressor and the oppressed, especially in the scenario that we are dealing with where the media feels compelled to talk about this false equivalence about this and that. We are dealing at a We are looking at a scenario. For instance, the Delhi anti-Muslim riots when President Trump, ex-President Trump came to India and he was in Delhi. Violence broke out against Muslims following Mr. Modi's leader giving this provocative statement that traitors should be shot dead. Traitors, of course, the insinuation was against Muslims. So how do you remain objective when on one side you have the state administration, ministers, cabinet police?”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Three days of prime time debates on me and my family whether we are corrupt, whether we had evaded taxes. I mean, that's the media that we are right now consuming”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Group that says and the lion has got the cheetahs in India. I mean, it's nauseating. It is nauseating to see the extent to which the mainstream media is not just being compromised, but is being used as a tool to extend the government's hate politics against Muslims and minorities. We're not a single question. I mean, in an ideal world, the media in India should be asking Narendra Modi. He's been in power since 2014. We are the world's largest democracy. The Prime Minister of India has not taken a single press conference or a single question from a journalist in an ideal world, media would have asked him and media would have asked these raging questions. But we see the India that we live in, we see mainstream media asking questions of the critics, asking questions of the opposition Indian media news channels.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, I see a lot of people say that the media in India is ideologically bankrupt, they are bigoted, but I see that the media in India is actually quite opportunist. They are people who want to save their jobs. There are people who want to bask in the favors lent by the government of the day. These are people who are happy to dog whistle against the 220 million Muslim population as long as they get promotions in their respective jobs. And then these are the very editors and mainstream publishers who will reach out to me saying, Rana, you don't have loans to pay, but we have loans to pay and we have to look our children. My question to them is, if you had loans to pay, then why be a witness? Why be journalists in a country like India whose story needs to be told to the world? Mr. Modi brought more than 10 cheetahs on his birthday, which was drummed down as some kind of an achievement. And I can tell you there was a caption on a leading news channel in India by the India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Gori Lankesh, a journalist, was murdered by allegedly by Hindu nationalist outsider house and Gauri had translated my book Gujarat files in Kannada language and we were supposed to do a book launch in Karnataka of Gujarat files with her and she was killed weeks before that so this is an everyday life of people who choose to speak Safura Zargar a journalist sorry an activist from from Jamia She was pregnant when she was arrested and today a few weeks ago her degree from her PhD degree has been cancelled by Jamia Amelia Islamia it surprised each one of us is paying and we continue to pay”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“From flying out of India to speak about freedom of speech and democracy. So every day, I pay a cost that nobody really knows and a cost that I do not speak about to the world because I feel that I do not have to make myself the story. But unfortunately, in Modi's India, I am the hunted and the hunter. God knows. I mean, this is what they say a lot of times. I do feel that some days it gets exhausting, but that's the life I've chosen for myself. And that's the India we are living in where those who bear witness to the India story every day are being targeted relentlessly. Some of our best activists and journalists are behind bars. Mohammed Zubair was behind bars for almost a month for a tweet, for an innocent tweet that he put out five years ago about a film. For that, he was behind bars for at least one month.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Is influenced by my faith and the court has initiated proceedings against me in that case sixteen years later just as if I was about to leave. This is just a very small window into the world of the harassment that I have faced. Multiple publications have researched about the kind of threats that I received 8.5 million tweets registered against me in three months, emerging out of India, calling me a jihadi jain. My image morphed on a porn video, circulated all over the internet. Alleged Photoshops with Photoshops with leaders of the opposition, photoshops with critics of the government saying I have sexual relationships with people. My bank account's frozen for relief work that I did for COVID-19 victims as Persians cast on my integrity. There is not a single thing that exists in the playbook of the government that has not been used against me or my family members topped at the airport.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I arrived in Chicago two days ago to spend three months at the Institute of Politics. And I thought that as soon as I get here, I might get a relief from all that the harassment that is being inflicted on me. But today, when I opened the newspapers, I saw the Indian foreign minister give an interview in Washington, D.C. that publications like the Washington Post are running a propaganda against the Indian government in the West. in as many words pointed out to my writings in the Washington Post as an opinion writer. So that's the topmost officer. And this is just an everyday part of my life just before I was leaving for Chicago, a court summon was issued to me about an investigative story that I did in 2008 about Hindu nationalists and their involvement in terror attacks. They complained by the Hindu nationalist against me says that my journal”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Clarifications one, the Supreme Court of India in an open court in 2002 had called the Modi government modern-day Nero's who looked the other way as innocent children, houses and women were being gangraped and killed. That's the observation of the Supreme Court of India.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For life, and which is why Gujarat, the genocide of Gujarat, it has remained a memory with me that is a constant, that finds constant mention in my articles and opiates because that is not just the journey of communalism and far-right nationalism in India, but it also tracks the journey of Narendra Modi's leadership as this Hindu nationalist leader who wanted to give Hindus their pride of supremacy in India. And that's where we are today.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“and i don't know i felt that that was the moment i did not want to feel helpless i wanted to get rid of the helplessness that i had felt all my life so i went to gujarat by a train i told my family that i'm going on a trek we went to gujarat and what i saw in 2002 in gujarat in the relief camps the stories that i heard from muslim women who were gangrea from children who were orphaned was an exact repeat of what a glimpse of what we got in 1993 and the same narrative Narendra Modi, a Hindu leader who thought that Islamists were going to overtake India. And it was so visible that not a single day was the chief minister of Gujarat Narendra Modi out on the field asking Hindus to stop the violence or giving a speech or just coming out and asking for peace to be maintained. And it was a scar for me. It scarred me.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So I used to feel very helpless because at the age of nine when this mock came and we were all helpless and we took refuge. I remember the 2002 riots, the communal riots, where the first televised 24-hour news channels had made their market in there. It was the first fully televised communal riot in the history of India. And I remember watching it along with family members and fear. That was also the year my brother got married. And he was, I remember the festivities were on, and my father would say, should we call off the wedding? Because it looks like it's going to be a repeat of what we saw in 1993. And we lived in fear. And that point of time, some of my friends and her sister and her family and her siblings were going to Gujarat for relief work. They were affiliated with the Red Cross. And they said, would you want to come along? I was only 19 and I was seen as this really introverted shy kid.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I was made to feel an other in my own country. I've repeated this story many times, and each time I repeat it, it's a very unpleasant feeling because I thought it's not an age where you actually burn posters of radical speeches. You know, I used to burn speeches by Hindu nationalists as a form of my own resentment, outcry, and I would talk to Allah saying, why is this happening to us? And I had no access to my family members. We didn't have a phone. We didn't have, back in the day, we didn't have a landline. So months before we got to know that our family members were still alive. And from then on, the decline of India is consistent and it only gets worse. And in the last eight years, it's beyond our own worst expectations of the othering of Indian Muslims.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“of the night through the through the window of our bathroom and we stayed with a Sikh family for months as refugees and I remember when friends would visit the Sikh family in their house it was it used to be Lodi which is a festival in Punjab and they would say who are these girls and the Sikh family would say oh they're refugees they're Muslims that was not an age I was nine and that was the first time”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That is all over the city. And my mom got in and she said, got into the room. And she said, I don't, it's not her. The language that she's speaking is not her. And at a very early age, we knew about Ratyatra, that leaders, Hindu nationalists, are going around talking about the demolition of a mosque. Overnight, there was a feeling of fear that I had never experienced before. And before we knew it, a mob of Hindu nationalists were on the way to our house to pick me and my sister because that's what we do during communal wires. We have witnessed that women end up becoming like the playground for these mobs, right? If you assault them sexually, then you feel like you have assaulted the entire family. So a Sikh family, a Sikh neighbors, they rescued me and my sister. We escaped the house in the middle.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“You know, Kavita, at no point when I was growing up did this idea of Hindu and Muslim and us or them ever, I mean, we were the only Muslim family in a predominant Hindu locality where my father was So at no point did we as Muslims feel that we were ever threatened or I actually, none of us were really conscious of our Muslim identity because we are Indians more than anything else. But on 6 December 1992, it's something that each time when I speak about it, I get goosebumps because that's not an age. I was nine, my sister was 14, my siblings were very young. The age where you are dealing with romanticism of your country and everything beautiful, you are you have to deal with a harsh reality. On that morning, a poster was posted pasted on the door of our house. We said December, let's go to Ayodhya on the 6th of December. And our neighbor, there's this woman, amazing woman, who was mom's best friend. She came and said, do you know Didi, do you smell the whiff from Babri that is that has...”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Saying, you know, that they do feel the othering, that they do feel the othering in their classrooms. And it is a feeling that I resented back in the day when I was a student and I thought things would change in a modern India. But unfortunately we are only regressing backwards.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Never, till this day, till this day, I don't think a single family member of mine, none of us ever, I mean, whether it's me or my siblings, we are such Daesies that we never even went to universities abroad to get higher education. We are, I can't even begin to tell how much, I mean, it's a shame that we have to prove our patriotism and love for the nation, that me and my brother and my nieces and my nephews feel for this country, the goosebumps that we get when we listen to speeches during the independence movement, but it's unfortunate that my nieces are still being asked in good humor in their schools if they are going to support Pakistan during an India partition match. India-Pakistan match. So nothing has changed. When I was in school, I would be asked this question in good humor. So which team are you going to support today, India or Pakistan? I mean, that India, Pakistan matches a great test of patriotism for Muslims, right? Nothing has changed today. My nieces come home some days with tears in their”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“For generations, why would we leave? Why would we be uprooted from our culture and our land? So that's the belief with which Muslims decided to stay and which is precisely why, and we stayed here because of the assurance given by leaders like Mahatma Ganti and Nehru and Ambedkar that we will be safe here. This is going to be our country. We are going to have equal rights just like our Hindu counterparts, our Christian counterparts. But today, like you said, Jannah's fears, I hate to say this, is coming true. Now that I agree with Jannah, but Mr. Modi is trying to prove him right. Mr. Modi is trying to prove the detractors of Gandhi and Nehru right by treating Muslim minorities in India as second-class citizens in their own country.”
2022-11-02 · Intelligence Squared · India at 75 – Secularism and the Rise of Hindu Nationalism, with Rana Ayyub · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT