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A review by rbharath
Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story by Monika Arora
4.0
This book was recently in the news after Bloomsbury decided not to publish it under pressure from Left leaning authors. As many pointed out, this was hypocritical considering many of them claimed to support freedom of expression, and had not even read the book.
It is often opined that we are today seeing an acute clash of ideologies. Actually, I don’t think that is what we are seeing – what is actually happening is a breakdown of civility, acceptance and mutually enriching dialogue which is issue specific. It is not about being conservative or liberal, but treating the other with respect. Quite often, this attitude degenerates into confrontation, abuse & at times violence. Country after country, the cycle now repeats. Author Brene Brown outlined well on how this works in ‘Braving the Wilderness’ where positions harden, fueled by a media taking sides (many times based on where the funding comes from), and social media serving as a self-reinforcing mechanism (also in the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’).
This book provides a context to the Delhi riots earlier in the year. After India passed the CAA, which provided an accelerated path to citizenship to those who have stayed in the country for more than 5 years and faced religious discrimination in their host countries, a wide range of opinions and often wild what-next speculation followed. Most of the media the world over is guilty of not discussing this on merit constructively. Protests followed, spun out of control with media & the political class taking sides and later descended into violence. The authors spoke to a wide range of people and suggest that the violence was probably pre-planned, also timed to coincide with US President Trump’s visit. Many local leaders tried to calm the situation as it spun out of control, but that was not to be.
I found the coverage to be fact based, though it could have been more diverse. Overall, the book makes for sad reading with senseless & entirely avoidable loss of lives, and should actually offer some lessons.
It is often opined that we are today seeing an acute clash of ideologies. Actually, I don’t think that is what we are seeing – what is actually happening is a breakdown of civility, acceptance and mutually enriching dialogue which is issue specific. It is not about being conservative or liberal, but treating the other with respect. Quite often, this attitude degenerates into confrontation, abuse & at times violence. Country after country, the cycle now repeats. Author Brene Brown outlined well on how this works in ‘Braving the Wilderness’ where positions harden, fueled by a media taking sides (many times based on where the funding comes from), and social media serving as a self-reinforcing mechanism (also in the Netflix documentary ‘The Social Dilemma’).
This book provides a context to the Delhi riots earlier in the year. After India passed the CAA, which provided an accelerated path to citizenship to those who have stayed in the country for more than 5 years and faced religious discrimination in their host countries, a wide range of opinions and often wild what-next speculation followed. Most of the media the world over is guilty of not discussing this on merit constructively. Protests followed, spun out of control with media & the political class taking sides and later descended into violence. The authors spoke to a wide range of people and suggest that the violence was probably pre-planned, also timed to coincide with US President Trump’s visit. Many local leaders tried to calm the situation as it spun out of control, but that was not to be.
I found the coverage to be fact based, though it could have been more diverse. Overall, the book makes for sad reading with senseless & entirely avoidable loss of lives, and should actually offer some lessons.