Have attacks on minorities been normalised in India? | Inequality

‘We don’t have the capacity to control mobs once they are unleashed,’ says the chair of Amnesty International India.

“We’ve always had structural violence, and we’ve always had explicit violence on Dalits, on women, on tribal people, all of that. But earlier, I thought this operated on the margins of the state … I think that has changed now,” Shahrukh Alam, a Supreme Court lawyer, says of attacks on minorities in India.

“The violence against Muslims now, and even Dalits now, it’s unapologetic. And it’s unapologetic because the courts, the media, public discourse, all paint them as people who are outsiders, who are aberrations.”

“Do I feel that the fact that genocide might take place? I do,” says Aakar Patel, chair of Amnesty International India. “I think that what is happening in India is slow burn.”

When asked about how anti-Muslim hate has been allowed to spread, journalist and author Rana Ayyub says the rhetoric of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has played a primary role.

On UpFront, Marc Lamont Hill talks to journalist and author, Rana Ayyub; Supreme Court lawyer, Shahrukh Alam; and chair of Amnesty International India, Aakar Patel, about the treatment of minorities in India.