There was one partition of the land in 1947. Harsh Mander believes that another partition is underway in our hearts and minds.
How much of this culpability lies with ordinary people? What are the responsibilities of a secular government, of a civil society, and of a progressive majority? In Partitions of the Heart: Unmaking the Idea of India, human rights and peace worker Harsh Mander takes stock of whether the republic has upheld the values it set out to achieve and offers painful, unsparing insight into the contours of hate violence. Through vivid stories from his own work, Mander shows that hate speech, communal propaganda and vigilante violence are mounting a fearsome climate of dread, that targeted crime is systematically fracturing our community, and that the damage to the country's social fabric may be irreparable. At the same time, he argues that hate can indeed be fought, but only with solidarity, reconciliation and love, and when all of these are founded on fairness.
Ultimately, this meticulously researched social critique is a rallying cry for public compassion, conscience and justice, and a paean to the resilience of humanity.
Harsh Mander, writer, human rights and peace worker, columnist, researcher and teacher, works with survivors of mass violence, hunger, homeless persons and street children. His books include Looking Away: Inequality, Prejudice and Indifference in New India; Ash in the Belly: India's Unfinished Battle against Hunger; Unheard Voices: Stories of Forgotten Lives; Fear and Forgiveness: The Aftermath of Massacre; Fatal Accidents of Birth: Stories of Suffering; Oppression and Resistance;Fractured Freedom: Chronicles from India's Margins; The Ripped Chest: Public Policy and the Poor in India; and Untouchability in Rural India (co-authored). He regularly writes columns for the Indian Express, Scroll, the Wire and Telegraph. He coordinates the production of the annual India Exclusion Report. His real-life stories have been adapted for films, such as Shyam Benegal's Samar and Mallika Sarabhai's dance drama Unsuni. He is associated with social causes and movements for communal harmony and justice, minority rights, the right to information, the right to food, homeless rights, health rights, bonded labour, tribal, Dalit, child and disability rights; and recently organized a journey of solidarity and conscience to families affected by hate violence across India called Karwan e Mohabbat or a Caravan of Love.
