Delhi Riots 2020: The Untold Story
The Book Delhi Riots 2020 is based on a study of ground events of street violence North East Delhi from February 23 to February 26 2020 that took the form of communal riots.
The book is based on detailed ground data collection including compilation of documentary evidence; research surveys with locals, victims and community leaders from Muslim and Hindu communities in North East Delhi. The team of five researchers from GIA (Group of Intellectuals and Academicians) went to North East Delhi from 29 February 2020 to 10 March 2020 to collect data in the violence They
submitted a report to the Minister of State for Home GOI, Sh. G Kishen Reddy on 11 March 2020.This book is based on the report.
The book is published by Garuda Publications and is available for sale from the Garuda Prakashan website and through Amazon. Almost 30000 copies of the book have been preordered and it has not been banned in India which a vibrant democracy offering its citizens the fundamental right to Freedom of Speech and Expression.
The book contains narratives of pain of Muslim and Hindu victims of the violence. It details the ways in which outsiders in the area camped in localities in North East Delhi for over a period of 8 weeks using the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 as a pretext to drive a wedge between Muslims and Hindus who have lived together in the area for decades in peace and harmony. It assiduously documents the various
hate speeches that were delivered by political parties to plant and exploit existential insecurities in the Muslim community in Delhi. These insecurities were exploited to engineer the communal riot in North East Delhi.
It has interviews of prominent Muslim community leaders who were brutalized by ideologically motivated radical communist and jihadi groups and alienated subsequently from their own people. It also contains details of the Shaheen Bagh model which involved steady communal alienation and provocation, blocking of arterial roads etc which ultimately created a situation of street violence in North East Delhi. This developed into a communal riot. The book serves as a call for communities to understand and watch out against the replication of this model in composite communities in India and abroad.
The authors of the book are professional women and researchers.
-Monika Arora is an advocate in the Supreme and High Court of India. She has fought several cases and served justice for women and marginal communities in India through her legal activism.
-Sonali Chitalkar teaches in Delhi University and has wide experience of field research in Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh.
-Prerna Malhotra also teaches in Delhi University and is an author of several books and a prolific public speaker. Monika Arora Sonali Chitalkar Prerna Malhotra
