Himal Interviews: Witnessing communal riots from a Muslim ghetto

In June 2025, Himal Southasian launched a podcast series titled Partitions of the Heart in collaboration with Karwan-e-Mohabbat, hosted by the peace activist Harsh Mander. The inaugural season, called ‘Muslim Life – and Death – in Modi’s India’,  focuses on the deepening crisis of Muslims in the country. Since 2017, Mander and Karwan-e-Mohabbat have done the extraordinary and difficult work of documenting a rising wave of hate and crimes against India’s Muslims, and of lending support and solidarity to victims of communal atrocities. In Mander’s words, “We live in deeply troubled times of visceral, everyday hate, violence, fear and division. The first step towards healing our growing fractures is to talk and listen to each other.”

This series is part of the effort to bring forward meaningful conversations on the increasing marginalisation and vilification of Muslims in India. Zeyad Masroor Khan grew up in a Muslim ghetto in Aligarh, a place with people from different religious communities living close by, running their businesses together and having family connections. But, in this same ghetto, he also witnessed several communal riots as he came of age. In this podcast episode, Khan speaks to Harsh Mander about what he witnessed and the lessons from that childhood. They also speak about why Muslims live in ghettos, the new dangers they face from economic boycotts and the unabashed hate and division that is even causing their expulsions from parts of the country.