It Started with Words

by Harsh Mander

English 272 pages 1 edition

‘Rich in documentation [and] an?imated by a rare moral and politi?cal urgency. The author writes not simply as an analyst of hate politics but as one who has stood in active resistance to the culture of hatred that hate speech both produces and sustains.’—Apoorvanand, professor and columnist ‘[A] courageous book that holds those in positions of power to account for stoking hate and division and profiting from it. An urgent, indispensable read for all those who care about the country’s future.’—Kunal Purohit, author of H-Pop: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars Since 2014, hate speech in India has moved from the political fringe to the centre of public life. It is heard from election platforms and religious stages, repeated in television studios, circulated through WhatsApp and YouTube, and rewarded with votes, influence and profit. It calls for minorities to be boycotted, evicted, stripped of their livelihoods, driven from neighbourhoods and, increasingly, met with violence. These words have consequences. They create the climate in which homes and shops are demolished, and ordinary citizens are lynched, intimidated, and made to prove, again and again, that they belong to their own country. Human rights activist Harsh Mander examines how this hatred is produced, spread and protected; who profits from it; and what happens when those who incite fear also command the machinery of the state. Drawing on several case studies, including his own attempt to seek legal action against politicians for incendiary speeches delivered in the lead-up to the communal riots in Delhi in 2020, Mander asks whether the law can still protect the vulnerable—or whether it has become another weapon in the hands of the powerful. It Started with Words is a book about how violence begins long before the first blow is struck. It is a warning about the direction in which India is being pushed, one that no concerned citizen can afford to ignore.