When the personal becomes political

On the morning of February 27, 2002, a few coaches of Sabarmati Express catch fire in Godhra, Gujarat, killing the people trapped inside, a majority of whom are pilgrims and kar sevaks on their way back to Ahmedabad from Ayodhya. The cause of the fire is still disputed, but the horrifying incident sparks rampant violence against the Muslim community, members of which were accused of being responsible for the incident. For the next few days all over Gujarat, reprisals rage, aided and abetted by the state and its various agents, from ruling politicians and the police to organisations such as the Vishva Hindu Parishad and local gangsters. Ahmedabad sees recurring brutal outbreaks for three months and such incidents occur with regularity across the state for a year. These riots are commonly known as the 2002 Gujarat riots but Zara Chowdhary prefers the term "pogrom", citing the disproportionate level of death and mayhem amongst the minority Muslim population. Her incredible memoir, The Lucky Ones, is a chronicling of this debilitating period and centres on her family and their ties to each other as well as the land.

- AREEB AHMAD

Ms Chowdhary was just 16 in 2002, spending most of her time escaping the dysfunctionality of her home and preparing for board exams. She lives in Jasmine Apartments, a trio of closely-packed tall residential buildings in Khanpur, a predominantly Muslim ghetto in Ahmedabad. She goes to a Christian missionary school. She has Hindu and Parsi friends. Her life is a picture of plurality, though all is not right under the deceptively tranquil surface. Hate and bigotry just need a catalyst to explode into a conflagration.

She writes: "Who we were before 27 February as a neighbourhood, city or country—the many layers of where we work, whom we know, whom we are friends with, and who counts us as friends—none of this matters anymore. Now we are numbers and names on a list, vermin to be cleaned out of our fortresses and homes and holes under the bridges or up in the sky."