Transcripted Interviews

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Indian human rights activist receives first FAU Human Rights Award

Germany has a new human rights https://www.fau.eu/2022/10/17/news/i-see-human-rights-work-today-as-a-resistance-to-injustice/award, presented by FAU. The FAU Human Rights Award honours internationally distinguished individuals who are committed to human rights research, teaching and practice. The inaugural recipient is the Indian human rights scholar and practitioner Dr. Harsh Mander.

In this interview, Dr. Mander talks about his work.

Interview with Harsh Mander: ‘We Must Reclaim the Idea of Fraternity.’

India – one of the cradles of human civilization, an economic powerhouse with the fifth-biggest GDP among all countries, the largest and most diverse democracy in the world. Yet recently, the COVID-centred coverage of international media has reduced this enormously complex nation into an endless series of calamitous scenes of death and suffering wrought by the pandemic. Harsh Mander is a renowned Indian writer and human rights activist who works with the most marginalised and vulnerable populations in that country, including survivors of mass violence, religious minorities, and homeless children. His organization, Karwan e Mohabbat (Caravan of Love), has been providing humanitarian relief to these groups under the current crisis.

As civil disobedience, I will register as Muslim and invite the consequences: Harsh Mander

By 11 December, both houses of Parliament had passed the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill of 2019. The CAB excludes members of six communities—Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian—from Afghanistan, Pakistan or Bangladesh, from being treated as illegal immigrants, if they entered India on or before 31 December 2014. The bill eases the requirements for them to gain Indian citizenship. Notably, illegal Muslim migrants from these countries will not be entitled to the benefits under the bill, and will continue to be considered illegal immigrants. Observers have commented that the CAB is possibly a precursor to a nationwide implementation of the National Register of Citizens, in order to identify and expel illegal immigrants.

Case: Mass Community-Based Legal Aid in Gujarat, India

In the aftermath of the 2002 Gujarat riots, more than half of the complaints filed by
victims were closed without trial. The Nyayagrah initiative brought together
working-class Muslim and Hindu volunteers to provide moral support and legal
assistance to the victims. Along with a petition to the Supreme Court, the project
led to real access to justice for the survivors of the riots.