Karwan e Mohabbat (Caravan of Love) is a people’s campaign devoted to the universal values of the constitution, of solidarity, equality, freedom, justice and compassion. We support survivors of hate crimes and injustice with legal, social and livelihood help. We also make short films to reflect our values.
The Karwan e Mohabbat was initially crafted as a journey of atonement, solidarity, conscience and justice in response to escalated hate crimes and lynchings across India. In September 2017, a team of volunteers led by Harsh Mander travelled to 8 states, meeting families hit by hate violence. Everywhere we found minorities living with fear, hate and state violence, resigned to accept these as normalized elements of everyday living; and worryingly little public compassion and remorse in the majority communities.
We have continued to journey in solidarity with victims of hate crimes, at least once every month since then. In our travels, films, writings, public tribunals and other events we chronicle India’s rising darkness, to inform and influence the public conscience; and supporting the survivors with legal justice and all support to rebuild their broken lives.
We were also drawn in to support impoverished people of contested citizenship, embrolied in the NRC maze, in Assam, and then after the amendment to citizenship laws, in the entire country.
After the lockdown abruptly closed all economic activity in the country, creating a humanitarian tragedy of mass hunger and unemployment on a scale not witnessed in decades, and the calamity of stranded and trapped migrants, the Karwan quickly adapted itself to try to respond with solidarity feeding, answering distress calls, and holding states accountable. We also made a large number of video reports about the conditions, wrote articles, organized informed discussions, and undertook a major survey.
In the coming months which will be some of the most difficult in the journey of the Indian republic, the Karwan remains committed to engaging in all of these strands of work, supporting survivors of hate crimes, the citizenship conundrum, and the devastating impacts of the pandemic, the economic collapse, mass unemployment and mass hunger.