‘At last a book that turns a powerful searchlight on the evil tide of hatred and violence stalking our country, where our minorities live in fear, and Muslims among us are killed under a government that has declared war on Islam. Harsh Mander started work as a civil servant and quit for reasons of conscience. He has since been the conscience of India. He reminds us of the state-sponsored massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002, and the Gulberg massacre in that pogrom where the courts have yet to provide justice. He reminds us of individual Muslims—the boy Junaid and the cattle trader Pehlu Khan—who were butchered for being Muslim. He draws a parallel between India and America, showing how both governments have brought out the worst in their people. He asks why Indians have not risen against our government’s inhuman policies as Americans have risen against theirs. It is a question we have to answer. Mander works among the survivors of mass violence and his karwans visit the grieving kin of murdered Indians, making him heir to Gandhi, who was one with the suffering of others’ —Nayantara Sahgal