New Delhi: They had come to an Ahmedabad park with books, not banners. But a silent reading circle of students, teachers and young professionals on Thursday evening turned violent after a group carrying saffron scarves and wooden sticks confronted them over their choice of reading material.
The group repeatedly questioned participants about Malala Yousafzai’s views on Kashmir and objected to her book I Am Malala, according to people present at the gathering. Participants alleged that members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal then dragged and beat several people with wooden lathis, baseball bats and metal rods. A policeman who arrived at the scene was also allegedly assaulted.
VHP is the new literary review wing in India.
The Student and Youth Collective, Ahmedabad (SYCA), which organised the reading circle, has described the incident as a “pre-planned hate crime” and an “attempted mob lynching”. The gathering at AUDA Garden was organised in response to the recent controversy at Anand Niketan School Shilaj, where I Am Malala and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl were removed from an extracurricular reading list after protests by parents and right-wing groups.
Swati Goswami, a SYCA member who was at the gathering, said around 20-30 people had assembled at the park and were quietly reading. M Shashi Kumar, another member of the collective who was injured in the incident, said the number had reached about 40 at one point.
“There was no gathering or speech or anything of that sort. People came, they picked up a book, and they sat in the park, silently,” Kumar told ThePrint.
The participants had brought books in English and Gujarati, including works by Anne Frank, Malala, Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi and Arundhati Roy, he said. There were elderly people, working professionals and college students sitting separately on benches, he added.
According to Kumar, three men entered the park around 5:30 pm, looked at the gathering and left. Around 6:30 pm, when participants were preparing to wind up, a larger group entered.
The men appeared to become agitated at the sight of Malala’s book and repeatedly asked participants, “Do you know what Malala said about Kashmir?” and questioned why it was being read. “After that they shouted, ‘Inke pant utar ke dekh lena agar woh Muslim hai ki nahi’ (take off their pants and see if they are Muslim),” Goswami said.
The confrontation escalated when the group began targeting Jai Thakkar, one of the organisers. The men accused the gathering of trying to impose “Islamic teaching” in Ahmedabad and objected to the presence of Malala’s book. Thakkar then began singing the national anthem, apparently to defuse the situation and buy time, Goswami said. But the group allegedly continued confronting him after the anthem ended.
“They were like, you support people like Malala. You are anti-national,” Goswami said.
The men then allegedly dragged Thakkar, prompting other participants to intervene.
“They started fighting with him. And they dragged him, and we were trying to let them release him,” Kumar said.
Goswami dialled 112, and police arrived after several minutes. However, the arrival of the police did not stop the violence. According to Kumar, the group initially prevented the police from entering the park and continued attacking participants, dragging some of them out of the park and onto the streets. Kumar was punched in the back, face and head and sustained a cut above his right eye, he said.
A policeman was also allegedly hit on his arm while trying to intervene. Six or seven people from the reading circle, including two women, were assaulted and some were left bleeding.
“They were so confident. They were not scared of the police at all. And they were arguing with the policeman also,” Goswami said.
Police eventually put seven participants into a police vehicle and took them to Vastrapur police station, she said.
“They said that we are not detaining you. We are bringing you because that was the only way to protect you. Because if we left you there, they would have killed you,” Goswami said, adding that officers told them the crowd could not be controlled.
Some of those injured subsequently went to a civil hospital and obtained medical certificates. A complaint was filed at Vastrapur police station. Three people were arrested in connection with the incident but were released on bail the same night.
The Bajrang Dal Gujarat account also posted about the incident on X, saying its members had confronted people gathered to read Malala’s book. The post described those at the reading circle as Congress leaders and members of what it called the “Crococh Janata Party”. It said that after its members first tried to explain their objection to the book, they had “explained in Bajrangi language” when their objections were not accepted.
The participants deny that the gathering was organised by a political party.
“We are neither from CJP nor Congress. We are just citizens,” Goswami said.
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From a school canteen dispute to a fight over books
The reading circle was organised against the backdrop of a controversy at Anand Niketan School Shilaj that began on 11 August with parents’ complaints about an alleged piece of glass found in food served at the school canteen.
The dispute later expanded to allegations of religious discrimination over the inclusion of I Am Malala and Anne Frank’s diary in the school’s extracurricular mandatory reading list.
Members of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal joined the parents’ protests at the school premises.
Following notices from District Administrative Officer Rohit Chaudhary, the school removed the two books from the reading list and terminated the services of its consultant, Munazza Shums. It also removed its canteen supervisor.
The decision prompted SYCA to issue a statement expressing solidarity with the school, its staff and management.
The statement was signed by more than 350 people, including lawyers, teachers, principals, students and other citizens. It urged the government and other stakeholders to recognise that education extends beyond textbooks and requires engagement with critical books and other resources.
“We urge the government and all the stakeholders to consider how education is multifaceted, and to bring this into schools; one has to engage with critical books and resources other than textbooks,” the statement said.
It also called on those concerned to “give the school the autonomy that is necessary to carry on with its educational initiatives”.
The reading circle was organised after the statement was issued. The participants did not restrict themselves to the two books at the centre of the controversy. They also brought books by Bhagat Singh, Gandhi, Nehru, Sardar Patel and Arundhati Roy, among others.
Kumar said the intention was to show that the debate around a particular book should not become a reason to restrict reading more broadly. The collective regularly organises discussions and reading-related events, he said, because it wants to create spaces in Ahmedabad where young people can discuss books and ideas.
“I feel more sad for them than angry at them, to be honest. They don’t get that the reading circle and education are also for their benefit,” he said.
For Goswami, however, what happened at AUDA Garden was ultimately not about a political disagreement over Malala or the school’s reading list.
“This is a safety issue. This is not a political issue,” she said. “Just some people quietly sitting in a park and reading. They were about to leave and double the number of people who come and do this.”
(Edited by Saptak Datta)