Looking for Hope

Earlier this month, I walked down Gokhale Road in central Mumbai with a few thousand people. Behind me a woman in jeans and sunglasses raised a placard that said, “Don’t Make this Lynchistan.” Ahead, a troupe of saree-clad women chanted, “Nafrat ke khilaaf, insaniyat ki awaaz” (Against hatred, we cry out for humanity). Drums resounded. Someone raised a slogan against the government’s muteness in the face of increasing violence against ordinary people. Others joined in. Then I heard a group recite and repeat a phrase I had often heard while growing up in the 1980s, “Hindu–Muslim–Sikh–Eesaee, hum sab bhai–bhai” (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, we are all brothers), and I was a puddle of emotion.