Southasia Review of Books podcast #10: Zara Chowdhary on ‘The Lucky Ones’ and surviving the violence of the 2002 Gujarat pogrom

Welcome to the Southasia Review of Books Podcast from Himal Southasian, where we speak to celebrated authors and emerging literary voices from across Southasia. In this episode, Shwetha Srikanthan, associate editor at Himal Southasian, speaks to the writer, producer, and educator Zara Chowdhary, joining us from Madison, to talk about her memoir, The Lucky Ones (Context, September 2024)

On the 27th February 2002, two train carriages were lit on fire in Gujarat, claiming the lives of sixty Hindu right-wing volunteers. The chief minister of the state at the time, Narendra Modi, called the burning an “act of terror”. The next day, raging Hindu mobs, poured into Gujarat’s streets looting, raping and burning alive the state’s Muslims. The massacre continued for three months. Within three weeks, more than 2000 Muslims were killed and by the end of 2002, more than 50,000 Muslims became refugees and survivors in their own country. 

In 2002, Zara Chowdhary is sixteen years old and living with her family in the city of Ahmedabad. Instead of taking her board exams that week, Zara is put under a three-month lockdown, with her family and thousands of others fearing for their lives as Hindu neighbours and members of civil society transform overnight into mobs, hunting and massacring their fellow citizens. Modi, will later be accused of fomenting the massacre, and yet a decade later, will rise to become the prime minister of the “world’s largest democracy”, fuelling the rise of Hindu nationalism across India. 

Zara’s memoir The Lucky Ones is a reckoning with this past that feels all too present today, and is an affecting ode to the women in her family. It is about the refusal to allow the violence that tore Gujarat apart in 2002, to be forgotten or repeated. It is the rebellion of a young Muslim woman who insists she will belong to her country, family, and faith on her own terms. 

This episode is now available on Spotify, Soundcloud, Apple Podcasts and Youtube.