Campaigning against India’s growing culture of intolerance, Rahul Gandhi, India’s most prominent opposition politician, is traversing the length of India, from its tropical south to the icy north. The Bharat Jodo Yatra, as it is called, is a ‘journey to bring India together’. It’s the largest mass contact program the country has seen.
Rahul has covered 3000km so far, walking 20-25km every day. Thousands of people have joined him in solidarity with the message of the Yatra. Members of the Indian National Congress and activists from a wide range of civil society groups are walking the entire route while local activists join for stages of the march. Some brave celebrities, filmmakers and journalists have joined, too, despite knowing this may have negative consequences for their careers.
As a committed Indian citizen, I found it hard to stay away from such a big event filled with positivity and hope to counter the atmosphere of hate and violence that has consumed India for the past eight years. As a political anthropologist interested in Indian democracy, I had to be there in person, for my discipline generates knowledge through the encounter between self and the world. As a sister, I wanted to show solidarity with Yogendra Yadav my brother-in-law, who has been an acerbic critic of the Congress in the past, but who has chosen to walk the whole way because he believes in the message and has convened a squad of civil society organisations who are doing the same.
After following social media posts for three months, I was impatient. I wanted to walk with the others, hear their thoughts, feel their energy and test my endurance. So, on the back of a research trip to India, I joined the Bharat Jodo Yatra on 15 and 16 December 2022.
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