The Longview of a Tragedy: Examining the Aftereffects of the 2002 Gujarat Riots
Since 2011, Zahir Janmohamed has been living in and reporting about Juhapura, a Muslim ghetto of Ahmedabad, India that swelled in size after the 2002 riots. Janmohamed, a witness to the 2002 riots, will examine the failure of the Gujarat government
and civil society to rehabilitate the victims (and the corresponding rise of Islamic groups). He will also discuss how the recent election of Narendra Modi as India’s Prime Minister may impact human rights and free expression.
Zahir Janmohamed is a freelance writer based in Ahmedabad, India and he is currently working on a book about the 2002 Gujarat riots. His writing has been supported by fellowships at the San Francisco Writers’’ Grotto, the Norman Mailer Center and the MacDowell Colony. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, Newsweek, The Washington Post, The Guardian, Guernica, and many other publications. He previously served as the Advocacy Director for Amnesty International and as a Senior Foreign Policy Aide in the United States Congress to Representative Keith Ellison. He will begin an MFA in creative writing at the University of Iowa next fall.