"In the India where I grew up, memories of Gandhi, Tagore and Nehru were strong; the necessity of secularism was drummed into us. We knew that our
politicians were largely venal, but it was still a country in which morality and humanity mattered. Now, journalists and writers who speak up against the
undeclared war on Dalits, Muslims, poor people and women are trolled by cyber-mobs – if they're lucky."
Anuradha Roy, an award-winning writer,
reflects on the shocking response to the rape and murder of a girl from a Muslim tribe in India this week
"If you criticise ideas, you challenge ideas, that's when you move a society forward. When you demonise people that's how you rip societies
apart."
Ali Rizvi,
ex-Muslim author, on negotiating the space between left and right on Islam
"I am all too aware that these laws were often put in place by my own country. They were wrong then, and they are wrong now. As the UK's prime minister, I
deeply regret both the fact that such laws were introduced and the legacy of discrimination, violence and even death that persists today."
Theresa
May on anti-gay laws in the Commonwealth
See our quotes of the week archive...
