‘Blizzard of hate sweeping through the world’

NEW DELHI: There is a “blizzard of hate sweeping through the world” with countries experiencing a rise in intolerance and violence, said rights activist Harsh Mander as he talked to French researcher Sarah Perret and Norwegian author Olav Ofstad about global conflicts and “culturally right-leaning” political leaders.

“Hatred is increasingly normalised because as humans we need to rationalise the violence around us. When you don’t stand up against everyday violence, it becomes slightly more acceptable. This is what happened in Germany when it exterminated Jews. Could this happen against minorities in India? Yes, it could,” Ofstad said, while referring to a rise in hate crimes like lynching in contemporary India. Mander, whose initiative Karavan-e-Mohabbat reaches out to families of victims of hate crimes, said rising instances of lynching in India is a result of “systematic manufacture of hate” against minority communities.

On why people across the world are choosing leaders who “legitimise and promote bigotry”, Perret quoted French philosopher Pierre Bourdieu, who talked of “symbolic violence” stemming from domination of one class by another. “When one class controls all resources, it leads to symbolic violence and we end up choosing culturally-right leaders who serve the interest of dominant class,” she said.