The Stories and Scars of the 2002 Gujarat Pogrom (February 14, 2026)

Beyond the Taj: The Story of India’s Minorities

The 2002 Gujarat Pogrom is not history. The violence and terror inflicted on thousands of Gujarati Muslims lingers with those who survived it decades after. 

One of those survivors is Zara Chowdhary, who was sixteen years old when the Godhra train fire claimed the lives of sixty Hindu right-wing volunteers and upended the life of five million Muslims. Instead of taking her school exams that week, Zara was put under a three-month siege, with her family and thousands of others fearing for their lives as Hindu neighbors, friends, and members of civil society transformed overnight into bloodthirsty mobs, hunting and massacring their fellow citizens.

With both empathy and courage, author Zara Chowdhary speaks about her family’s experience in surviving the Gujarat pogrom, the experience of telling the stories of the victims, and the writing of her memoir, The Lucky Ones.

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In solidarity,
Indian American Muslim Council