Our story

On February 25, a group of friends in Los Angeles struggled to make sense of the communal violence unfolding back home in India, in Northeast Delhi. The overt complicity of the BJP in meaningless death and destruction bore the signature hallmarks  of the barbaric Gujarat massacre that took place 18 years ago under the same Modi-Shah leadership. The need to find a public expression of our burning indignation gave birth to an online chain fasting protest that has now clocked over 150 continuous days and grown to include 27  individual fasters and hundreds of well-wishers all over the world. The rules of chain fasting are simple but demanding: fasters go without food for five days straight, consuming only water and some honey in order to remain functional as we continue to go about our day-to-day activities. Every day of the fast, we post a message of protest on social media, drawing attention to issues of the faster’s choice. Spreading the message of peace, fighting fascism, and demanding accountability from our elected leaders remain the primary unifying focal points of our protest.

Presently, when the privilege enjoyed by anyone with an internet connection stands out in glaring contrast against the living conditions of the vast majority of the victims of state-sanctioned violence in India, the sheer discomfort of fasting allows us to get some of our own skin in the game. And yet, it is eye-opening to realize how our privilege continues to protect us: our self-inflicted pain is temporary. The first two days are internal struggles against the body – rumbly bellies and hunger pangs – and against the mind, which is constantly thinking of food by trying not to. The third day usually offers respite as our body finally relents and we realize how much mental space we devote to thoughts of food. Days 4 and 5 are almost meditative: the reduced urge to eat combined with lower energy levels make us more deliberate in our thoughts and actions, producing the calmness and focus to notice inner voids that we otherwise continually bury under cravings for food. By the end of the fast, many volunteers say they feel happy, rejuvenated and, surprisingly, reconnected with nature.

Some people ask what the point is behind our fasting. What use is it, what does it achieve? On the rawest level, it is this: Our fasting gives us a means to virtually “sit” with those who are scared. Because they are hungry. Because they are tired. Because they feel no one in the world cares for them. If it wasn’t evident before, the Modi Government left no doubts about its inability to care after the overnight, arbitrary clampdown in Kashmir, the viciously orchestrated Northeast Delhi pogrom, the casual abandonment of the nation’s poor majority in the aftermath of the hastily imposed nationwide coronavirus lockdown of March 24, and the unabated intimidation, harassment and prosecution of anyone who falls into the categories declared undesirable by the BJP: muslims, dalits, and dissenters. Throughout its tenure, the Modi Government has pursued a jingoistic Hindu supremacist agenda with an open contempt for facts, expert opinion, and sober debate or analysis. To the clear detriment of our economy, our environment, and our uniquely inclusive social fabric, we are sliding every day into a dark age in which the will of an unqualified egomaniac at the helm aided by his remorseless bully-in-chief trumps over the free will of the 1.38 billion children of India.   

At this critical point in the history of our nation, the shelter we may seek in silence is delusional. It merely empowers the bully who seeks power only to abuse it: by gaslighting people into submission by making them believe that they are small, weak, and alone, and need the protection of the bully to survive. This is simply not true – each of us is born as a sentient being with an infinite capacity for love, empathy and cooperation. We are each here to achieve a more perfect version of the world we were born into. The bully, on the other hand, does not want the world to change: he has learned to game a flawed system to his advantage, and wants to merely hold on to it. A more equal, happier world would clearly not work to his advantage. Unfortunately for India, the bullies have hijacked the dominant social narrative. Our online protest, unhindered by the physical limits of social distancing, has serendipitously become a means to disrupt that narrative of hate. Every time we fast, we are recreating a space of unsullied love, empathy and hope. Our message of peace is a natural human community builder that deters the brute force of the bully with the innate power of gentle truthfulness.