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Memoir 'The Lucky Ones' explores anti-Muslim violence in India

Click here for the original audio and to read a book excerpt.

Author Zara Chowdhary tells her deeply personal story of growing up in India during a period of anti-Muslim violence in “The Lucky Ones.” The book has just been announced as a finalist in the PEN/John Kenneth Galbraith Award for Non-Fiction.

Chowdhary shares her firsthand harrowing account of the days after the burning of some train carriages in a city called Godhra spurred violent mobs of Hindu activists to turn on Muslims, who they believed were at fault for the train disaster in the Indian state of Gujarat. Chowdhary’s story still echoes to this day, in which similar violence appears to be cropping up all too frequently in India.

She joins host Deepa Fernandes for more on her story and what it says about modern India.

This article was originally published on WBUR.org.

Copyright 2025 WBUR

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