Viewpoint: The depressing reality of being trolled
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-india-34266119 Version 0 of 1. John Dayal, an Indian Christian, left journalism to focus on human rights work, investigating hate-crimes and targeted violence against tribespeople and religious minorities, particularly Christians. His outspoken activism has put him on the hit list of Hindu nationalists on social media. Most recently, he was threatened after he tweeted that a Mumbai school principal, arrested on charges of molesting two students, had links to India's governing Bharatiya Janata Party. Here he talks about the impact of the abuse he has received online. I have, by now, become used to being called a "Traitor to Mother India". Undeserved, I hasten to add. The first time was at the turn of the century by the then spokesman of the Bharatiya Janata Party, in power at the time. It was when I wrote and spoke in national and international forums about the burning down of village churches in south Gujarat's Dangs forests and the burning alive of Australian missionary Graham Staines in Orissa. So sharp was the ruling party's indictment that several Catholic political leaders rushed to the press to disown me, with a few bishops following them. The call for a trial for treason, however, fell through. Social media was then a dream, though email was catching up. Twitter and Facebook were aspirations by their now billionaire inventors. If people did not like what you said, they phoned you up, abused you, and hung up. You had their phone numbers. Or they sent you an email. You had their address. Once in a long while, someone would organise a small protest near your house. Specially if you were a politician or a "public figure". 'A haven for cowards' There were not too many threats to anyone's life through the media. If anyone wanted to kill anyone else, they did so, or hired someone to do the job. I am a professional journalist and have logged four-and-a-half decades and more, mostly in newspapers but also in other forms, though I gave up employment in 2000 to focus on voluntary human rights work, investigating hate-crimes and targeted violence against tribespeople and religious minorities, particularly Christians. Targeted violence against religious minorities has dominated the Indian landscape since the demolition of the Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya in 1992. Violence against Christians has escalated from 1998 to reach its peak on 2008 in Kandhamal in Orissa. Writing and speaking about the violence, and advocating justice for the victims and survivors has made human rights activists face targeted hate themselves - vocal and often physical. Twitter has added a new dimension to this targeting. And makes it a preferred platform for calling upon like minded people to "take out" someone they do not like, or to silence another. The anonymity makes it a haven for cowards. The power of computers and electronics makes it exceedingly and ominously powerful. For the victim, often alone, powerless other than from the courage within of conscience, it can be overwhelming. It is certainly depressing. The trolls win every time, or so it seems. Barrage of hatred I abhor religious nationalism, and hold it responsible for much of the divisiveness and bloodshed India has faced since independence from Britain in 1947. As a pro-life person, I also abhor capital punishment and am vocal in the campaign calling for its abolition. Earlier this year, India hanged a Muslim, Yakub Memon on his birthday, for his alleged role in a series of bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1992-93. I was among those objecting to the hanging, on principle. A senior BJP leader went on social media to denounce us all and held us as guilty as the man hanged. His admirers, followers and supporters took up his cry. There was a barrage of hatred against me and Tushar Gandhi, a great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who had spoken against the hanging on television channels. But that was insignificant compared to what happened last week when my daughter, a journalist in another city, phoned to ask why I was "trending" on Twitter. "What had I done," she asked, "to invite such vitriolic hate and such cyber violence?" Ordinary people almost never trend. It requires, according to technical experts, thousands of people writing a tweet on the person in a short period of a couple of hours or so. This can only be done through teamwork, resources and strong political motivation. 'Not scared' Your computer screen is inundated with hate, often graphically illustrated with flying bullets and other weapons of bodily harm. The words match the pictures. It can be scary. It does not scare me, although I have lodged formal complaints with the police and cyber crime agencies. But it impacts the family, freedom of movement, and of expression. It also terrorises friends and the leadership of the church who are afraid to come out in the open in your support. It can isolate you even though the silent lovers of freedom and peace support your stance. Does this trolling end up in actual physical violence, in murder? Police have so far not been able to find the killers of three people, all as old - or older - as me, who were murdered in Karnataka and Maharashtra for their writings and their campaigns, which irritated the votaries of religious nationalism. Possibly the police can tell if they were trolled or were trending. The police say they have really no means to catch the offenders. And Twitter, zealous guardian of the freedom of expression, does not help. Meanwhile, the threat increases for the freedom of thought, and dissent. They are critical to a republican, plural democracy such as India, which is still evolving and trying to live by a modern constitution a mere 65 years old - two years younger than me. John Dayal is an Indian journalist and human rights activist |