One recent morning, Roop Rekha Verma, an 80-year-old peace activist and former university leader, walked through a north Indian neighborhood prone to sectarian strife and parked herself near a tea shop.
From her sling bag, she pulled out a bundle of pamphlets bearing messages of religious tolerance and mutual coexistence and began handing them to passers-by.
Don’t let anyone divide you,” one read in Hindi.
Spreading those simple words is an act of bravery in today’s India.
Ms. Verma and others like her are waging a lonely battle against a tide of hatred and bigotry increasingly normalized by India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, or B.J.P.
Persons:
Roop Rekha Verma, Verma, India’s
Organizations:
Bharatiya Janata Party
Locations:
today’s India