Review of Rana Ayyub's Gujarat Files: Anatomy of A Cover Up: Kaveri Sharma

Feminist Dissent
Review of Rana Ayyubs Gujarat Files:

Anatomy of a Cover up
Kaveri Sharma*
*Correspondence: [email protected]
First, a word about Rana Ayyub. She is a journalist who used to work for
Indian media outfit called Tehelka. She left Tehelka few years ago when
they refused to publish what was essentially the content of Gujarat Files.
Not only were her ex-employers not willing to publish the recordings and
findings of Ranas investigative journalism but most publishers declined to
print the book, prompting her to self-publish this in April 2016. The book
Copyright: The
Authors. This article is turned out to be such a sensation that within six months, a second edition
issued under the terms of
the Creative Commons
had to be printed with demand still soaring high. But the interesting aspect
Attribution Non- of this very popular book, which one Indian magazine quoted as one of
Commercial Share Alike
License, which permits the most important pieces of investigative journalism in Indian history, is
use and redistribution of
the work provided that that the launch of the book and its existence as well as reviews have almost
the original author and
source are credited, the been blanked out by mainstream media (barring a couple of exceptions).
work is not used for
commercial purposes and
This brings us to the explosive subject of this book. Gujarat Files
that any derivative works
are made available under presents in-depth interviews with those responsible for maintaining law
the same license terms.
and order in the State of Gujarat during the pogrom of 2002 when about
a thousand Muslims were killed. Rana went as an undercover journalist to
Gujarat in 2010 and stayed there for eight months. What she has
unearthed is not surprising as hearsay from the State of Gujarat always
pointed to the complicity of the then State Government and senior officials
in the organising and spreading of riots in the state but what she presents
very succinctly is irrefutable evidence of this compliance.
The transcripts presented in the book give a detailed account of

provocation of violence that led to the pogrom in 2002. It chronicles the
control of state mechanisms (police, civil service and state government) by
the top two (Narendra Modi current Prime Minister and Amit Shah
Sharma.Feminist Dissent 2017 (2), pp. 198-200 198

Feminist Dissent
President of the ruling BJP) political leaders of the country. The instigation
of violence, the fake encounters and tacit complicity amongst all sectors
of governance that led to the pogrom are well-documented in the book
and make a very sorry reading.
The other significant aspect that Rana uncovers is the caste conflict
within the police force. She presents interviews with Dalit police officers,
who candidly disclose how they had been entrusted with extra-judicial
murders in the form of fake encounters as they can be dispensed with but
the upper caste officers are never asked to do such encounters. This is an
ancilliary finding of this investigative journalism the caste-based
discrimination that takes place and how it works in the uppermost
echelons of society and positions of power. Lower caste senior police
officers describe how they are discriminated and not allowed to build
homes in their native villages despite being holders of power.
One big lacuna of Gujarat Files is that it lacks analysis. Rana is a

journalist and she presents facts as they are. All the transcripts are given
in crude form as might be presented to a court as evidence. One can argue
that a smart reader can infer and analyse on her own but building of
context and analysing the information received would have made more in-
depth reading of the subject. Sometimes this looks like a piece of work
done in a hurry, almost like she had to get it all out in the public arena
before she lost it. There are many typos and editorial errors, which, in a
book of this nature are not significant. But it must be stated that this is a
huge drawback of this book. If one does not know the context of the
pogrom of 2002, then reading this book will be difficult.
What Rana lacks in analysis and depth, she fulfils with her inimitable
flair for mundane detail. She adds small detail like being called to join a
skype session with a friends family as she was stepping out for an
important interview, or the colour of her shirt as she goes out for a
meeting, or the cost of her meal after a long days work. This really does
break the monotony of the transcripts one reads in the book and you

Feminist Dissent
cannot but feel in awe of this very brave and committed journalist who
took all the risks to go undercover and unearth what none of the official
agencies was able to bring about.
Overall, Gujarat Files is a must read for all those concerned with politics
in South Asia and interested in human rights and law and order in the sub-
continent. The fact that those placated in the book are holders of power
in the country is very scary and despite various smear campaigns on social
media, the fact that she is still working as an independent journalist is
nothing short of a miracle. In just over 200 pages, Rana has confirmed that
characterising the 2002 pogrom in Gujarat as anarchy of mob is incorrect.
Her investigation describes how regimes of impunity have been put in
place by the State for its use and it leaves us with the need to understand
how this could happen and what can be done to ensure there is no repeat
of such a horror in a country still governed by the Hindu right BJP. What
the book needs is further analysis and building of a narrative of all the
transcripts provided, so it can be lucid for a reader new to this subject.
References
Ayyub, Rana. (2016) Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover up. Rana Ayyub.
To cite this article:
Sharma, Kaveri. (2017) Review of Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover up by

Rana Ayyub. Feminist Dissent, (2), 198-200. Retrieved from:
http://journals.warwick.ac.uk/index.php/feministdissent/editor/submission
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Feminist Dissent

Review of Rana Ayyubs Gujarat Files:

The transcripts presented in the book give a detailed account of

Sharma.Feminist Dissent 2017 (2), pp. 198-200 198

One big lacuna of Gujarat Files is that it lacks analysis. Rana is a

Sharma.Feminist Dissent 2017 (2), pp. 198-200 199

To cite this article:

Sharma, Kaveri. (2017) Review of Gujarat Files: Anatomy of a Cover up by

Sharma.Feminist Dissent 2017 (2), pp. 198-200 200

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