A silent reading session at a public garden in Ahmedabad turned violent on Thursday evening when a mob of men identifying themselves as Bajrang Dal and VHP activists stormed in with sticks, batons, and iron rods, beat at least six participants, tore up books, and threatened a young woman who tried to film the assault – all while police officers stood nearby and, according to organisers, later detained the victims rather than the attackers.
The gathering was not a random event. It came directly in response to a controversy that had gripped the city for weeks: the Ahmedabad District Education Officer (DEO) had fined the prestigious Anand Niketan Shilaj school Rs 10,000 after right-wing groups and a section of parents objected to two books – Malala Yousafzai’s memoir I Am Malala and Anne Frank’s The Diary of a Young Girl, being made available to students.
The dispute began with a canteen complaint in mid-August and snowballed into a sustained campaign by Bajrang Dal and VHP activists. According to a statement issued by the Student and Youth Collective, Ahmedabad (SYCA), the same campaign also pressured the school over the admission of Muslim students, the appointment of Muslim teachers, and its prayer policy. Under this pressure, the school withdrew both books, made morning prayers compulsory, and removed four staff members.
A separate statement signed by 150 students, academics and public figures, including Father Cedric Prakash and economist Indira Hirway, demanded that authorities “let schools run their own affairs,” defending both books as important educational resources.
In direct response, SYCA and a second volunteer group, Gujarat Reads Anyway, organised a silent reading session on August 27 at Ahmedabad Urban Development Authority (AUDA) Garden in Vastrapur, deliberately choosing a spot near the DEO’s own office. The poster circulated ahead of the event carried the slogan “Ban the Censorship, Not the Books,” with portraits of Malala Yousafzai and Anne Frank framing an open book. It laid down firm ground rules: participants could bring “ANY book that stands for free thought,” but there would be “no posters, no slogans, no chanting.” The session ran from 4 pm to 6 pm.
Around 50 people turned out with books in hand – among them titles on Bhagat Singh, Gandhi and Ambedkar, alongside the two contested memoirs, and journalists from the BBC, Ahmedabad Mirror, The Indian Express, and Gujarat Samachar covered the session.
Father Cedric Prakash, who had signed the earlier statement defending Anand Niketan, stayed for most of the two hours and left only minutes before the violence broke out. “There must have been about a hundred, mainly youth, gathered in the two hours. An excellent creative protest,” he told while speaking to Christian Today. “Some time around 6.15, when there were just a handful of youth remaining, some Hindutva goons came in and began attacking them and shouting slogans. Six of the young people were beaten.”
The trouble had, in fact, been building since around 5:15 pm, when a man aggressively questioned the group about their activities, identified himself as a Bajrang Dal member, studied the books laid out on a bench, and walked off without incident. He returned around 6 pm — this time with reinforcements. A mob of 45 to 50 men wearing saffron gamchas and carrying sticks, thick wooden dhokos, baseball bats and iron rods entered the garden.
Two men have since been named by complainants: Jimit Rabari, who positioned himself at the garden’s gate to control the mob’s movement, and Hiren Rabari, who directed the assault itself.
The mob chanted “Jai Shree Ram,” branded the readers “terrorists,” and demanded that people’s pants be pulled down to check whether they were Muslim.
Participants pointed to the books on Bhagat Singh, Nehru and Ambedkar in their midst, but the mob refused to listen. Jay Thakkar tried to invite the men to sit and talk; they refused and looked ready to turn violent. As the tension escalated, Thakkar suggested the group sing the national anthem to calm things down. The readers stood and sang it in full, then chanted “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”. The moment the anthem ended, Hiren Rabari allegedly turned to the mob and shouted, “These people are defaming the country”, and the beating began immediately, along with the tearing of several books, including the volume on Bhagat Singh the participants had shown the men only minutes earlier.
More Bajrang Dal members poured into the garden and began pushing participants. They dragged Thakkar out of the park and beat him with sticks, a bat, fists and kicks across his head, stomach, back, legs and left elbow. They struck Sneh Bhavsar on his head, left hand, both legs, elbow and back. They beat M. Shashi Kumar with a stick on his forehead, eyes, jaw and back while forcing him into a police vehicle, striking a police officer’s hand in the process. They slapped Savan Zalariya hard enough to break his glasses, then beat him with sticks and a bat on his head, waist and left ankle. Four of the injured needed hospital treatment and were taken to Sola Civil Hospital.
Women in the group were targeted too. The mob grabbed Swati Goswami’s arm and violently pulled her hair. They slapped Maitry Chhaiya repeatedly on her back. They surrounded Aadhya Chhatrola, who was filming the attack, and threatened to “make her disappear” so no one would find her; one man lunged for her phone before she screamed and broke free. Even as police tried to move the injured into a van, the mob kept hitting them.
One officer told the group, “We do not know with these people, they can even kill you.” Three constables who stepped in to protect the participants were themselves surrounded, and the mob assaulted one of them before officers finally got the injured away from the scene. Outside the garden, the attackers told bystanders that “anti-nationals and terrorists” had gathered inside and “needed to be taught a lesson.”
Complainants handed over weapons left behind at the scene and have asked police to secure CCTV footage from AUDA Garden, the nearby Kasa Vyoma building, and an Amul parlour before it gets overwritten.
Police registered a First Information Report [FIR] No. 11191020260278 at 00:40 on August 28, citing Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita sections for unlawful assembly; constructive or joint liability; simple rioting; rioting while armed with a deadly weapon; voluntarily causing simple hurt; criminal intimidation [189(1), 190, 191(2), 191(3), 115(2) and 351(2) respectively].
The People’s Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), Gujarat, says this FIR badly understates what happened. In a statement, PUCL points out that the FIR reduces Hiren Rabari and Jimit Rabari to unnamed men merely “present with the mob,” cuts the reported mob size from 45-50 down to “about eighteen,” and drops every detail pointing to a communal motive — the Bajrang Dal-VHP identification, the religious sloganeering, the “terrorist” accusations, the demand to verify people’s religion, and the national anthem episode.
PUCL also argues the charges are too weak: Section 115(2) carries just a one-year bailable sentence, while the injuries — inflicted with bats and iron rods, and requiring hospitalisation – call for Section 118 (hurt by dangerous weapons) and Section 117(4) (grievous hurt by a group acting on communal grounds), neither of which the FIR invokes. Nor does it mention Section 74 for the assault on Goswami, Section 121 for the officer struck while on duty, or Section 78 for the man who stalked and pursued Chhatrola.
PUCL has demanded that police amend the FIR to reflect the full complaint, name Hiren Rabari and Jimit Rabari as principal accused, apply the stronger sections, forensically test the surrendered weapons, protect Chhatrola and the other complainants, and finish the investigation on a fixed timeline. It has also asked the Gujarat State Human Rights Commission and the state’s Director General of Police to call for a status report.
SYCA said the injured participants have filed their own FIR and that the collective holds video evidence backing every claim in its statement. It expressed dismay that three men arrested over the attack were released on bail soon after, while no attacker was taken to the police station on the night of the assault. “The youth and broader civil society will not be silenced by this violence,” the group said, vowing that its “fight against disruptive right-wing forces such as the Bajrang Dal will continue.” Bajrang Dal has issued no public response, and Gujarat police have not commented on PUCL’s assessment of the FIR.
“The attack should be condemned unequivocally by one and all who believe in freedom of speech and expression and who are convinced that education should be critical, creative and be able to challenge the system,” said Father Prakash.
