On Friday, 9th June, Hopscotch Reading Room, India Justice Project, and Die Linke Berlin Internationals are organising a book reading and conversation with Azad Essa, Author of Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel.

About the book:

Under Narendra Modi, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with its trajectory towards authoritarianism and a ‘Hindu Rashtra’ (Hindu State), little attention has been paid to the linkages between Modi’s India and the governments from which it has drawn inspiration, as well as military and technical support. India once called Zionism racism, but, as Azad Essa argues, the state of Israel has increasingly become a cornerstone of India’s foreign policy.

Looking to replicate the ‘ethnic state’ in the image of Israel in policy and practice, the annexation of Kashmir increasingly resembles Israel’s settler-colonial project of the occupied West Bank. The ideological and political linkages between the two states are alarming; their brands of ethno-nationalism deeply intertwined. Hostile Homelands puts India’s relationship with Israel in its historical context, looking at the origins of Zionism and Hindutva; India’s changing position on Palestine; and the countries’ growing military-industrial relationship from the 1990s.

About the author: Azad Essa is an award-winning journalist and author based between Johannesburg and New York City. He is currently a senior reporter for Middle East Eye covering American foreign policy, Islamophobia and race in the US. He is the author of The Moslems are Coming and Zuma’s Bastard and has written for Al Jazeera, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy and the Guardian.

On Tuesday, 6th June, India Justice Project, and Die Linke Berlin Internationals are organising an informal reception for Azad in Café Karanfil. You are warmly invited to both events.