Dissident Spotlight: Teesta Setalvad
Teesta Setalvad remains under house arrest for being too honest a reporter of crimes which India's prime minister is complicit in.

Journalists are often targets of authoritarians because the best ones write about flawed and dangerous leaders the most unapologetically. Teesta Setalvad is among this elite group of writers and thinkers.
Her journalism career began in 1983 after she finished law school. In 1984, she covered the Bhiwandi Riots, a violent series of riots Between Hindus and Muslims that left 146 people dead.
Violence between Hindus and Muslims has been an ongoing challenge for India since it partitioned into Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan in 1947. Partition followed after Hindu and Muslim groups failed to come up with a plan for a unified state. As Hindus and Sikhs moved to India and Muslims to Pakistan, as many as one million people were killed in border massacres.
Riots like the 1984 violence in Bhiwandi recurred over the next few decades. Journalists like Setalvad would play important roles in reporting the violence and becoming crucial human rights voices.
Gujarat Riots and Human Rights Work
In May 2002, a train of Hindu pilgrims was set on fire in the state of Gujarat. Fifty-eight to 60 people died in the burning carriages. The Hindu-majority community turned on the Muslim minority within the state, and the next year saw gruesome violence against Muslims.
The Gujarat riots were significant because of evidence that the chief minister of Gujarat, Narendra Modi, incited violence against Muslims. A British report found that Modi restrained the police from intervening in the violence. Police officers have also been accused of participating in the murder and mass rape of Muslim women in Gujarat.
Modi has denied all accusations, and Indian courts have repeatedly exonerated him. However, India’s courts are no longer independent under Modi. His rising influence in Indian politics culminated in his 2014 election to prime minister of India.
Setalvad’s Cases Against Modi — And Modi’s Retaliation
After covering several waves of Hindu extremist violence against Muslims, Setalvad expanded her work. She started a magazine with her husband focused on fighting religious violence. She’s also written widely on feminist issues.
The Gujarat riots marked a turning point in her career. In response to the mass violence, she founded an NGO called Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP). CJP filed lawsuits against Modi for his complicity in the pogrom committed during the Gujarat riots. None of their lawsuits resulted in Modi’s arrest or fall from grace.
Setalvad also testified to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in 2002. She implicated Modi’s party in the violence against Muslims, but that did not result in long-term consequences for Modi, either.
Instead, in addition to his authoritarian consolidation of power, Modi had Setalvad arrested.
Arrest and Bail
In June 2022, Setalvad was arrested on conspiracy charges for trying to tie Modi’s actions — and silence — to the mass violence against Muslims in the state he was elected to rule twenty years earlier.
In September 2023, she was released on bail, but cannot leave India without permission from the state.
There’s a lot of her work that’s been left out here. Her membership in an organization dedicated to Indian and Pakistani co-existence, feminist organizations, and other human rights organizations had to be glossed over to make room for Modi’s decades-long grudge against her.
If you’re looking for someone’s work to follow, any of Setalvad’s books, book chapters, or articles are good places to start. Now’s a good time to pay attention to her as her fate in Modi’s India remains uncertain.