On his way from the playground discussing Friday prayers with his brother, an 11-year-old boy was taking the same route he took every day, when another boy on a cycle, only a few years older than him, stopped right in front of him and slapped him. “You are a Muslim,” the 11-year-old recounted what the older boy had said. “I’ll hit you more if I ever see you in the Brahmin colony.” The 11-year-old and his brother did not retaliate. They both knew the older boy was from the Brahmin colony, just 500 metres from their own neighbourhood, both located in Araria district, in eastern Bihar’s Seemanchal region. They knew that when the incident occurred, they were neither near the Brahmin neighbourhood at the time, nor returning from a playground there, nor would they pass through it on their way to the mosque. They knew they had not done anything…

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