On July 26, 2019 schoolteacher Sonia Kidwai was driving through New Delhi’s Safdarjung Development Area when she saw a mob beating up a young boy with sticks. Unlike the people standing and watching without intervening, Kidwai confronted the attackers, even though she was alone. Karwan-e-Mohabbat, a collective that chronicles incidents of hate violence in India, has posted a video of Kidwai’s story as part of its Hum Log, We The People series.

Kidwai had hoped to get help from onlookers when she intervened in the fight. All she received, instead, were confused looks, and definitely no help. “They were just watching me, wondering, as if I am the one who is in the wrong,” she says in the video. “This is the state of our country,” she adds.