What 9 Communities Taught Me Over Dinner? | Newsreel Asia

What do India’s persecuted communities go through? What happens when you sit across a dinner table and truly listen? Over the course of 9 powerful episodes, The Dinner Table, a docu-series by Newsreel Asia, brings together stories from communities who have long been silenced, sidelined, or targeted — simply for their identity, faith, or beliefs. The host, Harshita Rathore, travelled across different states, cooked meals with families from Muslim, Kashmiri Pandit, Dalit, Christian tribal, Sikh, Tibetan, indigenous tribal, Kuki-Zo, and Chin communities — and sat down with them to share a meal. What unfolded was not just food on the plate, but raw, unscripted conversations around violence, displacement, discrimination, and the deep pain their communities carry. Each episode is a window into their everyday lives — their laughter, pain and resilience. While there are heartwarming, light-hearted moments, the conversations often turn to the harsh realities of what it means to live as a persecuted community in India today. This video offers a glimpse of all nine episodes from the series. The Dinner Table was awarded the EPPY Award 2022 (U.S.) for 'Best Community Service Reporting/Project', and was a runner-up in the 'Best Collaborative Investigative/Enterprise Reporting' category. If these glimpses moved you, I urge you to watch the full episodes on Newsreel Asia’s YouTube channel. It’s more than a show — it’s a quiet rebellion, one plate at a time. Episode Guide: 1. Episode 1 – The life of a Muslim family whose son was lynched. https://youtu.be/-tEaL6Z7eBk?si=2TD3NnndlQ3x1N1R 2. Episode 2 – A Kashmiri Pandit family reflects on their exodus, memories of home, and life in exile. https://youtu.be/-bBpc7e_8vg?si=xlNuxEX1vb7VM664 3. Episode 3 – A Dalit family talks about surviving caste-based violence and what everyday discrimination looks like. https://youtu.be/BOwBCGCVB_8?si=aPogEydRtyJhzkBj 4. Episode 4 – A Christian tribal family speaks about facing faith-based attacks and the struggle to hold on to belief. https://youtu.be/NS7iuToH7hg?si=T0mjezRddGebYqX3 5. Episode 5 – A Sikh family recounts intergenerational pain from 1984 and struggle to get justice. https://youtu.be/jxD0ldWBnUg?si=e9xyp7hBTPNAPwBA 6. Episode 6 – Conversation with a Tibetan family and their longing for their homeland. https://youtu.be/Jra7okFPDWc?si=v3vGgaAKiIOb3ue1 7. Episode 7 – A Kuki-Zo leader in Manipur explains what lies ahead. https://youtu.be/YEP_2mQEc8c?si=TnVR6hGUv0q32O5m 8. Episode 8 – A Chin refugee family from Myanmar shares their journey to India and the struggles of living as a refugee. https://youtu.be/KVllEaghduA?si=HwN4ewBYNxBPyvja 9. Episode 9 – A conversation with a tribal woman whose sons were killed by security forces after being wrongly accused of being Maoists. https://youtu.be/UbMAyArD0tk?si=iEudrQs0p1OgACiY Ground Reports : https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLaUVKhGRwO-wUJkNMgOdezdZ6DwSthnol&si=qsQiFiYnRFmYlk6t