Regardless of its formal definition in sociology or psychology, the term ‘bystander’ forces us to introspect. The dictionary places it in a certain context. “A person who is present at an event or incident but does not take part,” it reads. But we’ve never questioned the cause of this inaction or thought about it in terms of a process. “There is no real translation for it in South Asian languages, and because of the multitude of identities we have in this small space we call home, every community feels ‘othered’ in some way,” city-based artist Mira F Malhotra tells us.

Part of the Kadak collective, a group of South Asian women who work with graphic storytelling, Malhotra and over 50 contributors across the world are working on a self-published anthology that explores the idea of the bystander.