A peaceful sit-in protest in Delhi, India, began on 15 December 2019 and lasted until 24 March 2020. The protest was led by women who blocked a major road at Shaheen Bagh using non-violent resistance 24×7. Mainly consisting of Muslim women, the protest began in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment. Protesters agitated against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), in addition to police brutality, unemployment, and poverty, and for women's safety. The Delhi Police barricaded major roads in and around the area, affecting more than 100,000 vehicles a day and adding hours to some journeys. Following the North East Delhi riots, police presence in the area temporarily increased with over 1000 personnel being assigned to Shaheen Bagh. After the COVID-19 outbreak in India and subsequent government-enforced restrictions the protest continued for several days in a more controlled manner. Following the complete lockdown imposed in Delhi on 23 March 2020, the remaining protesters were arrested or forcefully removed from the site by the Delhi Police.
The barricaded and tented venue drew large crowds with tens of thousands of protesters participating. Some days saw over 150,000 people at the venue. The protest inspired similar copycat protests across the country, such as those in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The leaderless protest was generally against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government. The blockade became a campaign issue in the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections, especially for the BJP. BJP's campaign was negative towards the Shaheen Bagh protests with a number of campaigners making controversial statements such as goli maaro (Shoot them). Some BJP campaigners promised to immediately remove the blockade after being voted into power and were accused by their opponents of prolonging the demonstration to agitate voters. BJP won an extra six seats as compared to the previous election while the Aam Aadmi Party retained a clear majority with 62 seats.
A number of petitions were filed to stop the blockade. The Delhi High Court refused to hear the first two pleas and on 14 January 2020 declared the blockade to be a police matter. The Delhi Police said that they would not use force to end the blockade. A third petition highlighted the difficulty faced by students with upcoming board examinations. The matter reached the Supreme Court of India, which appointed three mediators to initiate conversations with the protesters regarding shifting to a location which wouldn't block a public place. In response to the batch of petitions filed against the protestors, the Supreme Court of India stated on 7 October 2020 that the "indefinite" occupation of public space for protest or expressing dissent was not acceptable.
One of the Shaheen Bagh protestors, 82-year old Bilkis, was listed in Time magazine's 100 most influential people of 2020, BBC's 100 Women and was also named as the 'Women of the Year' in the 2021 edition of The Muslim 500. Delhi Police labelled Sharjeel Imam as one of the 'masterminds' of the protest. While the protest was praised for a number of reasons some commentators called it a failure with regard to the main goal of revoking CAA.
Background
Women in India have been at the forefront of some of the largest and most successful resistance movements in the country such as the Chipko Movement of 1973, the anti-nuclear protests in Tamil Nadu in 1980; protests following the Bhopal gas leak and the movement to save the Narmada river.
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019
"By insinuating that we don't know anything about CAA or NRC, Modi thinks he can diminish our protest. But we are aware, we have read the Act. We also know what the constitution says."
— Ghazala, 22, Shaheen Bagh protester
On 12 December 2019, the President of India gave assent to the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) following its passage in both houses of the parliament on 11 and 12 December. CAA amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant a swifter path to Indian citizenship under the assumption of religious persecution to any individual belonging to the specific religious minorities of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, for those who entered India on or before 31 December 2014. However, the Act does not mention Muslims and does not offer eligibility benefits to Muslim immigrants or immigrants belonging to other religions or from other countries, such as Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees from Myanmar, and Buddhist refugees from Tibet. It is also alleged that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which the government planned to implement for the country in 2021, could be used to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship. The CAA–NRC issue also ignited protest against the economic crisis and economic disparities. Women's safety, rising cost of commodities, increasing unemployment and poverty also acted as catalysts for the protest.
Shaheen Bagh
Scholars Kiran Bhatia and Radhika Gajjala have noted that "the location of this (Shaheen Bagh) site is critical for the anti-CAA protests for several reasons". Shaheen Bagh is located in Jamia Nagar, South East Delhi, an area with a large population of Muslims from diverse backgrounds; daily labourers to rich businessmen. The Jamia Millia Islamia University is located nearby and getting admitted is an aspiration for students and teachers alike. Further the university has a number of community programmes in the area. So when the police stormed the campus of the primarily Muslim university on 15 December 2019 resulting in injuries to 200 student protestors, Shaheen Bagh came out in support.
The protest
The Shaheen Bagh protest was launched on 15 December 2019, when 10 to 15 local women began to blockade Kalindi Kunj Road (Road 13A), a six-lane highway bordering the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi. More locals joined and it became a continuous sit-in protest. Many of the women were hijab- and burqa-wearing Muslim homemakers. Elderly women also joined the protest. Children and newborn babies were brought by their parents. The protesters were supported and coordinated by more than a hundred volunteers, including students and professionals from Delhi. These volunteers organised themselves around different tasks: setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras and bringing in outside speakers. Within 10 days, the peaceful protest had grown to cover nearly 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) of the highway, supported by donations. On 2 January 2020, some volunteers including Sharjeel Imam withdrew and urged to stop the protest, fearing that its message could be hijacked by political parties with the approach of the Delhi election, which they felt could "tarnish the image of the movement" and raise the risk of violence. However, the protesters immediately made it clear through social media that they would continue.
With crowds attending in the thousands, the protest became one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude against CAA, also inspiring other similar protests across the country. Its stages became prominent platforms to voice issues from which to voice issues and the protest gained support from Punjab farmers. A number of protestors cited the Jamia Milia Islamia attack. The protesters also supported unions opposing the government's "anti-labour" policies. CNN reported that a woman named Bahro Nisa quit her job to continue full-time protest, saying "They tried to stifle the voices of our children [...] as mothers, we decided to stand up". An article in Business Standard called the protest "A new kind of satyagraha", noting how a girl was allowed to express her doubts on stage by explaining her dilemma of supporting the CAA while understanding its dangers.
On 31 December 2019, thousands of camping protestors sang the Indian national anthem at midnight, on what was reportedly Delhi's second-coldest night in the previous 100 years. The protest had one of its largest crowds on 12 January 2020; TIME reported over 150,000. On 26 January, the 71st Republic Day of India, over 100,000 people assembled at the protest site. The flag was hoisted by three local elderly women who became known as "Shaheen Bagh dadis" ("grandmother" in Urdu) during the protest and by the mother of Rohith Vemula. This included Bilquis, Asma and Sarwari. The protesters extended an invitation to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come and celebrate the Valentine's Day with heart-shaped cardboard banners. A small health camp was also set up beside the camped protesters. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals joined as volunteers. A group of Sikh farmers also came and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.
The barricaded area was visited by numerous politicians such as Indian National Congress leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shashi Tharoor; social activists Chandrashekhar Azad, Umar Khalid and Jigesh Mevani; and celebrities such as Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. On 14 February 2020, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap visited Shaheen Bagh and delivered a speech. On the same day, the anniversary of the 2019 Pulwama attack, the protestors paid homage to the 40 Central Reserve Police Force personnel martyred in the attack, a suicide bombing attack by terrorists. The Union Home Minister Amit Shah sent an open invitation for talks to the elderly Shaheen Bagh protestors. However, a crowd of protestors who marched towards the Union Minister's residence for talks was stopped by the Delhi Police.
Some protesters kept a hunger strike. Zainul Abidin, a 29-year-old social activist and businessman from Jamia Nagar, had been on hunger strike since the protest started on 15 December 2019 and continued it into 2020. 50-year-old social activist Mehroneesha began a hunger strike on 1 January 2020. Both stated that they were motivated by police brutality on the students of JMI along with perceived injustices of CAA-NRC. Abidin stated concern for his two sisters who were studying in Jamia, as police reportedly entered the toilets of the institute and beat the female students. Abidin was hospitalised and ended a 42-day hunger strike on 26 January 2020.
Protest art
Shaheen Bagh protestors and volunteers utilised protest art extensively. The protest area was covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners. A number of scale models were installed, including one of a detention camp, symbolically depicting those used as a consequence of the NRC in Assam. A miniature replica of India Gate bore the names of those killed during the anti-CAA protests across India. Protestors built a 12-metre-high (40 ft) iron welded structure in the shape of India, painted with the message Hum Bharat ke log CAA-NPR-NRC nahi maante (We the people of India reject CAA-NPR-NRC). Hundreds of paper boats with the words of Hum Dekhenge (We will witness), a poem of resistance, were arranged as a heart and dwarfed by a tank representing state oppression. Posters proclaimed that the protesters were a bouquet, and not the lotus, the symbol of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
Volunteers contributing to this outsider art included students from Delhi University, JMI, Jadavpur University and University of Hyderabad. A reading area called "Read for Revolution" had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials, drawing allusions to the JMI attack in which police forced themselves into the university's library and assaulted those inside. On 17 January, a bus stop was converted into a library named after Fatima Sheikh and Savitribai Phule, which provided material on the country's constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues.
Speeches, lectures and shayari poetry readings took place. Lines of poetry and nazm of revolutionary poets such as Faiz Ahmad Faiz, Pash, Habib Jalib, Muhammad Iqbal and Ramdhari Singh Dinkar were recited. Inter-faith prayers were held. Scriptures from the Geeta, the Bible, and the Quran were read, and Gurbani was held. Many street peddlers came to the site, including balloon vendors and chaatwallas (people cooking chaat from carts), giving the area a "lightness of festivity". Nearby eating establishments in Shaheen Bagh saw an influx of people with an increase in political conversations.
At the main protest tent in Shaheen Bagh, between 2 and 8 February 2020, a musical and cultural event called 'Artists Against Communalism' was held in solidarity with anti-CAA protest. Performers included Shubha Mudgal, T. M. Krishna, Madan Gopal Singh, Prateek Kuhad and Anushka Manchanda, and musical groups Advaita, Peter Cat Recording Co. and Rajasthani folk troupe Kutle Khan. Mudgal performed the song "Hamari Khwaishon ka Naam Inquilab Hain" (My dream is my revolution) and "Main nahin janta, main nahin manta" (I refuse to acknowledge, I refuse to accept) by Habib Jalib. Rapper Sumit Roy performed his viral rap music "Poorna Swaraj" (Complete freedom) and poet Amir Aziz recited "Main Inkaar Karta Hoon" (I refuse).
Children at the protest
From the first day, children were present alongside parents who participated in the protest. Most of these children would visit school in the morning before joining their parents at the protest site, which became an art space for many children. They would express their thoughts and join in the protest through storytelling, poetry, puppetry, singing and painting. Student and teacher volunteers engaged the local children in reading, painting and singing, and held informal reading lessons.
Children drew about issues such as the Australian wildfires and other things such as Deepika Padukone, Spider-Man and Disney Princesses. Some of the children would go to the stage with slogans such as "Hum kagaz nahin dikhayenge" (we won't show our papers). One of the most common pictures drawn by the children was that of the national flag. Scroll.in called the area an "open air art gallery".