Shaheen Bagh
The Shaheen Bagh protest is an ongoing continuous sit-in peaceful protest, led by women, that began in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) in both houses of Parliament on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment.[3][4][5] Protesters have agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens (NRC) and National Population Register (NPR), but also against police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women's safety.[6] Mainly consisting of Muslim women, the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 15 December 2019,[7] have blocked a road[b] in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 97 days as of 21 March 2020.[8] It has become the longest ongoing continuous protest against CAA-NRC-NPR.[9] As a precautionary measure Delhi Police have barricaded the neighbouring major highways around the area. Following the North East Delhi riots, police barricading and presence in the area increased with over ten companies, 1000 personnel, being assigned to Shaheen Bagh.[10] The protests have even continued despite coronavirus pandemic restrictions in place.
The leaderless protest has become politicized and is generally against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.[8] The protesters have also supported unions opposing the government's anti-labour policies and have protested against recent happenings such as the 2020 JNU Attack, and have shown solidarity with Kashmiri Pandits.[11][12] The barricaded and tented venue has drawn large crowds; The Wire notes that tens of thousands of protesters have participated.[13] The Shaheen Bagh protest has inspired similar Shaheen Bagh-style protests across the country, such as in Gaya, Kolkata, Prayagraj, Mumbai and Bengaluru.
The blockade became a campaigning issue in the 2020 Delhi Legislative Assembly elections. Some politicians promised to immediately remove the blockade after being voted into power, and were accused by their opponents of prolonging the demonstration to agitate voters. The blocked road affects more than 100,000 vehicles a day, adding hours to some journeys. As the area is also a border point into the capital, thousands of trucks are being diverted to other border points.
Five petitions have been 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 have said that they will not use force to end the blockade. A third petition highlighted the difficulty faced by students with upcoming board examinations. The matter also reached the Supreme Court of India with two pleas being filed. Following the initial hearings, on 17 February the Supreme Court appointed three mediators to initiate conversations with the protesters regarding shifting to a location which doesn't block a public place. As of 5 March 2020 the second round of talks with the interlocutors is underway and the next hearing is on 23 March.
Even after the spread of the coronavirus in India, including additional restrictions enforced by the government under the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, which includes a ban on gatherings of more than 50 people and the closure of schools, colleges, cinema halls and weekly markets among other things, the Shaheen Bagh protest still continues as of 17 March 2020. As a precautionary measure the protesters are planning a more "controlled gathering".
On 12 December 2019, the Parliament of India passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which 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.[14] 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,[15][16] such as Sri Lankan Tamil refugees,[17][18] Rohingya Muslim and Hindu refugees from Myanmar, and Buddhist refugees from Tibet.[19] It is also alleged that the National Register of Citizens (NRC), which the government plans to implement for the country in 2021, could be used to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship.[20]
The CAA–NRC issue also ignited protest of the economic crisis and economic disparities that the country is facing.[21][6] Women's safety, rising cost of commodities, increasing unemployment and poverty have acted as catalysts for the protest.[6][22] The Indian economy has been witnessing a decreasing growth rate,[23] increasing household debt,[24] inflation,[25] unemployment[26] and economic inequality.[27] The State Bank of India estimated a growth rate of 4.6% for the financial year (FY) 2020,[28] which would be the lowest since the 2008 Global Recession where the growth rate had been 3.9%.[29] The unemployment rate of India was reported to have reached a 45-year high of 6.1% in FY 2017–18.[30] The Center for Monitoring Indian Economy stated the unemployment rate to be 8.45% with a rate of 37.48% for the 20–24 age group and 12.81% for the 25–29 age group in October 2019.[31] According to the 2019 report of the Pew Research Center, 393.7 million jobs are in a vulnerable state.[32] Oxfam India data states that control of the country's wealth by the richest 1% of the population increased from 58% to 73% between 2018 and 2019, while the wealth of the poorest 50% increased by 1%. The WPS-index (Women, Peace and Security index) ranked India at 133 amongst 167 countries in 2019–20.[33]
The protest
The Shaheen Bagh protest was launched on the afternoon of 14 December 2019, when 10 to 15 local women began to blockade Kalindi Kunj Road (Road 13A[34]), 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.[35] Many of the women are hijab- and burqa-wearing Muslim homemakers.[36] Elderly women have also joined the protest,[37][38] and children and newborn babies have been present with their parents.[39][40] The protesters have been supported and coordinated by more than a hundred volunteers, including students and professionals from Delhi. These volunteers organized 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.[41] Within 10 days, the peaceful protest had grown to cover nearly one kilometre (0.5 mi) of the highway, supported by donations.[42] On 2 January 2020, some prominent volunteers 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.[34] However, the women protesters immediately made it clear through social media that they would continue
With crowds reaching as high as 100,000, the protest became one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India.[35][13] Its stages became a prominent platform to voice issues, and gained support from Punjab farmers.[44][45] A number of protestors cited the 2019 Jamia Milia Islamia attack, in which about 200 student protestors were injured by Delhi police at the primarily Muslim JMI university.[46] 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".[47] An article in Business Standard called the protest "A new kind of satyagraha [English: civil protest]", noting how a girl was allowed to express her doubts on stage by explaining her dilemma of supporting the CAA while understanding its dangers.[48]
On 31 December 2019, thousands of camping protestors sang the Indian national anthem at midnight,[49][50] on what was reportedly Delhi's second-coldest night in the previous 100 years.[3][4][51] The protest had one of its largest crowds on 12 January 2020.[52] On 26 January, the 71st Republic Day of India, over 100,000 people assembled at the protest site.[53][54] 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.[55][56] That day, Umar Khalid and Jigesh Mevani visited the area and delivered their respective speeches.[57]
A health camp has also been set up beside the camped protesters. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose.[58][59] Sikh farmers have also come and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.[60]
The barricaded area has been visited by numerous politicians such as Indian National Congress (INC) leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar[61] and Shashi Tharoor,[62] social activist Chandrashekhar Azad[63] and celebrities such as Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.[50] On 14 February 2020, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap visited Shaheen Bagh and delivered a speech.[64][65] On the same day, the protestors also paid homage to the 40 martyred Central Reserve Police Force personnel in the 2019 Pulwama attack, a suicide bombing attack by terrorists.[66][67]
Culture
Protest art became the voice of resistance and dissent during the event,[68] and the area has been covered in murals, graffiti, posters and banners.[8][68][69] A number of scale models were installed, including one of a detention camp, depicting those used as a consequence of the NRC in Assam.[70][71] A miniature replica of India Gate bears the names of those killed during the anti-CAA protests across India. Protestors built and erected 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" (English: We the people of India reject CAA-NPR-NRC).[72] Hundreds of paper boats were arranged in the shape of a vast heart facing a small model battle tank; the boats were inscribed with the words of Hum Dekhenge (We will witness), a poem of resistance written by Faiz Ahmad Faiz, with the many small and fragile boats dwarfing the tank which represented state oppression.[73][59] Posters proclaim that the protesters are "a bouquet, not the lotus" (the symbol of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party [BJP]), giving the message of unity in diversity.[74]
The protest art has been made by anyone, including students from Delhi University, JMI, Jadavpur University and Hyderabad Central University. A reading area called "Read for Revolution" had been set up with hundreds of crowd-sourced books as well as writing materials,[7][75] drawing allusions to the JMI attack in which police allegedly ransacked the university's library and assaulted those inside.[48] On 17 January, a bus stop was converted into the Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library, which provided material on the country's constitution, revolution, racism, fascism, oppression and various social issues
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