Most New Year’s celebrations include revelry, countdown and fireworks. In Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, where protesters against the new citizenship amendment law have occupied a main road for more than two weeks, 2021 began with the national anthem.
And in a scene that will give you goosebumps, here are the people #ShaheenBagh singing the national anthem to play # Any2020 .#CAA_NRC_Protest pic.twitter.com/YjS30fmQDE
– Vakasha Sachdev (@VakashaS) December 31, 2020
Shaheen Bagh sounds the new year with the national anthem. pic.twitter.com/CwbeLbdnrB
– Rohan Venkat (@RohanV) December 31, 2020
Despite the freezing temperatures (this winter is the coldest Delhi has ever seen) and the threat of police action at any given time, hundreds of people gathered to wave the national flag and protest against a set of measures. government officials who believe they will undo the Indian Constitution’s commitment to secularism. Protesters believe the amendments to the Citizenship Act and the National Register of Citizens promised by Interior Minister Amit Shah will be used as tools to harass Indian Muslims, although Prime Minister Narendra Modi has insisted that these policies will not harm anyone.
“Sleep ways. I want to wake him up, ”said Dawood, a student at Jamia Milia Islamia, the university where police brutality against Protestant students first inspired campuses and then people across the country to show solidarity. “It simply came to our notice then. So I’m collecting messages for him. ”
Nearby, a couple of guys were writing a message like this that Dawood says will be delivered to the Prime Minister’s office: Modi, the spirit of revolution will fall from the sky over your head.
Shaheen Bagh characterizes in many ways the protest movement that has erupted across the country in opposition to the Citizenship Act. He has no leader. No political party or organization can claim to be the leader of the protest. Instead, it feeds primarily on residents of the Muslim-dominated neighborhood who fear government movements will jeopardize their status as citizens.
It also has women at the helm.
The women crowd together to keep warm, but without letting them pass #ShaheenBagh pic.twitter.com/XCBq6OFm1A
– Rana Safvi رعنا Rana (@iamrana) December 30, 2020
Umme Habeeba, 20, the youngest protester of @ Shaheen Bagh.Wen, I asked her mother how she sits cold after giving birth for 20 days, she said: “..samvidhaan bachaana “Baithengey” @thewire_in @washingtonpost @AJEnglish @nytimes @times @TEMPS @BBCHindi pic.twitter.com/gynaLNF6SN
– Mariya Salim (@ MariyaS87) December 30, 2020
On Tuesday evening, as crowds began to gather for the New Year’s Eve protest, neighborhood residents helped organize the venue, creating hallways for women to enter the downtown store directly, while others carried tea and biryani for the protesters.
“No one has asked me to be here,” said Faizaan, a student preparing for her accounting exams, who was forming a human chain with other Shaheen Bagh residents to create a path for women to navigate between the crowd. “We are here because we are from Shaheen Bagh. Not on anyone’s orders. “
On New Year’s Eve, the protest was actually a combination of many demonstrations. In front, in the shopping area, a parade of speakers (Dr. Kafeel Khan, Harsh Mander, Yogendra Yadav) praised the tenacity of Shaheen Bagh residents and their determination to sit through the cold, police pressure and the fear for their lives.
A poet, after a long satirical poem about journalists (“TV channel or newspaper, we are all here to traffic lies, I am a journalist, only money is my God”) led the crowd to the chants of Hindu unity -Muslim ”, a timely response to those who have tried to portray the protests as a work of radical Islamic elements.
“Hindu-Muslim ekta, zindabad
Inquilab, zindabad “. pic.twitter.com/RxI7Uu459G– Rohan Venkat (@RohanV) December 31, 2020
But beyond the tent, people filled the road, folding banners or piled up around small bonfires, calling for the repeal of the Citizenship Act.
“I could have been with my friends if it was a normal New Year,” said a young woman from Shaheen Bagh who did not want to be identified. “But it’s not a normal New Year’s Eve.”
