New Delhi

The Anti CAA-NRC Protest

The Anti CAA-NRC protests took hold in Delhi in December 2019 in response to the recent introduction of a bill that enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and created a National Register of Citizens (NRC). Not only was the rhetoric of the bill subtly Islamophobic; it was also anti-constitutional because of the role it gave to a person’s religion in the process of acquiring citizenship. The protest started in Shaheen Bagh, a Muslim majority neighbourhood in Jamia Nagar, southeast Delhi. Overnight, a peaceful sit-in was established, with a majority of the protesters being women, and visibly Muslim.

Shaheen Bagh was to become a watershed moment in the world of protest, igniting political imaginations worldwide – because of its prolonged nature, its leadership by Muslim women, and the manner in which it deployed an intersection of religiosity and gender questions together with a secular vision (from the Indian constitution) to counter a Hindu- majoritarian nationalistic discourse. The protest successfully mobilised diverse religious networks in gathering of resources for the occupation. The Muslim women at the forefront demonstrated a powerful new identity as active political agents. Emboldened by the Shaheen Bagh model, sit-ins were gradually established at sites across India. Shaheen Bagh was a also exemplary as a place of care and creation, with facilities for cooking and childcare being established on site, and the emergence of an autonomous archive ‘from below’ as the protestors made posters, banners, pamphlets and graffiti.

The Farmer’s Protest

The Farmer’s Protest was a reaction to the Indian Agriculture Acts of 2020, which were seen as enabling commodity price fixing by large agricultural corporations to the detriment of small producers. The protest started in Punjab, a heavily agricultural state 200km from Delhi. Tens of thousands of unionised farmers from Punjab and neighbouring Haryana travelled to the Delhi borders in September 2020. Overnight, the Indian state created barricades around Delhi and deployed heavy police and paramilitary forces with water cannons and teargas to keep protestors from entering the capital. An increasingly brutal state crackdown only intensified the protestors’ resolve, motivating their occupation of points of entry, particularly the  major borders at Singhu and Tikri, with the aim of obstructing the supply of agricultural commodities to Delhi. The locations were strategically chosen; the protesting farmers could mobilise resources for the occupation from the agriculture-rich hinterlands of Delhi. And through interrupting agricultural supply networks, the famers sparked political imagination around the nation, leading to nationwide strikes. 

Encampments sprang up at the sites to accommodate protestor numbers that grew to over 200,000. Ad hoc infrastructure emerged as they established washing and cooking facilities, temporary health centres, libraries and creches. Following Sikh tradition, langars (free communal kitchens open to all) were set up. Although initiated by Sikh farmers from Punjab, the protest gradually drew in diverse farming communities from across India. The occupations lasted almost a year, eventually forcing the the state to repeal the Agriculture Acts in late 2021.

– Raktim Ray