Protests ring in the new year in India as a 'Black Day'

The longest running protest against India’s Citizenship Amendment Act was started by Muslim women in the neighborhood Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. Photo by Avinash Giri.

NEW DELHI — On New Year's Eve, thousands of people gathered in the small Muslim neighborhood Shaheen Bagh on the outskirts of India’s capital to protest against the new citizenship law that excludes Muslim migrants and a proposed citizenship register, calling Jan. 1 a “black day” rather than a holiday.

The protesters, led primarily by Muslim women, some wearing black burqas and toting their kids, have blocked the highway that connects Delhi to its neighboring state, Uttar Pradesh, since Dec. 15. 

Protests have continued nationwide in India since Dec. 12 when the Modi government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that will give expedited citizenship to non-Muslim religious minorities who have come to India from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh before 2015, despite India’s secular constitution that treats all religions equally. Critics of the law call it "anti-Muslim" legislation, which, for the first time in independent India's history, offers Indian citizenship based on religious identity. They also fear that the law is an obvious step towards making India a Hindu nation under Modi, a stridently Hindu nationalist leader.

Muslim women living in Shaheen Bagh started the protests in response to reports of Delhi police brutality against students of the nearby Jamia Milia Islamia University.

A 16-year-old girl carrying a poster that reads, “Don’t make India a low-budget Israel.” Some critics of the Modi government’s Hindu nationalist agenda and his anti-Muslim politics say the government derives its strategies from Israelis persecuting Palestinian Muslims. Photo by Avinash Giri.

During Delhi’s coldest winter in 100 years, Qamar Zainab, a Muslim woman in her early thirties, joins the protest at Shaheen Bagh every night with her husband and four-month-daughter.

"The law is against Muslims," said Zainab, who was sitting under the blue tarpaulin tent with her family. "It's important for all of us to protest against it. It’s about our identity as an Indian.”

Muslims in India fear that the Hindu nationalist government will use both the National Register for Citizens (NRC) and the new citizenship law to strip them of their nationality. They fear that if they fail to produce the old documents, like a birth certificate or property deeds required for the process, they will be left out of the citizenship list. However, people of other faiths like Hindus, Sikhs and Christians will receive legal protection under the new citizenship law. The Indian government is already building large detention centers for people identified as illegal immigrants after the NRC in Assam, a northeastern state bordering Bangladesh.

“My grandfather doesn’t have his birth certificate, nor does he have any education certificate as he is illiterate,” said Zainab’s Husband, Qarim Sheikh. “How will he show that he is an Indian citizen? What will happen to him?”

Many Indians don’t have enough documentation required for the proposed citizens’ register – and many have them, but with errors. “We don’t want to live an insulting life in detention centers, so we are protesting,” Sheikh added.

Protests at Shaheen Bagh against the CAA and NRC started after some Muslim women came out of their homes against Delhi Police’s use of violence against the students of Jamia Milia Islamia University, which is near Shaheen Bagh. Since then, people of all ages and walks of life come to join the protest at Shaheen Bagh, demanding the immediate revocation of the new citizenship law and NRC.

Rehana Khatoon with her baby, Umme Habiba. Habiba, a 20-day-old baby, was the youngest of all protesters present. Her mother brings her to the protest every night despite the chilling winter that Delhi is facing – coldest in more than 119 years. Photo by Avinash Giri.

The youngest of all protesters is Umme Habiba, a 20-day-old baby, whose mother, Rehana Khatoon, brings her at the protest site every night. “We’ll not leave unless government listens to our demands,” said Khatoon. The massive presence of Muslim women makes the protest unique. It's the longest protest against the CAA and NRC at any one particular site.

As the new year came, protesters stood up and sang the national anthem in unison and shouted "Azadi" (freedom) from, what they called, "the authoritarian and communal reign of Narendra Modi" and his right-hand man, Amit Shah, India’s home minister.

Since India's parliament passed the new citizenship law on Dec. 12, people from all religions, have been protesting across India. They believe Modi's Hindu nationalist party is trying to destroy the country's long-celebrated pluralism. The police have been swift and violent in repressing the protests, especially in those states where Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is in power.

A caricature showing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, India’s home minister, as new fears in the new year. Photo by Avinash Giri.

In many videos that went viral on the Indian social media, police could be seen detaining and thrashing unarmed protesters with batons, ransacking houses and private property. In one of the videos, a senior police official in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh was caught telling a group of Muslims to "go to Pakistan if you don't want to live here." The video was from the Meerut district, where at least five Muslims have been killed since the protests started.

A group of protesters clapping after the speech delivered by a local leader against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register for Citizens. Several local leaders and civil society members were present on the stage during the protest. Photo by Avinash Giri.

In recent weeks, in the state of Uttar Pradesh (UP) alone, the police have detained over 5,500 people and arrested around 1,100 people on charges of arson and inciting riots among others as they clamped down on dissent, according to media reports. The state is ruled by the Modi’s party, the BJP, with Yogi Adityanath, a firebrand Hindu monk who recently said that his government would "seek revenge" from protesters who have damaged public property. Twenty-four people have been killed across India-- 19 of them in UP. Police reject allegations that they fired ammunition on protesters or used force on people arbitrarily.

“Politicians who have been elected by people are using police to crush their demands,” said Sherina Nigar, a student from Jamia Milia Islamia University who was present during the protest at Shaheen Bagh.

Modi has defended the new citizenship law saying that his government doesn’t discriminate against any religion. He has accused the opposition parties of spreading lies to stoke public sentiments against the government. Modi has also appealed to his supporters to support CAA. While the protests raged across the country, he falsely claimed in one of his recent speeches that there are no talks in his government on the NRC, and there are no detention centers in India.

A volunteer distributing food packets to protesters. Protests at Shaheen Bagh that have continued since Dec. 15 are unique because of the involvement of volunteers who distribute, tea, coffee, food, sweets and water to the protesters. Photo by Avinash Giri.

Both India’s president and home minister, on different occasions, have expressed the current government's firm resolve to implement the NRC in the whole country. And there is enough evidence, according to media reports, that there are multiple detention centers in India to keep illegal immigrants, which the NRC aims to identify.

Addressing the protesters at Shaheen Bagh from a make-shift podium, Harsh Mander, a prominent social activist, said that “it’s a victory of the people who have been protesting against the CAA and the NRC that the prime minister is forced to lie.”

So far, there is no central leadership to the protests happening across India. “These protests are more important than our lives,” said Nigar, the university student. “It’s about our democratic constitution… If a religious minority lives with fear in a democratic country, it’s shameful.”

“We’ll keep raising our voices (against CAA and NRC) as long as we have a voice," she added.

Avinash Giri is a Delhi-based Poynter-Koch fellow reporting for Religion Unplugged.