Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India: Writings on a Movement for Justice Liberty and Equality

Description On 15 December 2019 police in riot gear stormed Delhis Jamia Millia IslamiaUniversity and attacked unarmed students protesting against the Citizenship(Amendment) Act (CAA) which makes religion the basis of Indian citizenship. Inneighbouring Shaheen Bagh a few women-mothers other relatives and friends ofthe students-came out into the streets in outrage and anguish. They sat on a mainroad demanding repeal of the CAA which twinned with the proposed NationalRegister of Citizens (NRC) could make Indian Muslims aliens in their own country.Soon similar protests broke out across the country in a display of civil resistance ofa kind never seen in Independent India.Shaheen Bagh and the Idea of India examines how the sit-in by a small group of Muslimwomen-many of whom have stepped out of their homes alone for the first time-has united crores of Indian citizens of different faiths and ideologies in a fight to savethe principles of equality and secularism enshrined in our Constitution. It also throwsup many important questions: Can Shaheen Bagh-and the many other ShaheenBaghs it has inspired-reverse the damage that has been done to our Constitutionaldemocracy in recent years? What has sustained this non-violent movement despitevilification and persecution by the central and state governments and their police?Will it survive the aftermath of the brutal communal violence provoked in the mainby members of the ruling party that devastated northeast Delhi in February 2020?What form will the movement take after the Shaheen Bagh protest site was clearedby the police on 24 March 2020 following the COVID-19 outbreak? Will it continueto build new and transformative solidarities in our society?This timely and necessary anthology comprises interviews with some of the bravewomen at the core of the protests; ground reports by journalists and social activistslike Seemi Pasha Enakshi Ganguly Nazes Afroz and Mustafa Quraishi; and essays byleading thinkers and writers including Nayantara Sahgal Harsh Mander SubhashiniAli Nandita Haksar Apoorvanand and Zoya Hasan. It is a book that must be read byeveryone who cares about India as a liberal democracy.