Cities and Protests: Perspectives in Spatial Criticism [1 ed.] 1527570533, 9781527570535

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Cities and Protests

Cities and Protests: Perspectives in Spatial Criticism Edited by

Mamta Mantri

Cities and Protests: Perspectives in Spatial Criticism Edited by Mamta Mantri This book first published 2021 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2021 by Mamta Mantri and contributors All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-5275-7053-3 ISBN (13): 978-1-5275-7053-5

For all those who question! For all those who protest! For all those who stand for justice and freedom!

CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ......................................................................... ix Foreword .......................................................................................... x Contributors .................................................................................... xx Section I – The Imperative for Protests Sorry (Not) for the Inconvenience .................................................... 2 Zeba Rizvi Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism ......... 7 Mamta Mantri Where There Was Noise: Reclaiming Spaces across Kolkata during the Hok Kolorob Movement ............................................... 35 Shaoni Pramanik Section II – Protests For and By Women Occupying Space: Indian Feminist Movements in the 21st Century ........................................................................................... 64 Shruti Sareen Delhi Rape Protests of 2012 from a Spatial Perspective ................ 91 Swati Bakshi Un Violadoren Tu Camino: A Protest Song against Gender Violence in Illustrations ............................................................... 115 Zeba Rizvi

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Section III – The Spatial Politics of Protests Subverting Mainstream Space: How Shaheen Bagh Enabled Resistance ..................................................................................... 136 Himalika Mohanty In Search of Alternative Spaces: Reconstructing Dialectics between Space and Protest ........................................................... 173 Anoop Kumar and Mamta Mantri Protesting Peripheries: Exploring the Determinants of Protest Space in Three Neighborhoods of Delhi ...................................... 195 Sumedha Chakraborty Section IV – Expressions of Protests A Series of Illustrations on Protests Around the World ............... 230 Zeba Rizvi Cities of Protests and Poetry: The Rhetoric of Urban Dissidence .................................................................................... 249 Sreejata Roy Hindi Cinema as a Theater of Protests: Some Observations ........ 281 Devapriya Sanyal and Mamta Mantri Shaheen Bagh Saunterings ........................................................... 306 Nayanika Chatterjee and Mamta Mantri

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very thankful to my contributors – the young blood – for they have shaped the book to where it is today. This book is also an ode to the vitality of the youth, which leads us through troubling times, such as these. They thought, they wrote, they discussed, they edited, and they did it all during these harrowing times induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. My friends, my family, this is for you too. But most importantly, this book is thankful to and a tribute to every single person out there, who believes in justice and freedom and stands till the last moment to gain them.

FOREWORD

As I write this foreword, farmers in India sit in protest for more than 6 months against the Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; Farmers (Empowerment and Protection) Agreement on Price Assurance and Farm Services Act, 2020; and Essential Commodities (Amendment) Act, 2020) outside the borders of the capital city of Delhi. They were in constant communication with the state, but it refused to give into their demands and continues to do so. Now there is no conversation between the two sides. When I went to the protest site at the Singhu border sometime in December, some 12 kilometers away from Jahangir Puri metro station, the only thing I found myself thinking was, “None of this is fair. Why can’t the farmers be allowed to come to Delhi and protest at the ‘designated’ Jantar Mantar and Ramleela grounds? Why do they have to be stopped at the borders?” The state has used all kinds of spatial strategies to block the farmers from reaching the capital city: roads leading to the capital city at all its three borders were dug up to impede movement, barricades of all sorts were put up across the border, heavy policing was employed, tear gas and water cannons were used, and protestors were beaten up.

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Repressive measures not only repress actions but also aid the creation of alternative spaces. When official sites of protest are out of bounds, common people use available spaces to register their dissent. More than six kilometers of road space have been occupied and farmers have settled there in their trolleys and tractors, preparing, eating and feeding food to the poor and ‘fellow urban protestors’ around. Regular traffic has been diverted through other routes by the administration to avoid further inconvenience to the economy and the country, which have been ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. The state’s view appeared to be that because disruption was relatively minor, let them keep protesting and creating alternative spaces. It hasn’t mattered to the state until now! On January 26, 2021, the 72nd Republic Day of India, farmers arrived in Delhi on their trucks (without trollies) and paraded on the routes agreed by the police and the state on the Outer Ring Road. They said, “Where else shall we go to? Shall we go to Pakistan or to China? This is our Delhi. We all have the right to come here.” But a certain section – the youth, especially – reached Red Fort (one of the oldest symbols of state power) and hoisted their religious flag on the ramparts. This episode ended in violence and later reports suggest that this violence happened in conjunction with the police and state. Today at least 13 layers of barricades ensure that journalists and common people walk tens of kilometers to reach the other side of the city. The roads have been dug up, and cement slabs and pillars have

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been put on the ground. Then are stationed the state police vehicles, Patrolman First Class vehicles, Central Industrial Security Force vehicles, Rapid Action Force vehicles, ambulance, cranes, trollies, and other construction related vehicles. Iron nails have been cemented onto the road, so that tractor tyres blow out if they attempt to enter the capital. Rows of concertina wires, iron barricades, other barricades with cement poured in between them, have spatially distanced the ‘once-favorite-now-terrorist’ farmers and made them understand the authoritarian attitude of the state. These barriers have also ensured that the farmers do not get water from Delhi and therefore have to plan for supplies from elsewhere. What does this mean? Is it a display of power in space? Is the state scared of the farmers? Why doesn’t the state want the common people to interact with the protestors? What does this kind of distancing achieve? Doesn’t the state understand that its repressive measures cause inconvenience to residents’ daily lives? The protestors haven’t blocked any means of communication. It is the state that undertakes these tasks, but has put the entire onus on them. The Shaheen Bagh protest did not cause any inconvenience, but the road blocked by the police between Delhi and Noida did, as they isolated the protest site by not allowing commuters to pass through. Farmers wanted permission to protest at designated sites, but the state did not allow this. And there is a long list of other protests that did and do not get permissions by the police.

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The whole point of the protest – to cause inconvenience and demand attention – has become so diluted that the already divided Indian society gets torn further into two parts. The same attitude of divisiveness was seen during the anti CAA protests (Citizenship Amendments Act) at Shaheen Bagh and other such spaces across India. Pro Right wing and state supporters come up with new antinational descriptions for the protestors almost every day on the internet or through interviews to the media. And the state remains silent and takes no action to address these labels or bridge the gaps. In fact, the state thrives on it. In fact, the Prime Minister himself has used the word ‘parasite’ to describe the protestors. A sentiment of unfairness lies in the spatiality of the protests. Democracy requires public spaces to function, but that is undermined and unavailable now, and therefore, freedom and democracy are under threat more than ever. As the state takes decisions without any public consent, the lack of access to public spaces makes it much easier to do so. As people get reduced to just consumers and lose their socio-political roles, spatial arrangements, or the lack of them, pronounce a loss of connection with others’ stories and a sense of ‘we’; and, in turn, the spaces that ‘place’ these narratives. This causes erosion of the fundamental concerns of, and weakens, the democracy in the long run. No one can tell what will happen next. But many thoughts arise. How do protests occur in discussion and accordance with the state? How

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do citizens respect and protest against the state at the same time? What role does violence play in such protests, except for hurting the moral and ethical responsibilities of the protestors, as state oppression reaches new heights every day? What is the meaning of a city now? Who does the city belong to? How does a city gets belonged? It is known that various ‘cities’ can exist within a particular city. Of the many cities in any city, a new kind has also emerged: the protestors’ city. These cities, in standing against the state, have created their own socio-economic ecosystems, sometimes dependent on and sometimes independent of the city they are based in, building hopes that a peaceful and just space can be created. As the adamant state (like others all around the world) chooses to not pay heed to the protestors, these city-spaces inspire democracy and liberty, and pave the way for the creation of new forms of arts and culture. This book is a selection of chapters that understand the various dimensions about the interactions between cities and protests, under the paradigm of spatial criticism. Without delving into the meaning and perspectives of spatial criticism in greater detail here (as it has been dealt with in each chapter), it should suffice to say that spaces, both private and public, facilitate interaction between individuals and communities, and generate a sense of encounter and belongingness. These dynamics are a prolific source for academic, literary and cultural reproductions. When people come together to raise their voices of dissent in these spaces (or newer ones) in the cities, a large

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domain of enquiry opens up in urban studies and cultural materialism. The book is divided into four sections. The first section throws light on the need for protests. Zeba Rizvi’s story-illustration opens the book with the biggest question of why protests are required, using the metaphor of a cat and his owner, in Sorry (Not) for the Inconvenience. The second chapter, Understanding the Place of Protest Through Spatial Criticism, which I wrote, establishes the paradigms in spatial criticism for understanding protests in a city. At least seven paradigms have been articulated to comprehend urban protests as a form of socio-spatial restructuring and reimagining of a nation and identity, with the added intention of reading protests and resistance as texts of spatial history that must be enhanced with literary and creative texts. Shaoni Pramanik explores the space where most protests begin – in the space of the university. In Where There Was Noise: Reclaiming spaces across Kolkata during the Hok Kolorob movement, Pramanik writes about the (in)famous Hok Kolorob movement at the Jadavpur University in Kolkata. In a chronological and linear narrative of how the movement began and engaged the city and its dwellers, she throws light on the importance of people’s participation. Kolkata, with its strong protest culture, ensured that the Vice Chancellor of the university resigned after the widespread outcry at the violence

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meted out by him towards the students, forcing the Chief Minister of the state to intervene. The next three chapters are devoted to feminist protests, under Section II – Protests For and By Women. In Indian Feminist Movements in the 21st Century, Shruti Sareen writes about the many feminist movements that have emerged in this century. These movements, conceptualized and propagated by women, have spread through social media and found incredible responses in physical spaces. Swati Bakshi writes about the protests that arose in response to the 2012 rape case in Delhi in Delhi Rape Protests of 2012 From a Spatial Perspective. She describes primarily how the historical narrative and demographic features of a city interact with a protest and influence the framing of it. Zeba Rizvi illustrates the famous protest song against gender violence – Un Violadoren Tu Camino – as a tribute to the ever-resilient spirit of women across the world who raise their voices, register dissent and fight against the patriarchy. The next three chapters are an exploration of how spaces enable or disable resistance, under Section III – The Spatial Politics of Protests. In Subverting Mainstream Space: How Shaheen Bagh enabled resistance, Himalika Mohanty writes about the crucial role of the location of Shaheen Bagh in getting the women to sit in protest for more than three months and citizens from all over Delhi coming to show solidarity with them. Sumedha Chakraborty, in Protesting Peripheries: Exploring the determinants of protest space in three

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neighborhoods of Delhi explores the role of the history and location of a protest site in engaging its citizens to raise their voice. The history of the Turkman Gate encouraged its citizens to keep the traditions of protesting alive; Seelampur and Shaheen Bagh, neighborhoods that are now home to citizens from Old Delhi and Jamia, have kept the old traditions alive there too. The locations of the protest sites have also been explored in great detail. In the chapter titled In Search of Alternative Spaces: Reconstructing dialectics between space and protest, Anoop Kumar and I explore, using the examples of Delhi, Mumbai and Bengaluru, how ‘designated’ protest sites undermine the nature and intensity of protests, and why it is so urgent and imperative to create alternative spaces for dissent. Cities, such as Lucknow, Bangaluru, Mumbai and Thiruchirapalli, have been used as examples. Under Section IV – Expressions of Protests, the last four chapters explore the creative side of the protests. In A series of Illustrations on Protests Around the World, Zeba Rizvi draws from protests around the world and creates a series of illustrations about them: Tahrir Square, Baghdad; Beirut and other cities in Lebanon; St Martin’s Square in Lima, Peru; Trump Towers in Manhattan, New York, USA; Santiago, Chile; Pussy Riot in Moscow, Russia and farmers protests in Delhi, India. In Cities of Protests and Poetry: The Rhetoric of Urban Dissidence, Sreejata Roy connects poetry and cities in two ways: showing how

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poetry is a means of protest against the inequalities of the city, and how poetry becomes an instrument and expression of resistance in any protest through a series of examples from India. Poets writing about their cities – the Hungryalist movement in Calcutta and Dalit poets from Mumbai – are discussed in the first section, and slogans and poetry from the anti CAA protests are critiqued in the second section. In Hindi Cinema as a Theater of Protests: Some observations, Devapriya Sanyal and I write about Hindi cinema as an instrument of protest against the backdrop of the city, through the discussion of three films: ‘Main Azad Hoon’, ‘Shanghai’ and ‘Haider’. When protests are shown in the cinema, or when a particular film uses dissent and protest as its subject matter, it can change viewers’ perceptions about politics and power, and build a better understanding about the role of peace and justice. The chapter also showcases various instances where cinema, cities, and protests merge to create a certain cultural product. A protest can and must have various stories and narratives, apart from the central storyline. Every protestor has a unique story with personal motivations while also having shared aims, and these narratives hold much potential for the understanding of a protest, as seen in these films. Nayanika Chatterjee’s illustration and note (written by both of us) – Shaheen Bagh Saunterings – is a creative expression of our experiences at Shaheen Bagh. Stories, such as this, narrate personal experiences at protest sites. Calling ourselves flâneuses, we wish to invite everyone who participates in a protest, to share their own

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experiences. These narratives require just as much attention and deliberation while looking at protests through the lens of spatial criticism. All stories matter! Once again, I am very thankful to the young contributors to the book! I do hope that you enjoy reading the book, just as much as we all did in its making!

CONTRIBUTORS

Dr. Mamta Mantri Dr. Mamta Mantri explores the idea of ‘space’ through different media, in both theory and praxis. She writes about Mumbai and its place in art and culture, especially theater and cinema. Her articles have also featured in prominent Indian journals, including Cinemaya, The Muse India, and The Criterion. She has also worked as a research lead for various historical and architectural engagements, including scenographic museums and heritage conservation projects in India. Following her belief that ‘space’ is also personal, she has created engaging living spaces using Indian crafts and design sensibilities. She has a Ph.D. in English Literature and a Masters in History from the University of Mumbai. Zeba Rizvi Zeba has a tough time writing bios as she doesn't like to limit people by mere words. She is an artist and in 2019 she decided to live in different countries in exchange for her art. She was successful in living in four different countries before the pandemic struck. She is on the move but doesn’t like to call herself a traveler nor does she enjoy traveling – the intention was to ‘live’ in different countries and not merely travel. She loves meeting people from different cultures

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and people with varied perspectives and takes it as the biggest school that the world has to offer. People and their art of expression is what interests her the most and being able to tell the same in different stories, and be told further, is her passion. Shaoni Pramanik Shaoni Pramanick is an entrepreneur and business analyst with a background in International Relations and Heritage Management. She tries to balance both her professions, and in between, devote time to academia through her research papers and conference presentations. Her paper in this book 'Where there was noise – reclaiming spaces across Kolkata during the Hok Kolorob movement' is a personal firsthand account when she was a student of the Jadavpur University during the course of the movement and thus knew it in and out. Apart from this, her interests lie in the various aspects of heritage and its subsequent management which are particularly what her start up ‘Khayaal’ works with. Dr. Shruti Sareen Shruti Sareen, born and brought up in Varanasi, studied at Rajghat Besant School, KFI. Graduating in English from Indraprastha College for Women, University of Delhi, she later earned a PhD in 'Indian Feminisms in the 21st century: Women's Poetry in English' from the same university which is now forthcoming as a book from Routledge in 2022. She has had over a hundred poems and a handful

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of short stories published in journals and anthologies. She is currently seeking publishers for her novel. Her debut poetry Collection, A Witch Like You, is forthcoming from Girls on Key Poetry (Australia) in April 2021. Swati Bakshi Swati Bakshi is a PhD scholar at the College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, University of Westminster, London. Her research interests are Indian cinema, the intersections of city space and gender, emerging social media practices and human relationships. Previously, she has worked as a journalist with BBC World Service, Doordarshan News and as a broadcaster with All India Radio. Himalika Mohanty Himalika is currently pursuing her M Phil in Women's Studies from Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. She has previously been associated with Association for Advocacy and Legal Initiatives (AALI), and as a contributing writer for Feminism In India. Her areas of interest include gender and sexuality issues, feminist research methods and intimate relations. Dr. Anoop Kumar Dr Anoop Kumar has a Ph.D. in International Relations from JNU. His interest areas are culture and Identity. He has a deep interest in understanding the core political issues from the perspective of the

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most marginalized. He is currently associated with a social organization and works in the rural parts of Uttar Pradesh. Sumedha Chakravarthy Sumedha Chakravarthy is a researcher at Sarai-CSDS, an urban and media studies lab in Delhi. She holds a bachelor’s degree in English from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi and Masters in comparative literature from SOAS. She is interested in the lived histories and presents of postcolonial cities as they are variously experienced, constituted, and imagined. At present, her work explores how a range of media, from billboards to cinema, shape life in contemporary Indian cities. Sreejata Roy Sreejata Roy is a PhD research scholar in the Department of English, Rabindra Bharati University. She is also engaged in teaching as a State Aided College Teacher in Jogesh Chandra Chaudhuri College, affiliated to the University of Calcutta. She has been teaching English language and English literature in various capacities for the last five years. Her research interests include urban studies, culture studies and gender studies. Work apart, she tends to be a flâneuse dabbling in visual arts and poetry.

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Dr. Devapriya Sanyal Devapriya Sanyal has a Ph.D. in English literature from JNU. She is the author of From Text to Screen: Issues and Images in Schindler’s List (LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2011) and Through the Eyes of a Cinematographer: The Biography of Soumendu Roy (Harper Collins, 2017). When she is not teaching she is usually busy writing and watching world cinema, Bollywood and Bengali cinema. She also loves reading and has a lively interest in sketching, photography and travelling. Nayanika Chatterjee Nayanika Chatterjee is currently pursuing her masters in animation at the Royal College of Art, London. She is especially interested in personal narratives in the form of documentary animations. In her free time, she likes to annoy her dog, Stark, and attempt impossible CrossFit workouts.

SECTION I – THE IMPERATIVE FOR PROTESTS

SORRY (NOT) FOR THE INCONVENIENCE ZEBA RIZVI

Once there was a peace-loving cat. She didn’t do much except for grooming herself and taking long naps. She was a good cat.

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Until she stopped being a good cat. You see, her person had forgotten to clean her litter box; something he was supposed to do the day he decided to be her person. So the cat started throwing her shit outside the box to protest against the negligence.

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Sorry (Not) for the inconvenience

Her person noticed the mess that she had made but he could ignore it for some time.

Until he could ignore it no more.

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Left with no other choice and not wanting to have his balcony covered in cat shit, finally, he decided to clean it up, thinking to himself, “So… protesting does work after all.”

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Sorry (Not) for the inconvenience

Of course protests can be inconvenient, they are meant to cause inconvenience because comfort has never made change happen. We can either get distracted and cry over the burnt buses or try to empathise with the cause.

For Aria. The 4th smartest cat that I had the pleasure of knowing!

UNDERSTANDING THE PLACE OF PROTEST THROUGH SPATIAL CRITICISM MAMTA MANTRI I Throughout the recorded history of mankind, inequality between the powerful and the powerless has been an integral part of society, even without resistance against social norms, an example being women and slaves in Greek and Roman times. On the Indian subcontinent, Buddhists and Jains protested the insidious impact of Brahmanism and became dominant religions. They were countered again by Brahmanism after over 600 years or so. The Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century was the first recorded protest in Europe. This movement in Western Europe threw down a challenge to the Catholic Church and the Papal authority. The French Revolution and the American Revolution also began as protest marches on the streets, which grew powerful enough to overthrow authorities, often through violent means. What is interesting in the artistic renditions and paintings of revolutions is that there is often a street and there are many people on it with flags, pistols, or swords, and their hands held up in action, intent on razing to the ground a certain symbol of power – a

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statue or a building. These elements have remained almost the same up to the protests of today. When Gandhi advocated his tool of nonviolence, protests generally became very peaceful. This meant that fears and apprehensions about the legitimacy of a protest were put to rest, along with the fear of losing one’s life, to some extent. This also led to the presence of an increased number of protestors at mutually decided locations. Silent marches, candlelight vigils, using black bands on the hands or sometimes on the mouth, and other such means became the norm. Creative means to register individual and collective protest emerged. Modern protests frequently include placards, photographs, or posters to register and reproduce the protestors’ messages. Singing a song, reciting poetry, enacting plays on the road, dancing and flash mobs, wearing clothes (or not) laden with symbolism, covering the body with mud, wearing skeleton garlands, and using mirrors, pots, and bells emerged as other forms of protest. The burning of effigies has also been undertaken at times. Chipko Andolan, led by Sundar Lal Bahuguna in the 1970s in the state of Uttarakhand in India, included the symbolic act of hugging trees as a sign of both protection and protest. Hunger strikes were also popular in the 20th century, along with general strikes, suspension of work, and obstruction of road and rail traffic. Most of these modes of protest continue in the 21st century. The previous two decades have seen other means of protest develop, in terms of occupying spaces and establishing alternate ‘utopias,’

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‘economies,’ or ‘social set-ups,’ as seen at Tahrir Square in Baghdad, Iraq. Here, the protestors created a functional pseudostate around the Square. The Turkish Restaurant building, a high rise from where the police threw bombs and shot at protestors, became a shelter for them once they occupied the same. The tunnel beneath became an open-air museum, which echoes their aspirations and dreams for a just and free Iraq. The farmers’ protest in India, which is continuing at the time of writing, is also another example. Occupying a public place for longer months on end – whether initially or later in the protests, despite police and state atrocities – is an act of resistance maybe peculiar to this century. Art installations, artistic expressions, and graffiti have also become an integral part of protests. The potential of art, fashion and popular culture to inform, educate, inspire and gather has been acknowledged variously in the context of protests. Whether it is Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s song ‘Hum Dekhenge’ sung by Iqbal Bano at a concert, or ‘Dastoor’ by Habib Jalib, or ‘The times they are achangin’ by Bob Dylan or ‘We shall overcome’ by Pete Seeger, or ‘Alright’ by Kendrick Lamar, they become an anthem for freedom and bring together people for a common dream and aspiration. Photographs of Bob Marley or Che Guevara on T-shirts, posters, and the like, are the binding symbols for all protestors. A common lingo or a catch-phrase also becomes a hallmark of many such protests.

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Protests in the 21st century have acquired an additional dimension, and a very crucial one, in the form of social media. Social media has become a place to inform, mobilize, activate and gather people under a common agenda for the protests. The call to attend a certain site for a protest can be announced on social media with specific instructions. People participate in many forms and express themselves through their channels on social media as well as other media channels. The feeling of solidarity and fraternity is further communicated and reinforced by using hashtags and trending the cause on social media to gain the attention of the authorities. What social media has also done is that it has made it easier for people to participate in spirit, if not in person, through the sharing option on their social media profiles. Yet for any collective action to be heard, there must often be a physical manifestation in the form of a collection of people, as this becomes harder to ignore. To demand attention and be heard, all citizens must be aware of the protests, and some may choose to join in. This also compels the authorities to react, either in favor of or against the protestors. There is the very real potential for violence from both the protestors and the authorities, evoking a clear response in the course of actions in such cases.

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In India, the lockdown 1 period due to the Covid-19 pandemic has also added new dimensions to thoughts about protests. Many unjust laws were passed by the government in India during the lockdown. In other times, many protests would have emerged and gained the attention of people and authorities alike. The arrest of Umar Khalid, a political activist, is such a case. After Khalid’s arrest, only a social media campaign in support of him was in full swing. In contrast, protests in the USA as a response to George Floyd’s death were conducted on the streets in various cities across the country, and collective action led to legislative proposals to combat police misconduct and brutality, among other things. When the Prime Minister of India asked the people to bang plates and light lamps at a certain time (for 5 minutes at 5 pm or for 9 minutes at 9 pm) in appreciation for the ‘Corona Warriors’, little did he know that his antics would be appropriated as a protest by the unemployed Indian youth on his birthday as ‘National Unemployment Day’.2 It is here that I wish to emphasize that a protest becomes substantial when it operates in a certain place. The historical context, timing, and characters/actors may be present, but in the absence of a place 1 Nationwide lockdown in 2020. This book refers to the nationwide lockdown in 2020, and not the states imposed lockdown related to the second wave of the pandemic in 2021 2 Read more Karishma Jain. “Why is National Unemployment Day trending on PM Modi's birthday: All you need to know”. DNA. September 17, 2020 https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-why-is-national-unemployment-daytrending-on-pm-modi-s-birthday-all-you-need-to-know-2843452

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to protest, the resistance may not have the desired effect. Geographer Edward W. Soja writes in his book Postmodern Geographies that this spatialization of theory has helped us understand “how relations of power and discipline are inscribed into the apparently innocent spatiality of social life, how human geographies become filled with politics and ideology” (Soja 1989:6). 3 Thus, it must be understood that a geographical place can contribute significantly to the emergence, realization, and impact of a protest, and it should be considered as one of the important factors in a protest. Many studies have elaborated on the role of place in the understanding of what makes contentious politics successful or unsuccessful. This process must continue. II Why do people protest? What factors and contexts facilitate protests? How does a city influence a protest? How do people gather at a certain place to protest? How do they reach the protest site? What determines the choice of that place to protest? What are the tools of protest? What effects do particular places have on the protests? How does that specific site capture the imaginations of the participants? How does it feel to be in that particular place? How do particular sites interact with protestors? How do the participants perceive themselves in the larger contexts of their family, home, 3

Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory (New York: Verso, 1989).

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work, communities, and nation? How do they perceive their relationship with the state and the system? In experiencing and resisting power structures, how do their identities get formulated? In what cultural forms (literary/visual/cinematic) are these emotions and feelings expressed? What are the various texts and sub-texts that emerge out of these interjections of place and site, politics, and cultural expressions? How does a protest influence the city? When I participate in a protest, I ask myself these questions. Obviously, I am not the only one thinking about these questions. Henri Lefebvre began this line of socio-spatial inquiry when he said that spaces are also created by people living there every day, along with representative abstract spatial conceptions by planners and experts. 4 It is through living, observing inequalities, and aspiring to a better life that leads people to look around, question the imbalances and injustices, and gather in protest to demand from the state a resolution to the problems and issues. It is in the failures or successes of a protest that certain aspects of the futures of a city, state, nation, and democracies are formed. A site is one of the crucial elements, if not the only one, in the making of a protest. Many studies have examined various aspects of

4

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).

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social theories, political theories, 5 and urban planning. However certain aspects under the domain of spatial criticism can be very beneficial for holistically understanding the protests. This becomes even more relevant as states and governments pursue the reorganization of “urban infrastructure and urban life in ways that would allow them to better control restive populations” (Harvey 2012:117). 6 This chapter is a preliminary attempt to bring together a list of aspects of inquiry under spatial criticism to comprehend, understand and analyze protests as they happen in the cities. These aspects have emerged from reading work by scholars and writers in this domain, from writing my previous book, and from participating and living through some of the protests. In providing some guidelines in this chapter, I wish to engage and invite many more scholars to contribute to this untapped topic, thereby opening more avenues of academic and multidisciplinary research. Before I begin to write about it, and as a student of history and spatial criticism, I cannot ignore and acknowledge some of the first uprisings/protests that emerged in jungles and villages in India 5 Articulated very thoroughly in Nora Lamm, Planning for Protest: The spatial Dimensions of Civil Resistance Movements in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (New Mexico: University of New Mexico, 2019), https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arch_etds/141. 6

David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. (New York: Verso, 2012), EBSCOhost. libproxy.unm.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true& db=cat 05987a&AN=unm.767564397&site=eds-live&scope=site

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against the British colonial rule. Various tribal communities (Halbas, Pahariya Sardars, Kolis, Santhals, Tamars, Kurichyas, Singphos, Khonds, Bhils, Andamanese, Lushai, Jaintias, Koyas, Juang, Mundas, and others) fought against colonialism and its unjust rule. These resistances did not occur in the cities. They fought to save their lands, their freedom, and their identities. Such protests continue in the heartland of not only India but also all countries, and they fight for saving their natural habitat and environment. The Narmada Bachao Andolan, Chipko Andolan, Bishnoi Movement, and Jungle Bachao Andolan in India are some of the amazing examples of sustained protest to save the environment from the hungry eyes of capitalism. Earth Day, March for Science and People’s Climate March are some of the many global protest movements that help create awareness about the environmental issues of concern. The spatiality of protests and movements in villages and forests is a separate inquiry, which is out of the scope of this chapter. The focus of this chapter remains the city. III The dynamics of a protest can be investigated based on the themes described under separate subheadings below:

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

The urbanness of a protest Henri Lefebvre wrote that class-based struggles in urban areas linked cities and revolution since industries began and operated in the cities 7. Often, a revolution takes place not just in individual urban centers but manages to sustain itself by spreading through a network of cities within a nation and sometimes across national borders (Harvey 2012:116). 8 Harvey (2012:120) also points out that such social movements emerge and dissipate quickly and to counteract this, social movements must reflect more on their urban environments and recognize that their unifying demand is a struggle to reclaim the city from its “bourgeoisie appropriation” and to liberate workers from abuse or oppression. 9 Can any protest that takes place in a city be called an urban protest? Well, not always. Many examples (such as farmers walking from Nashik to Mumbai, the capital of Maharashtra and the financial capital of India respectively in February 2019; or farmers from the southern state of Tamil Nadu protesting for their rights in Delhi’s Jantar Mantar, the official site designated for protests by the state in September 2017) showcase that issues can be of various kinds and 7

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).

8

David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. (New York: Verso, 2012), EBSCOhost. libproxy.unm.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true& db=cat 05987a&AN=unm.767564397&site=eds-live&scope=site

9

Ibid.

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natures, but they might require direct and immediate attention by the government and thus need to come to the capital city to be heard. These protests were very different from those originating in the city for urban issues. However, it can be argued that while the protests might have a social or political, but not urban agenda, the exceptional role of the urban place cannot be ignored because of the impact of the protest’s messages. Occupying, marching and other protest activities transform these places (including streets) symbolically and have a long-lasting impact on the collective imagination in relation to these sites and the city itself, writes Tsirulev. 10 When farmers marched to Mumbai and Delhi, both the farmers and city dwellers were considerate towards each other. Tens of thousands of farmers, a “sea of red” with their identical caps and banners, marched silently through the night in Mumbai so their protest and the anticipated traffic jams would not affect students taking final exams on Monday morning, as per this report. 11 The residents of the city offered food, water, and footwear, as farmers walked through the scorching heat. Likewise, social service outfits provided the farmers of Tamil Nadu with food and other essentials 10

Roman Tsirulev, “The significance of city space for urban protest: Comparison of 2011–2012 San Francisco and Moscow,” Karl-Jaspers-Center for Advanced Transcultural Studies (Heidelberg University, February 2016).

11

Nidhi Sethi, “Giant March Spares Students’ Exams as Farmers Protest In Mumbai,” NDTV, March 12, 2019, https://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/sea-ofred-arrives-at-mumbais-azad-maidan-plan-to-gherao-assembly-on-1822586.

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

during the protest in Delhi. It might be a worthwhile exercise to probe how these relationships that are formed in distress inform and influence each other and the protests in turn. The protests sensitize the people who might not be aware of their sufferings otherwise. Such sites of dissent do and can perform the crucial function of bringing people closer together, especially in these polarized and intolerant times. The politics of a protest site According to Henri Lefebvre, space is a very integral social product that comes out from a blend of “legal, political, economic, and social practices and structure”. 12 And when spatial relations are controlled and influenced, individuals can be controlled both physically and psychologically. Thus, spatial relations are seen as taking a core role in creating and maintaining the workings of discourse and power. The planning and making of any city and its public spaces reflects power and hierarchies that intimidate the viewer/resident of the city. Public spaces send the message of the state’s power and serve to maintain that power. What happens in such cases? Where should protests be held? Should they be held in designated public spaces? If so, what happens to the protests in these designated public spaces? Are such protests popular? Do they attract more attention? How does the larger public react to the 12 Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space, translated by Donald Nicholson-Smith (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991).

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protest spaces? What are the attributes of such a space? What are the various considerations while choosing a space, state-designated or otherwise? Protests may be planned or unplanned. They may take place in the state-designated or historically relevant places or come up in new locations. Protests can occur at historical sites and symbolically connect to the history of the city and nation and its ideals. The previously designated places of leisure can also be appropriated as new sites of protest. Shaheen Bagh and other sites of protest arose in opposition to officially designated places of resistance in India for the anti CAA protests. Farmers in India have settled on all four borders – Singhu, Tikri, Shahjahanpur and Ghazipur – of Delhi, the capital city. Tahrir Square in Baghdad and Cairo as a whole are the symbols of revolutions in the past and serve as connections between the past, present, and future. The occupation of these sites sends a very strong message to their governments. The ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign in front of the Trump Tower is also a symbolic expression of a specific resistance. So also is the case when the sign is ‘vandalized’ and changed to ‘All Lives Matter’. Remember that all this is happening on a site that belongs to the powerful. The location of any protest impacts its influences and character. The physical form of the site When sections of civil society stand up against injustice, question unfair policies, and communicate demands through protests in

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

public, they also inform the larger public of the injustice or cause, while continuing to communicate with the state. The location of protests in urban areas can be any of the following: streets, intersections, plazas, boulevards, parks, squares, informal sidewalk settings, interstitial spaces, railway and metro stations, and highways. Studies have been undertaken to explore “how the physical form of these locations impact events of civil expression and how activists use them to their advantage (or disadvantage)”. 13 These public places “facilitate encounters with others and form the praxis of locations; they are essentially democratic, as they facilitate thoughts, expressions, and exchanges, letting us know that we are a part of a certain collective and society. Scale, location, borders, angles, views, proportions, and artifacts all play a role in determining the final outcome of these areas”. 14 Protests of a longer duration require spaces for sitting and sleeping along with access to basic facilities. In that case, a garden or square fits the bill. Such locations require fitting in more people during the 13

For example, these studies: Nora Lamm, Planning for Protest: The spatial Dimensions of Civil Resistance Movements in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil (New Mexico: University of New Mexico, 2019), https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/arch_etds/141; Roman Tsirulev, “The significance of city space for urban protest: Comparison of 2011–2012 San Francisco and Moscow,” Karl-Jaspers-Center for Advanced Transcultural Studies (Heidelberg University, February 2016). 14 Christele Harrouk, “Public Spaces: Places of Protest, Expression and Social Engagement,” ArchDaily, June 10, 2020, https://www.archdaily.com/941408/public-spaces-places-of-protest-expressionand-social-engagement.

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day and lesser numbers at night. Marches that take place for a day can be held in streets and move from point A to point B. They do obstruct daily routines and traffic, causing inconvenience to the residents, but that is the point of a protest. When metro stations, railway stations, arterial roads, and highways are obstructed by protestors, and sometimes vandalized, there is a message there too. In the obstruction of highways, roads, and railways, the Jat reservation agitation in February-March 2016 indicated an inversion of power by stopping the movement of vehicles and bringing a physical manifestation of the nation’s economy to a standstill. Although the protests started peacefully and the people who were stuck on the highways because of the blockades were served food, the resort to violence was an unfortunate signal. When protests last for many days, cultural expressions emerge. People assemble around food, songs, and discussions. Street vendors come to the site with a variety of wares to sell. These wares may or may not relate to the protest. Medical, health care, child care, and sanitation facilities are also put up. Washing machines, solar heaters and other facilities adorned the farmers’ protest sites on the borders of Delhi. Shaheen Bagh and other sites had a library on the road for people to obtain books to read. Protestors make these spaces into places of resistance, and in so doing they can imbue the place with different meanings and feelings – this has implications for the emergence, character, impact, and outcomes of particular struggles.

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

What is the impact of such protests, whether they take place in a dedicated location for days on end or only one day? What does the location do to the protestor emotionally, morally, and physically, whether they visit it once or many times? What do the protestors feel when they reach the site? Does the site look inviting? How do they establish a connection with that location? How does the everyday landscape of the site get transformed into a site of resistance? Does the site seem inclusive, as the spaces become a beacon of hope where alternative imaginaries and symbolic challenges are made real? These are some of the many questions that any space of dissent raises, as well as provides answers to when subjected to an insightful inquiry. Mobility and accessibility of the site The effectiveness of any protest in a public place often depends on the ability of protestors to access and move through those spaces to reach the site. Organizers plan their actions and disseminate information about new sites through social media and other channels with detailed maps and travel information. This physical movement to a new place by traveling through the city initiates a process of radicalization and growing political consciousness. Three kinds of mobility emerge in the context of protests: a) The design of the place in relation to the city: When Napoleon rebuilt Paris with wide streets, the intent was to suppress protests in

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the future, allow the movement of troops and machines in the city, and prevent people from erecting temporary barricades. Many cities have followed the same principle of destroying resistance politics, eliminating public places, and erasing memories. Even when such public places are created and monitored rigorously, they still encourage people to revolt and these places then become new locations of resistance. The streets of Hong Kong and Lebanon, Central Park in New York and the Clock Tower in Lucknow are such examples. b) The choice to obstruct public nodes and locations of mobility: In the USA, raised highways running across the cities indicated a huge divide and unrest in the lower-income people of the society. Therefore, when protests against racial injustice choose to obstruct highways, they assert “infrastructural citizenship that is defined not by nationality, but by the act of reframing infrastructure as a deployable unit of political rhetoric and civic action”. 15 c) The ability of protestors to reach the protest site: Among the urban features of socio-spatial characteristics of the “streets of discontent” in Bayat’s Life as Politics (2013:184-5), vicinity and accessibility enable the building up of a considerable number of

15 Kyle Shelton, “Protests, public space and the remaking of cities,” Rice Kinder Institute for Urban Research, June 15, 2020, https://kinder.rice.edu/urbanedge/2020/06/15/protests-public-space-transportationinequalities-cities.

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

protestors. 16 Connectivity of the city to the site through metro, train, or bus routes impacts participation. Likewise, the location of the site in an area that is accessible by public transport allows easy access to the protest. It is also suggested that the urban configuration of the site determines the best/shortest path to the protest site. Various studies have tried to understand the nature and role of streets leading to protest sites. Mohamed et al (2015) write that narrow streets and alleyways may facilitate protest and revolts in different ways. They can be more easily barricaded and constrain the advance of security forces, thereby providing a good starting point for protests. 17 The same study analyses a site of protest through the spectrums of spatial configurative analyses, and the roles of road width and crowd dynamics, and argues that “in protests, the symbolic value and the spatial configuration tend to complement each other”. 18

16

Asef Bayat, Life as Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East. Second Edition (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2013).

17

A. A. Mohamed, A. V. Nes and M. A. Salheen, “Space and protest: A tale of two Egyptian squares,” Space Syntax Laboratory, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL. SSS10: Proceedings of the 10th International Space Syntax Symposium, London, UK, July 13–17, 2015, https://repository.tudelft.nl/islandora/object/uuid:be7f9519-9ec0-42ae-b4ea7964ee200164. 18

Ibid.

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The role of the State The spaces that have been built by the state often showcase inequalities in society, sometimes get appropriated during the time of a protest. As a result, it is crucial to investigate the responses of the state. Does it initiate a conversation, or does it simply impose the rule of law on the protestors? Or does it resort to violence in the use of pepper spray, tear gas, pellet guns, or bullets? In all of this, the government understands the threat that the public space generates and responds through pressure, barricades, and other forms of spatial control, to silence these movements. Citing Washington Mall and the core area around British Parliament, Vidyadhar Date, in his Facebook post 19 writes about how centers of power have been closely associated with the freedom to protest by a large number of people, but the ongoing Central Vista project (India’s central administrative area) in New Delhi by the government is built in such a way that it is inaccessible to public and therefore also to articulations and protests. The buildings responsible for the working of democracy will now become undemocratic. Whether it is a struggle to save the last forest (Aarey Forest in Mumbai, or Taksim Gezi Park in Istanbul) or the protests in Kashmir valley against the atrocities of the Indian army, or the 19 Date, Vidyadhar. 2021. One of the most disturbing features. Facebook, (2021, June 10), https://www.facebook.com/vidyadhar.date

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

expansive Occupy Movement, or the farmers’ protests against stateimposed laws for agricultural reform, or protests to overthrow oppressive regimes, or protests against the increased cost of living, or protests for the rights of the disempowered, the state has often used the law, spatial blockades, elements of infiltration, surveillance, targeted repression, and violence to suppress the movements. In closing the spaces for expressions in civil society and using a wide means of curbing protests, the state names the dissent as a particularly insidious kind of uprising, resulting in violence, injury, death, discriminatory treatment, criminalization of such movements and social leaders, and denial of march permits. It also leads to the suppression of democratic rights through law, regulations and bureaucratic processes, and the persecution and prosecution of social leaders and protestors. Gheller (2013) writes, “As neoliberalism intensifies the enclosure tendency of capitalism through the dispossession of the people, the impoverishment of parliamentary politics, and the de-legitimization of extra-parliamentary politics… re-appropriation of urban public spaces is an extraordinary struggle in our times, for the core logic of capitalism revolves around dispossessing people from the commons, and often by force”. 20 As people become more dispossessed of their jobs and their locations, they choose to 20

Frantz Gheller, “From Protest Marches to City Squares and Parks: The Fight for Urban Commons under Neoliberalism,” Problématique: Journal of Political Studies, no. 15 (2013): 3–15.

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empower themselves, once again, through and in newly defined spaces. This relates to the place-based and embodied character of democracy and inclusiveness in these shared social spaces. Every location of a protest movement is a direct incitement in the face of the government. This is evident in how a protest movement often gets its name after the place in which it is staged. The names Shaheen Bagh, Wall Street, and Tahrir Square have the capacity for changing and challenging lines of identities. They proclaim very loudly who they represent. The naming is also a reflector of the injustice meted out through discrimination and deprivation. Naming the protest after a locale and constantly reiterating this name builds up and stabilizes the ascribed properties of that place, the ideals, and the country. Spaces are reclaimed in their own ways. Identity of the site and protestor David Harvey’s (2008) ‘right to the city’ 21 has now assumed larger dimensions. The large numbers of protests happening in cities seem to suggest that the city could be a fertile ground for old and new forms of civic engagement. This role of urban activism becomes a source of identity and solidarity among the dwellers of the city. As the traditional ties of the village, community, and family wear away in urban environments, interest in neighborhood relations and socio-civic issues plaguing the country find prominence; a ‘new

21 David Harvey, “The right to the city,” New Left Review, 53 (October 2008): 23– 40, https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii53/articles/david-harvey-the-right-to-the-city.

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community’ evolves with a specific attachment to the city. The citizen is now at the center and s/he becomes the protagonist of the city. The identity of the urban citizen is therefore shaped as a response to many factors: the commercialization of public spaces, increasing intensity of surveillance, and transnational activity of antiglobalist movements. The contexts and actions of protests are guided by spatial justice, the well-being of residents, and global demands for democratization. The city and its protests raise voices for all issues including those at local, regional, national, and international levels. The identities of both the city and its residents get shaped in many ways and on many levels – religious identity, regional identity, and gender identity, with determining factors ranging from the environment, citizenship, gender, labor reforms, corruption, reclaiming the city spaces, or action against neo-liberalism and developmental policies. How is identity formed? What kind of identity is talked about? Is an identity uni-dimensional or are there many layers to an identity? How do protests reach democratic goals amidst the conflicting ideals of identities and issues? What is the relationship between the oppressed and the oppressor? What is the meaning of equality in the struggle for ‘sameness’ or ‘assertion of difference’? How does the city change its identity in the collective consciousness and memory of a nation? These are the questions that require delving into in the context of each protest, through an inquiry into the roles of personal and collective emotions, identities, organizations, and networks.

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What does a protest do to a single participant? How do people come together to develop a sense of commonality and identify with the same collective? In the act of participation, the urban dweller, cursed by the angst of loneliness and modernity, implements the core purpose of human life – s/he connects with the other human beings. The person’s intelligence and emotional quotient get reinforced through the act of participation. This action, when done collectively, encourages and produces continuous notions of identities. New relationships of trust and solidarity get formulated, which identify a person as a protagonist, antagonist, or onlooker, and facilitate interaction, support, and communication networks (social media, in contemporary times). Of course, collective identity today need not be confined to a certain geographical territory, because of mass-media and social media. In supporting the protests and uniting for a common destiny (including state repression), identities are formulated based on common aspirations and values, which, in turn, have more potential to be inclusive of and tolerant to various realities and truths in the city/nation/world. Cultural expressions as symbols of a protest Spaces get produced when people live there every day and create their individual and collective meanings. In this context, art and culture are big stress-busters. Art and culture invite dialogue amongst the stakeholders. Art and culture can be seen as one way of looking at the urban society, and, in the context of this book, the

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protest too. It is a myopic view (if not an alienated and alienating one) to think that both artistic production in general and the artistic product specifically – both the artist and the art scholar – do not have a role to play in making the urban revolution possible. 22 (Mantri 2019:33-34) Artistic expressions of protest range across graffiti, slogans, poetry, songs, and cinema. These acts of resistance challenge the hegemonic social and political powers and take over other locations and the popular imagination, inviting or repelling people for that particular cause. Lefebvre writes: “The urban space of the street is a place for talk, given over as much to the exchange of words and signs as it is to the exchange of things. A place where speech becomes writing. A place where speech can become ‘savage’ and by escaping rules and institutions, inscribe itself on walls” (2003:19). 23 The same is true for a song, poem, or film. As a place of encounters, and a locus for information and communication, the urban becomes a soft bed for difference and diversity, and for creative and surprising potential, through the possibility of coming across something new, something unique, something surprising,

22 Mamta Mantri, Bombay Novels: Some Insights in Spatial Criticism. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019). 23

Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution (Minnesota: Minnesota University Press, 2003 [1970]).

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shocking, informative, that can make us smile, think, or react. 24 In this process, all these practices dislocate the center, affecting its character and reconfiguring the public of the whole city. 25 With these acts of resistance, Fitter (1995:8-9) contends that when the city is getting written, it “… is read by the mutable ‘interpretive communities’, each with its distinct ‘horizons of expectation’. Historical communities and individuals, intimately conditioned by social, economic and ideological forces, will project varied structures of attention onto external nature, thereby actualizing different configurations of feature and meaning”. 26 And so, in the words of Byrne, “if the city is a text, it is written as well as read, (re)constructed as well as (re)interpreted, and (re)produced as well as consumed” (2001:34). 27 These cultural representations of protests, as they disconnect and disrupt meaning, must be understood and analyzed in the context of urban literature. Socioeconomic and material factors impact cultural and literary 24

Andrzej Zieleniec, “The right to write the city: Lefebvre and graffiti,” Environnement Urbain/Urban Environment [En ligne], Volume 10, (2016, mis en ligne le 04 avril 2017, consulté le Septembre 25 2020), http://journals.openedition.org/eue/1421. 25

Teresa P. R. Caldeira, “Social Movements, Cultural Production, and Protests São Paulo’s Shifting Political Landscape,” Current Anthropology, Volume 56, Supplement 11 (October 2015): S126-S136, pp. S132. 26 Chris Fitter, Poetry, Space, Landscape: Toward a New Theory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995). 27

David Byrne, Understanding the Urban (London Borough of Camden: Palgrave, 2001).

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construction, and spatial histories give us a chance to understand them better. Space, when used as a tool of investigation, “reveals the presence of value systems and their transformatory impact” (Barker 2001:294). 28 Writing about the urban is very critical because it questions the established and conventional values of writing. Barker (2001:94) writes that “places are discursive constructions which are the target of

emotional

identification

and

investment”. 29

Reflections,

emotional and observational, disrupt or reconstruct the meaning and unearth histories, thereby creating newer spatial trajectories of an event and its location. In giving importance to the stories of the street, the flâneurs “recognize the real, as well as supposed, character of the city’s threats, intimidations, menaces or simply challenges to free access” (Jenks 1995:157). 30 When the flâneur (and flâneuse) wanders around the protest site, s/he reclaims not just the present but also the memory and meaning behind the past of both the resistance and the site. As the figure of resistance, s/he joins the crowd as an observer, with her/his individuality, and creates a collage or mosaic, in writing or visually. In so doing, s/he becomes a living encyclopedia of the metropolis and the protest, 28 Chris Barker, Cultural Studies: Theory and Practice (California: Sage Publications, 2001). 29

Ibid

30 Chris Jenks, “Watching your Step: The History and Practice of the Flaneur,” In Visual Culture, edited by Chris Jenks (London: Routledge, 1995)

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capturing the innumerable memories of the protest, site, and city. These memories include the senses of hearing, touch, smell, and sight, and also the mind. And such narratives, stories, and accounts must be encouraged, documented, written, told, drawn, and published. In the creating and writing of these narratives, the participants and observers shall create their own definitions of being, knowing, writing, making, and exploring – themselves and the city. 31 Protests are surely political, but since people participate and interact with each other in a common space, it could be worthwhile to document, create and showcase poignant and interesting stories of those who participate. IV Various aspects are involved in the understanding of a protest. The location of the site of the protest, the easiness with which protestors reach the site, the role of the state and the spatial means it uses to end the resistance, people reclaiming the spaces in different ways, and the various relations they form with each other throughout the protests inspire change in the society – in the backdrop of a city. When I articulate the above aspects of spatial criticism, I have widened the scope of urban protests from a mere political issue to a form of socio-spatial restructuring and reimagining of an identity. Identities are multilayered and complex; and so are spaces. I have 31

Mamta Mantri, Bombay Novels: Some Insights in Spatial Criticism. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019).

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Understanding the Place of Protest through Spatial Criticism

also illustrated how protests and resistance should be read as texts of spatial history and supplemented with as many literary and creative texts, to understand the associated socio-economic, material, political, and cultural factors. Protests must be studied in this larger domain of space, politics and identity.

WHERE THERE WAS NOISE: RECLAIMING SPACES ACROSS KOLKATA DURING THE HOK KOLOROB MOVEMENT SHAONI PRAMANIK Introduction “Jo tum na doge... azaadi, Hum chheen ke lenge…azaadi Hum ladke lenge...azaadi” (If you don’t give us... freedom, we’ll take it... freedom We’ll fight and take it... freedom) These slogans ring through people’s ears whenever they think of any uprising in India. The call for azadi or freedom has been said to have its roots in various movements over the past. Some say it arose from a feminist movement in Pakistan against the patriarchal rule of Zia-ul- Haq, some say it was the war cry for the Islamist separatists in their movement against the Kashmiri Pandits, whereas some say it first erupted in a Women’s Conference at Jadavpur University. Kamla Bhasin, answering this question of its origin, once said that this was what made azadi a universal slogan against tyranny anywhere. It was common and versatile. Its vibrancy increased

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Where There Was Noise

through time and every movement and it was dynamic in its utilisation. 1 These social and political movements that have had histories associated with the masses and sloganeering, rise with the general discontent of the people with the way a certain system is working. The general search for another solution to the prevalent problems and the grievances with a lack of redressal measures give these movements their mass support and mobilisation. This discontent usually takes the form of an uprising spearheaded by a few with intellectual prowess and is carried forward by the masses and the people in action. Slogans, graffiti and processions are some of the crucial parts of a social movement and are considered to be very important to make people aware of its existence and severity. India, with its long spell of colonial rule, gives us innumerable examples of different movements and uprisings against the British. Right from the tribal uprisings, Sepoy Mutiny of 1857, the labour union movements to the Quit India movement of 1942, India’s struggle for freedom has been one long series of uprisings and discontent with the British governance. In the independent times too, there have been widespread examples of discontent with the government and its policy makers on socio-economic inequalities. Starting from the movement for the reorganization of linguistic 1

Suresh Matthew, “Kamla Bhasin on the Origin of the Slogan ‘Azaadi!’”. The Quint. January 11, 2020. https://www.thequint.com/news/india/the-origin-of-azaadi-slogankamla-bhasin-pakistan-feminist-movement

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states in the 1950s, the Naxalbari movement in the 1960s, the Chipko movement in the 1970s, the Narmada Bachao Andolan of the 1980s to the anti CAA movement of 2020, movements haven’t gone down, even though governments have come and gone. Student movements have been a part and parcel of these movements from the very beginning and have dotted educational institutions right from the time of their inception. Though student activism started with issues from within the institutions like fee hike or unfair rules and regulations, it soon saw the form rise to vent their voices against issues of governance, war and the threat to democracy. The size, strength, character and issues of these movements varied but what remained at the core of it was the dissatisfaction of the student community with the authority of educational institutions or solidarities with various social struggles in the world outside. Almost every revolution in the world, every war fought, every migration undertaken, has seen the student community rise to vent their protests against the wrongdoings and the injustice of the authority and their decisions. West Bengal has been no different. Student movements Student movements have been an integral part of the various social and mass movements undertaken in the world. As the generation who is supposed to take charge in the near future, the student community has always been in the forefront of raising their voices against social injustices and inequalities. Instances of student

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Where There Was Noise

movement in the world trace their origin from the beginning of the concept of university itself. Stories of student activism have been found in Europe and Asia in the 14th and 15th centuries under the teachers of that time. Student movement in India started as early as 200 years ago under the leadership of Henry Louis Vivian Derozio in the late 1820s with the Young Bengal, with the advent of the evils of the British rule. 2 This was mainly a result of the widespread British rule with an increased westernised education in the society at that time. Agitations didn’t hold on to their momentum for a while after that until the announcement of the partition of the East Indian state of West Bengal. The next few years preceding the Indian independence, social movements took a huge shape and spread far and wide. In 1905, students of the Eden College in Kolkata burnt effigies of Lord Curzon, the then Governor of Bengal when protest marches took out against the partition of Bengal. 3 This was one of the first documented student protests of the time. The legendary poet Rabindranath Tagore gave a call to observe the celebration of Raksha Bandhan (a traditional Indian festival celebrating the brother-sister bond) where the communal divide between the 2

Correspondent, HT. “A brief history of student protests in India.” Hindustan Times. December 18, 2019. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/a-briefhistory-of-student-protests-in-india/story-zYvk2GeblUVBtzjOzcLA1N.html 3

Vikas Kumar, “From 1905 Eden College Calcutta to 2019 Jamia, students' voice remains 'iron backbone' of democracy.” The Statesman. January 14, 2020. https://www.thestatesman.com/india/from-1905-eden-college-calcutta-to-2019jamia-students-voice-remains-iron-backbone-of-democracy-1502844888.html

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Hindus and Muslims was to be bridged through bonding over festivals. At this time there was felt an immediate need of educational institutions to impart knowledge, spread education and rise above ignorance. It was time to challenge the western ideals and incorporate knowledge of a technical capacity through the Indian education system in the minds of the young aspirants. Thus was created the National Council of Education and the Bengal Technical University to provide education to the youth, whose radical awakening and literacy was required to carry forward this war of independence 4. Further instances of student movements could be seen during the Non-cooperation movement and the Quit India movement which ultimately led to India’s independence in 1947. In independent India, students took active part in raising their voices against every scale of struggle that it witnessed. These movements didn’t even stay confined to the geographical boundaries of states or universities but spread all over around the student community with the same rigour. Solidarity and support also poured in from other countries where the student community stood in the fight against the wrongdoings together with other students. This kind of solidarity was unique and showcased the unity of a community across the globe.

4 University, Jadavpur. “About us: History: Jadavpur University”. Jadavpur University. Accessed October 12, 2020. http://jaduniv.edu.in/.

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Born out of India’s struggle for freedom, Jadavpur University had struggle and activism written all over its inception and has, since then, been an institution where students have known their rights, practiced their duties and stood up against the wrongs meted out in the society. Among the leading Indian universities which are said to have a revolutionary spirit in them, Jadavpur University stands as a constant proof of revolutionary vigour and farsightedness, spearheading movements – be that on the university level, the national level, or movements in solidarity with international war and crisis. Examples of these movements can be said to be the issues regarding the freedom of Kashmir, the Nirbhaya case, the bombing at Gaza, the Singur Nandigram Tata incident, the institutional murder of Rohith Vemula, the unlawful arrests of students at JNU, the anti CAA protests and so on. These protests saw students take to the street to voice their opinions and speak against the evils of the society. These movements have largely been non-partisan independent, without the banner of any political party of force, establishing the student community as one and raising voices against the wrongdoers – whichever community they belong to. The Hok Kolorob roughly translating into ‘let there be noise’ was one of the many such movements, but stood out in its scale, the nature of its participation and the sheer support that the movement got from different walks of life, from the city and became a sort of a war cry for revolution in the years to come.

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The Hok Kolorob 7 years from now, on August 28, 2014, news spread of the alleged molestation of a girl student inside university premises during an ongoing fest. 4 university students were accused of the charges and were subject to suspension without a proper enquiry into the matter. This gave rise to discontent over the problematic handling of the case by the Internal Complaints Cell (ICC) Thus, started the movement which was to continue for the next 5 months, leaving a mark on the history of student movements in India. The spirit can be rightly captured in the words of Salvador Allende, a socialist Chilean president, who used this slogan in a poster in Mexico against the militarised counter narcotics policing, “To be young and not revolutionary is an almost biological contradiction.” 5 Students started assembling in front of the administrative building to demand for a clear and fair investigation into the case of the molestation before any final decision of suspending anyone. Meanwhile, members of the ICC even visited the girl’s house and asked inappropriate questions on what the girl was wearing that night, what her company was like and so on. This further enraged the students and led to their demand of a student representative in the Executive Committee (EC) which further decides on the facts

5

Accessed December 21. 2020. https://www.reddit.com/r/quotes/comments/cpgr8f/to_be_young_and_not_a_revol utionary_is_a/

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brought in by the ICC. Students kept growing in numbers till it became a permanent sit-in demonstration with slogans, posters and music.

A student drawing and writing posters, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

In the culturally rich state of West Bengal, creativity was to be expected out of a war cry too. Slogans assumed the shape of songs, art spoke of revolution and the students didn’t want to sit back and wait as unfair decisions were being made. The members kept on increasing at the sit in demonstrations in front of the administrative building and there were answers demanded from the Vice Chancellor (VC). An important point to be made here is the complete absence of any form of violence or provocative language or actions in any of these undertakings by the students. They sat on for lengths of the day, shouted slogans, stuck posters around the campus premises and whiled their time away with songs and music.

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It wasn’t anything out of the normal for the administrative staff or the students of the university because Jadavpur had always been a hotbed of revolutionary action and art was always the favourite form of dissent. Situations remained in control but there wasn’t any remedial action taken by the administration till then. Students grew restless and demonstrations continued for 24 hours a day. In hindsight, the beginning of this movements might seem to have risen from victim-blaming but what the students demanded was just the initiation of a clear investigation before any decision was made, since there already was a functional anti-sexual harassment cell in the campus at that point of time. The media took it to different heights with some supporting the students while some put a negative light on the students accusing them of violence inside the campus premises. The city people, thus, were also divided in their opinions of whether to support the students or stand against them. Interviews and discussions on news channels were the places where students expressed their points of view for the world to hear as the movement still hadn’t assumed a huge character. After a week of demonstrations, a meeting of the EC was called and the students eagerly waited for any decision to be finally made regarding the issue in hand. Students even submitted a deputation regarding the involvement of representatives from the student union in the EC but to no avail. Following the failure to come to any decision, on the fateful night of September 17, the gherao (the act

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of surrounding) didn’t allow the VC to leave the university premises until there was an EC meeting with the elected student representatives. This obviously wasn’t met with a positive reaction and armed police and goons entered the campus premises at 2 am in the night, switched off all lights in the space where the students had assembled and beat them up mercilessly to safely escort the VC out. This desperate call for help was made by the VC from inside his office in the administrative building as he wasn’t apparently feeling safe being surrounded by unarmed students. Students were taken into custody and many were hospitalized with broken arms and limbs, thus sparking a nationwide uprising of the student community against violence inside the university premises meted out by their own VC. Female students were groped and harassed in the absence of any female officer too. This is when the movement assumed the name Hok Kolorob (let there be noise) and the words spread like wildfire as the hash tag movement of those times, piercing through the media and social media to reach people in the different corners of the world. The movement had now become a war cry for not only the students of Jadavpur University but for the safety of students in the safe space that the universities guarantees at all points in time, marking it as Revolution 2.0. The voice of dissent rose far and wide as videos from the night before circulated on social media. The first people to come to express solidarity to the students were the parents themselves. Shouting slogans like Lathir mukhe gaan’ersur, dekhiye dilo Jadavpur” (The sound of

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music in the face of batons, Jadavpur had shown again) and more, the students then took to the streets, firstly to release their people stuck in the police custody, and secondly, to show the world that the students weren’t backing down now, more than ever. Two processions were taken out in torrential rains before the students in an all faculty general body meeting gave a call out for a mahamichhil – a grand procession to show the solidarity that was garnered towards them by people from the city. It is to be pointed out here that the students weren’t organising these processions and undertakings under any political banner. It was always just the students of a university demanding justice for the attack meted out to them. The general body meetings, however, saw people participating from all walks and genders of life, working towards a common goal of ensuring safe spaces inside the campus and reclaiming their right to dissent without any attack on them. Students assembled in huge numbers. Classes were boycotted and the teachers joined in the protests too. The call for the mahamichhil spread through social media and news channels with the hash tag trending at number 1.

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Hash tag hokkorolob trending at No 1 on twitter

A rally with posters saying 'hokkolorob', Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

The students were supposed to march from the Academy of Fine Arts to the Raj Bhavan to meet the Governor of West Bengal, who

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was also the Chancellor of Jadavpur University. With torrential rains and bad weather on that morning of September 20, the students weren’t expecting to find a lot of people but once there, the crowd that had assembled in front of the Academy could be seen from afar! The road towards Raj Bhavan being an open and isolated area, the crowd was visible very clearly too as they marched along in the face of adversity and incessant downpour, braving the weather and the eyes of the world on them. A space like that in the heart of the city – the political centre of the state with high security was chosen for the mahamichhil because that would lead the students directly to the Governor of the state and so that the agitating masses could be seen from far and wide, thus giving a separate momentum to the movement. Also, being a high security area, it was an attempt at being face to face with the police again, which had now become the immediate enemy for the people. The wide roads and empty spaces were utilised well by the masses as about one lakh people assembled for the mahamichhil – without a political banner and walked on for kilometres, shouting slogans, singing songs and crying out Hok Kolorob. Though a group of students got to meet the Governor and have a conversation with him, no clear answer was provided to them even then, when the Governor said he would ‘look into the matter’. The mahamichhil ended with the students even more determined to get an answer to their innumerable questions and with the conviction and confidence, that the entire city was there

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supporting them. Other processions, smaller in size were organised in different parts of the city, especially the crowded areas where the voices of the masses, now, not only confined to the students, could be heard and understood by the onlookers. Processions were taken out outside the university campus at Jadavpur and Salt Lake, where another branch of the Jadavpur University exists too. Students walked towards the police station and there were agitations and the police were questioned on how these protectors of law could attack the unarmed students in the dark of the night. Spaces were being reclaimed and people assembled anywhere, as they wanted to get the visibility that was required to make their voices heard. During this time, roads were blocked a number of times and traffic had become a huge issue in the city due to the protesting students. But as time went by, the city grew accustomed to the students and came out in solidarity because the common enemy now was the state government who had turned a blind eye towards the grievances of the students and had shown no solidarity. According to Halvorsen (in Gheller), “taking and holding spaces allows occupiers to excerpt an influence on the flow that pass through” 6 and that was the ultimate motive of the students – to make people aware and angry at the horrific turn of events inside the campus.

6

Frantz Gheller, “From Protest Marches to City Squares and Parks: The Fight for Urban Commons under Neoliberalism” In Problématique: Journal of Political Studies, no. 15 (2013): 3-15.

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Another one of the many rallies organised demanding the resignation of the VC, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

The students' rally on September 18, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

The movement had now assumed the form of a mass movement. As Eric Hoffer 7 pointed out in his theory of mass movements, a mass

7

Eric Hoffer, The True Believer. (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1951)

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movement was characterized by the disillusionment with the state of affairs. That is precisely what had happened here. The students had seen the state and its administrative hierarchies react to their agitation in a step-fatherly way. Mass participation of three kinds and stages of people took place in Hok Kolorob as pointed out by Hoffer. First up, the Men of Words – the intellectuals made people aware of the wrongdoings of the authority and the misuse of power in the structural system. These people were few but they steered the movement in the proper direction with their informative capabilities. They are usually people who aren’t part of the system and can thus speak of an alternative to the present condition of matters. Next, were the fanatics of the revolution – people who actually worked on ground, and inspired by the intellect of the men of words. But unlike the men of words, they did not depend only on the words, they also mobilised the masses towards things they thought to be of importance to take the movement forward and make it a true mass uprising. The fanatics weren’t leaders that continued to take the movement forward, though, as their fanaticism is short lived and spontaneous. The real effort of taking the movement to its defined end, with an impact and the success of the true mass movement were the men of action. These people believed parts of words and parts of fanaticism to establish a middle ground between them, working towards the goal of making the movement successful with necessary learnings from both 8. It can be 8

Ibid

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safely mentioned here that all the three kinds of leadership were clearly present in the Hok Kolorob movement and it was with the amalgamation of the three that the movement assumed its course and shape, which had never before been seen in a student movement before. During this time, the Governor, in an unexpected turn of events, even gave the VC Abhijit Chakraborty, a permanent position as the VC of the University and celebrated his work and contributions. A news like this, that too after meeting the Governor, during the mahamichhil, further enraged the students and they swore to not back down in any way. Cultural theorist Iain Chambers has noted, “Inside the city, there is always another city. While governments may come and go, the regime remains the same.” 9 Of course, there have been many movements and protests in Jadavpur University before 2014. But every protest has a reason and students rise up for each of them. Hok Kolorob saw the same students and all the more people rise in rebellion against the actions taken by this authority too.

9

James Taylor, “Is There an In-between?: The “City-nation,” Imagining Rule, Lines and Protests from the Periphery in Thailand”. Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and Extra Urban Studies 2 (1), 2012, 141-150. doi:10.18848/2154-8676/CGP/v02i01/53830.

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A general body meeting, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

The general masses now mobilised in favour of the agitating students, the people in the general body meetings grew in number. These people, from outside university, thus formed a community of bohiragoto, i.e. outsiders supporting the students in their fight against the other outsiders who were called into the premises to beat up students. A social media revolution was continuously on with black display pictures, bohiragoto profile names and long updates about the history of the strength of students of Jadavpur and their subsequent victories. To curb this free space inside the campus to dissent, the authority tried to introduce the showing of ID cards while entering through a campus gate mandatory while also introducing section 144 in various spaces inside the campus. The agitating students took this

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up as another attack on their unity and freedom and the movement rose to greater heights of non-cooperation with every passing day. No ID cards were shown as people entered the campus freely and gathered inside for general body meetings, for sloganeering, for protest marches and further on. Meanwhile, even outside the campus, in spaces where the student community gathered together for evening tea sessions and jamming nights, songs of revolution and conversations of Hok Kolorob were the main points of assembly as the air that time was filled with revolutionary spirit. Spaces were reclaimed around the city as the students rose in power, defying the structures already existing and made themselves visible at every point undertaking all kinds of activities to showcase dissent – songs, posters, banners, street theatres and wall art. Support poured in from more than 130 different colleges and universities from all over the world, upholding the unity of the student community. Agitations and demonstrations were thus, not limited to the capital city of Kolkata but spread to the smaller towns around Bengal to protest against the VC and the state government that was supporting him shamelessly. Durga Pujo (a traditional festival of West Bengal) in the month of October also wasn’t left without the students protesting and making themselves visible in the maddening crowd as public spaces were occupied and the students were seen agitating in front of pandals (tent like structure) and amidst crowds. These various ways of

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making themselves visible and heard through different mediums and spaces was followed so that the voices reached far and wide and to every individual in the different parts of the city as the VC the pawn in the hands of the state government, had become the collective enemy now. As the state government tried to alienate the student community by claiming only a mere 20% of the students of Jadavpur University were taking part in the movement, the student body was ready to prove the truth. A referendum was organised in the month of November for every student where students were asked a set of simple questions regarding whether the VC should resign, whether ID cards were a way of unwanted surveillance inside the campus, whether the students wanted a clear investigation into the happenings on August 28 and September 17, etc. The votes were counted by officials of the University and the students came out in clear majority of over 90% votes in favour of the demands made by the protesting student community. This was called the Hokreferendum (let there be a referendum) and the students thus proved their standing once again. Cut to the month of December, where the university wraps itself up in saffron for the convocation ceremony on the occasion of its foundation day, where students decided to raise black flags to protest against the VC and the Chancellor being head guests of the ceremony. There was also a call to boycott the convocation and not

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receive the final certificates from the hands of the VC. The campus walls were filled with graffiti as the VC entered the campus and the students shouted Hok Kolorob and V-chhii (Eww VC). A certificate of participation in the Hok Kolorob movement was also printed for the students who denied their graduation and post-graduation certificates from the VC. While many students refused to get on the stage, many walked past the VC without taking their certificates from him on stage. This made huge uproar across the student community as the students’ strength and confidence in themselves and their movement was shown through their actions which didn’t include a word of any derogatory comment or remark.

Convocation boycott participation certificate, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

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It had turned into a silent revolution that day and that’s what made the atmosphere all the more tense for the authority and for the onlookers. While many supported this act, many considered this a disrespect towards people in power. But did a VC like that deserve respect – was the question the students asked. Nonetheless, there wasn’t any hate speech or sloganeering where the ruling party, the VC, or the police were disrespected. Carrying forward the Bengali literary tradition, slogans and war cries were written which took a sarcastic punch at the people, in a way attracting the outsiders and their support, but not directly attacking anyone in particular. Even though translations cannot be properly expressed in an English translation, the Bengali rhyme and the way of the language never hurt anyone’s feelings, thus making people of all age groups come in solidarity with the students, as the creativity seen in the movement never gave any hurtful color to the speech and expressions. “VC tumi dushtu lok, tomar mathayu kun hok” (VC you’re a bad guy, may lice get to your head) “Ei VC ke chine nao, OLX’e bechedao” (Recognise this VC, sell him on OLX)

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Graffiti on the university walls, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

With sarcastic remarks and slogans like these, the movement spearheaded forward into its 5th and final month where students decided it was time for a drastic step to finally get justice for the wrongs meted out towards the students for so long now. Thus, started the hunger strike until death by a number of students within the university premises in front of the administrative building. This was the space through which the VC entered his office daily, together with the members of his Executive Committee and other administrative staff. Thus, placing themselves at a junction like this deemed highly effective as the staff came across them every now and then.

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This hunger strike even saw some parents sitting in hunger strike for a day in solidarity with those students and demanding a fair decision. Two students were hospitalized after 5 days and new students came in to take their place – such was the intensity of the demands made by the students. The opposing media tried to malign the students here too, saying the fast unto death was a farce and the students were enjoying their meals happily, but the regular checkups by the doctors proved otherwise, as the condition of the fasting students were gradually deteriorating. This hunger strike started from January 05, 2015, and went on till the Chief Minister of the state, Mamata Banerjee finally reached the campus on January 12, 2015 to address the protesting students and announced the resignation of the VC, Abhijit Chakraborty from his post. The students broke out in joy and celebrations to the news and thus was ended the fast unto death with the victory in the movement after 5 months of struggle. Conclusion Even though the movement started with the demand of a fair trial of the molestation case, the movement ended with the resignation of the VC for getting the students beaten up during a sit-in demonstration. This was the biggest and only limitation of the movement, where the movement, in all its triumph and glory flickered down without addressing the main issue in hand. Otherwise, the Hok Kolorob movement was in many ways a

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breakthrough in the way student movements were carried out in the country. Sengupta writes that “If a movement could disrupt public life, there were more chances of it being more effective.” 10 That is what happened with the protests at the University. The immense outside support was unbelievable to the point that no one expected the whole city to be so enmeshed in all the activities of the movement. From protest marches to impromptu concerts, from street plays to street cornering, from occupying the Jadavpur Thana area to a walk with one lakh people, protestors spread far and wide across the city and its major nodes to make themselves heard and seen, even during festivities and holidays. The city had come to a standstill and people were ready for an outcry anytime of the day during those 5months. Everywhere, students of the university were welcome with revolutionary greetings and those became the greetings of the time. Inquilab found a new ray of light. Azadi was the cry for justice. Hok Kolorob was the call to rise and fight. City newspapers and media channels were always updated on the next step that the students were going to follow. They followed people on the streets for additional information too. Social media of city folks was also flooded with daily updates of the movement and various memes made of the VC and the police, along with sarcastic comments and poems.

10

Anwesha Sengupta, “Calcutta in the 1950s and 1970s: What Made it the Hotbed of Rebellions?” Sahapedia. August 08, 2019. https://www.sahapedia.org/calcutta1950s-and-1970s-what-made-it-hotbed-rebellions.

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“Police tumi maar leeto, maine tomar barlo koto?” (Police, you beat us up so much, how much did your salary increase?)

A peaceful rally with instruments and posters, Pic: Pratyay Mukhopadhyay

Thus, literally, the online and offline lives of the city folks of Kolkata revolved around Hok Kolorob and its various news for those 5 months making it affect the city and its life in every way during the whole time. Posters and graffiti on walls across Kolkata made people aware of revolutionary ideals from different other movements across the world and why the students were protesting, what was wrong in the handling of the situation and so on. It is also important to mention how the ruling party tried to take out an anti Hok Kolorob rally to gain visibility around the city with people

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brought in from the lowest rungs of the society by offering them food and money. This was proven time and again by the media who interviewed people from those rallies who had no idea why they were in the rally. On the other hand, shopkeepers offered the students water for free and showed their solidarity in their own little ways during the rallies. Alumni from the university poured in by numbers and those who couldn’t, showed support and solidarity from their universities and workspaces outside the country as well. Artists, in different fields and their different versions, came forward with their various art forms in support of the movement, thus showing their contribution towards the same. City celebrities, movie stars and musicians also joined the movement and participated in some protest rallies to show their solidarity. Some of them were also the alumni from the university itself and thus, joining the students seemed to be the right decision they wanted to take. Carrying forward the revolutionary zeal of the city of Kolkata from years on, the Hok Kolorob movement acted as another feather in the cap of social and mass movements in and around the city. A city that always had the intellectual prowess to question anything and everything that didn’t seem right, the fearlessness to rise in dissent and the free spirit to take away what was rightfully theirs was once against lit up with fire in the Hok Kolorob movement with the voices and the clamour. The revolutionary slogans and clapping

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hands could be seen as they echoed all around. This desire for a life well lived and deserved rights and voices are the innate characteristic of Kolkata. In Jadavpur University with a strong history of resilience, this movement that started with the wrongful use of power in hands of a few and escalated with the misuse of free space by the protectors of the state and the university, had to undertake that revolutionary form and spirit to protect and uphold its virtue and the space they function in – a space they have rightfully snatched away time and again. “Jadavpurer dewale dewale bidroho lekha ache” (Revolution is written on every wall of Jadavpur)

SECTION II – PROTESTS FOR AND BY WOMEN

OCCUPYING SPACE: INDIAN FEMINIST MOVEMENTS IN THE 21ST CENTURY SHRUTI SAREEN

Henri Lefebvre, a Marxist theorist writing in twentieth century France, argues in The Production of Space that space was strictly regarded as an empty geometrical area till the first half of the century. Lefebvre terms this normative concept of space as ‘conceived’, which he challenges by his own dialectical view of spaces as ‘lived’ and ‘perceived’. (1991:33-43) The ‘actual city’, he argues, is perhaps a place that can never be reached as it exists somewhere between conceived, perceived, and lived spaces. This paper attempts to examine how feminist movements have occupied space in India’s capital city, Delhi, in the past two decades. I think this paper represents all the three kinds of LeFebvrian spaces: abstract, lived, and social. Had LeFebvre lived in contemporary times, he may have added virtual spaces too, though perhaps virtual space can also be seen as both abstract and social. Feminist movements are primarily about reclaiming spaces: the spaces occupied by the sheer corporeality of our bodies, the indoctrinated spaces of our minds, the spaces within the home, and in the public sphere. Perhaps any movement of a marginalised

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section is aimed at occupying and reclaiming their rightful position and space in society. This paper attempts to argue that any movement or protest seeks to reclaim the abstract space and turn it into real lived and social spaces. Spaces are ‘conceived’ when abstract representations view them in purely quantifiable terms, as physical spaces that can be mapped, calculated,

controlled, and

exploited.

Cartographical

maps,

gazetteers, and statistical data are some of the ways in which abstract space is represented. These ‘representations of space’ are used mainly by scientists, planners, urbanists, social engineers, and even architects. Arthur Smailes, in Indian Cities: A Descriptive Model shows the hierarchical manner in which the British planned Indian cities, where the Cantonment, Civil Lines and railway colonies where the whites resided were located at a distance from the crowded interiors of the city. 1 Urban Planning in India shows that there is a vast difference between the objectives of urban planning in India and the lopsided development it actually achieves. 2 The organization of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi 1

Arthur E Smailes, “The Indian City: A Descriptive Model”, Geographische Zeitschrift, Jahrg: Franz Steiner Verlag, (September 1969): 177-190. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27816984. He also notes that even before the British, cities were hierarchically planned with Brahmins occupying central areas and Dalits relegated to the margins. After Independence too, we seem to have continued with the practice of planning urban spaces hierarchically instead of democratically.

2

Shrey Sahay, Siddharth Kandoi and Soumil Srivastava, “Urban Planning in India”, n.d. https://www.coursehero.com/file/52898907/Urban-Planning-in-Indiapdf/. For instance, a plan to create more open spaces in the city led to a clearance and

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in 2010 and the accompanying demolition of slums reveal unbalanced planning. 3 The recent ruling in Gurgaon which does not allow women to work within the city beyond 8pm so as to minimize rapes and eve teasing also shows a gendered way of regulating spaces. 4 These practices point towards a hierarchical shaping of space where inequalities tend to be masked by the idea of an emerging industrialized and globalised country which can host the Commonwealth games. Michel de Certeau, another Marxist theorist in France who is a contemporary of Lefebvre, in The Practice of Everyday Life argues that structures of power desire to reduce space to a set of statistics that is knowable and governable to maintain their hegemony. Certeau refers to Michel Foucault’s Discipline and Punishment where he analyses forms of surveillance and disciplining demolition of slums. There were no attempts however to provide alternative housing for the displaced people. To take another example, statistics show that the level of industrialization in the country is increasing, and therefore cities are becoming globalised. What might not be shown in the same graph however, is that there is a corresponding increase in the number of slums and people migrating from rural to urban areas in search of jobs. The image of a globalised city that is projected fails to take into consideration large slums and bastis within the city that are nowhere near globalization. 3

Sara Sidner, “India Razes Slums, Leaves Poor Homeless”, CNN World, January 14, 2009. http://articles.cnn.com/2009-01-14/world/india.slums_1_new-delhi-slumdwellers-razes?_s=PM:WORLD Sidner describes how the poor are evicted from their homes which are built on government land without prior intimation, and without an alternative place to stay.

4 Tanushree Roy Chowdhury, “Don’t work after 8 pm, Gurgaon tells women”, Times of India, March 14, 2012. http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/201203-14/gurgaon/31164842_1_pub-owner-malls-women-employees. Chowdhary writes that the new ruling in Gurgaon which forbids women to work beyond 8pm without special permission shows how the government refuses to take responsibility, and sees women to be the problem, instead of the rapists. Controlling women is seen as an easy solution.

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through institutions such as education, media and the law. As against this, Lefebvre endorses a dialectical view of spaces as lived and perceived. Lived spaces are the spaces within our heads consisting of images and associations arising from our interactions with the spatial environment around us. These private, subjective worlds are created by individuals as they invest spaces with their own meanings, memories and desires, thereby appropriating them. They can also be termed as ‘spaces of representations’ because works of art are created by the images and associations within our minds. Certeau argues that the meaning of a place is different for each one of us because we carry different memories and ‘stories’ inside our heads. Memories are also selective in terms of what they retain and filter from perceived reality. He makes a distinction between ‘rumours’ which are authorized narratives which aim at levelling or totalizing space, and ‘stories’ which are personal, individual ways of associating with a place or an event. Poetry too can challenge the normative patterns of viewing spaces as it looks at minute and subjective experiences of everyday life. (1984:91-118) Perceived space, according to Lefebvre, is the spatial environment, physical as well as social, which surrounds us. Also known as ‘social spaces’, they consist of buildings and roads around us, as well as interactions and tensions existing between people. According to Lefebvre, perceived spaces within cities are socially

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produced as a result of the class divide. Here, he appears to follow Marx’s argument that ‘relations of production’ or social spaces are governed by the ‘forces of production’; relations between people are governed by the economic class they belong to and their role in the production process. “Spatial practices”, according to Lefebvre and Certeau, “are ordinary daily life activities such as walking, cooking, using the local train and so on which help in appropriating the perceived spaces around us.” (1991:33-40) Certeau argues that spatial practices, which are creative ‘ways of operating’ or ‘tactics’ in everyday life are means by which users reappropriate space. He argues that a route map gives us several possible ways of reaching one place from the other. When a user chooses any one of these, or takes a shortcut which is not depicted on the map, the user is creatively transforming a place into a space 5, and is challenging the abstract representation on the map. These are miniscule, microbial practices such as walking, cooking, dwelling, and telling stories that can rupture the abstractions that structures of power seek to uphold. This paper argues that movements that are protests too are ‘spatial’ practices, at a much more macro-scale than the other miniscule practices mentioned above.

5

Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life, Translated by Steven Rendall, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984) p.117. For Certeau, ‘space is practiced place’ which is the obverse of Lefebvre’s idea that spaces become places after being appropriated. For the purposes of this dissertation, I have henceforth used the terms ‘space’ and ‘place’ only in the Lefebvrian sense.

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Alka Kurian who teaches at the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences, University of Washington, attempts to define what she calls fourth wave Indian feminism. Kurian writes that whereas Kira Cochrane and Jessica Valenti describe the fourth wave in the West as online feminism, in India it is a social media led holistic movement combining women’s freedom with a wider call for social justice for minority men and women. 6 Unlike the feminist movements of the 20th century, the new feminist movements are decentralised and democratic. They are not usually begun by major public feminist activists, intellectuals or organisations, but by students and the youth. The internet provides a popular medium for the growth and spread of these movements. Before, I actually discuss how the feminist movements have tried to reclaim these spaces, I will briefly discuss how the virtual space of the internet too, can be seen as both conceived (abstract), and perceived (lived and social spaces). Leslie Regan Shade in Gender & Community in the Social Construction of the Internet 7and Faith Wilding in Notes on the Political Condition of Cyber feminism 8 6

Alka Kurian, “#MeToo is Riding a New Wave of Feminism in India”. The Conversation. February 01, 2018. www.theconversation.com/metoo-is-riding-anew-wave-of-feminism-in-india-89842

7 Leslie Regan Shade, Gender and Community in the Social Construction of the Internet. (New York: Peter Lang Publishing Co, 2001) 8

Faith Wilding and Critical Art Ensemble. “Notes on the political condition of cyberfeminism”. Art Journal 57.2 (1998): 47-60. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/00043249.1998.10791878?scrol l=top&needAccess=true

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note that women using internet technology need not always be subversive, because capitalism seeks to turn them into buyers for more and more commodities. The majority of women using internet have mostly been known to confine themselves to checking email and e-commerce websites for consuming household, beauty, and health products. Cyberspace, by and large, reflects the patriarchal culture we live in. Advertisements seek to make women ‘fair and lovely’, objectify them, and commercialise even feminist initiatives like International Women’s Day. Others have also noted the misogynistic nature of cyberpunk and other science fiction films and games on the internet. It was only post-2000 that feminist science fiction began to emerge. Communities in cyberspace too are dominated by male voices. This controlling, and surveilling nature of the internet can be seen as a kind of abstract space where power from above is always operating. However, cyberspace technology can also be subverted and can be used as an important space for the growth of feminist activism. Communities can help women form solidarities and affinities. Donna Haraway holds the post-modernist view of questioning whether there is a unitary essence to ‘woman’ or to ‘female’ at all. Haraway argues that we must do away with identitarian politics and instead form solidarities and affinities with women from other communities even while acknowledging differences and without seeking to appropriate them. Ann Travers in ‘Parallel Subaltern

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Feminist Counter publics in Cyberspace’ 9 writes of the power that cyberspace gives women to mould an alternative discourse within the mainstream discourse itself. Mostly, she writes, earlier women have formed their own groups and societies away from the public gaze. Cyberspace gives women the opportunity to participate in communication and dialogue between women without secluding or separating themselves from the general mass. In this way, women can make a much needed dent within the mainstream ways of viewing women in cyberspace. Men are still controlling the dominant narratives of representing women and as observed earlier, these are not much in favour of women. Faith Wilding also notes the dent women can create by alternative representations of women’s identities as opposed to the dominant narrative. Wilding describes the impact feminist art and visuals have created in cyberspace and the role they have played in changing the ways in which we view women’s bodies. 10 Various listservs and mailing lists have been started the world over to initiate a new discourse about women’s issues, databases have been formed collating material useful for women, and many electronic groups have been formed to discuss issues such as health. The queer LGBT community has formed its own safe spaces, groups, help lines,

9

Ann Travers, “Parallel subaltern feminist counterpublics in cyberspace.” Sociological Perspectives 46.2 Sage Publishing. (2003): 223-237. https://doi.org/10.1525/sop.2003.46.2.223

10 Faith

Wilding, “Where is Feminism in Cyberfeminism?”, 1998, http://faithwilding.refugia.net/wherefem.pdf

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dating platforms and the like via the internet. These initiatives often form transnational links and help mould transnational public opinion on injustice happening in any country. This is known as ‘globalisation from below’. Networking through the internet has resulted in many conferences and in co-ordinating movements. The use of the internet to co-ordinate and organise joint political action has been dubbed as ‘net war’. These may be seen as the social spaces where different forms of identity actually come and reclaim space, and as lived space where each person, from every community, is psychologically experiencing the space to their fullest capacity. In India, in the past two decades, we have student movements and other feminist movements which are networked and co-ordinated through the internet such as Pinjra Tod, Happy to Bleed, Why Loiter, #MeToo, Pink Chaddi Campaign, Blank Noise, Slutwalk, Bell Bajao, Chappal Maroongi and so on, besides which LGBT support groups and help lines have mushroomed in cities, both big and small, and pride parades are successfully held every year. The contemporary Indian feminist movement is mainly led by the youth and students. There are innumerable social as well as political nongovernmental organisations that address gender inequality, including organisations focusing on specific areas such as domestic violence, trafficking, Dalit women, queer people, and sex workers and so on. It would make this paper much longer to enumerate and list all these organisations which undoubtedly do good work and build a network or a community, but which however, had little to do with

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the feminist movements in 21st century India. These campaigns have interestingly primarily emerged from the universities of the country, as well as from the younger generation of women. This is quite a major difference which I notice between the 20th and 21st century feminist movements in the country. The only major movement that has been started by an NGO was a Bell Bajao campaign by the organisation Breakthrough. Keeping the age group of students and youth organising most of these campaigns in mind, we also notice an element of fun and play in many of these movements, which do not seem to be overly serious which one might expect protest movements to be. The tradition of the Pinjra Tod group has always involved a lot of singing in all their protests. This brings a different sort of energy and cheer to the group. Slogans and posters further brighten up the scene. Queer pride parades use various strategies like cross dressing, masks, paint, glitter, confetti and so on. The Slut Walk too involved dressing up to embrace one’s body and sexuality. The Happy to Bleed movement hung sanitary napkins with messages in red painted on them from trees, which also seems a naughty and playful prank, in order to spread awareness around the stigma associated with menstruation. The Why Loiter movement involves women venturing out into dhabas, parks and other male-dominated areas. This too is a novel and fun form of protest or appropriation of space, as is the movement on Meet to Sleep. The Pink Chaddi campaign involved sending pink chaddis to a right-wing politician,

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which again is a very humorous way to subvert norms, to say the least. It also began with a group of women drinking in a pub. Chappal maroongi or Hitting boys and men with slippers to complain against sexual harassment too has an element of play in it, and Blank Noise is very innovative in its use of displaying clothes women wore while they were harassed. The very ideas and forms of protest movements have undergone a change and have become quite novel and innovative. The movements mentioned here are just the macro ones. These have given impetus to a whole generation of students and young women to take courage and break norms. For example, girls in a college might all decide to wear mini-skirts to protest against a rule which may mandate wearing dupattas with salwar suits. Social media too has provided a place for synergy to be produced, the same synergy we feel radiating from our bodies and our sloganeering voices in the middle of a protest. Through photographs and updates on social media, as well as posts as statuses, young women have made sure that they feel connected and together throughout all these campaigns and movements. As we shall see in the discussion below, many of these movements have spread from city to city like wildfire, and this is primarily thanks to social media, and also the digital media which carry and promote such news. The same fervour that is built up in a protest as we reclaim space and breaks the abstract conception of spaces is replicated and rebuilt on social media. It is important however for the movement

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online to go hand in hand with the movements on the ground. Solely relying on online movements will make them elitist and will also not result in an actual physical reclamation of space. Spaces are important because ultimately all feminist movements seek to claim and appropriate space: the physical spaces of our bodies, the domestic spaces of our homes, the public spaces outside, and the spaces of our minds to break free of indoctrination and belief. I will now discuss some of these movements to see how they are reclaiming space, spreading across cities, and are employing some very novel and fun means of doing so, which transforms protest into a joy; a joyful activity where our minds are always fixed on our ultimate agency and emancipation. Pinjra Tod 11 (Break the Cage) was begun in August 2015 when the Vice Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia cancelled the right of women students to stay out until late at night. Students from universities across Delhi came out onto the streets to raise gender issues which also intersected with categories of class and caste. By 2016, women across educational institutions in the country joined Pinjra Tod. There were protests against a ban on wearing shorts, and a compulsion to wear a dupatta over lab coats. There has been 11

Priyanka Borpujari, “How ‘Pinjra Tod’ Spread Its Wings”. Livemint. December 30, 2016, https://www.livemint.com/Leisure/z6E69WRoNJAyUuGU5yYwXO/How-PinjraTod-spread-its-wings.html

Richa Thakur, “Pinjra Tod Make It Clear Why They Won’t Get Into Electoral Politics”. News Laundry. August 12, 2017, https://www.newslaundry.com/2017/09/12/pinjra-tod-dusu-student-politics.

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strong opposition towards Pinjra Tod by the ABVP – the students’ wing of the right wing party, the BJP. Subhashini Shriya, one of the founding members of Pinjra Tod states that their biggest achievement has been the UGC circular on the prevention, prohibition and redressal of sexual harassment complaints by women employees and students of higher educational institutions. Women students have been marching through streets, demanding locks to be broken. Movements and protests have also happened in Patiala, Thiruvananthapuram, Raipur, Cuttack, Chennai, Aligarh and Thrissur. Social media is replete with photos and videos of these. Shilpa Phadke of the Why Loiter movement which I shall shortly discuss, says that going out at night fractures lines between good and bad women. Uma Chakravarti points out the concern with intersectionality as members of Pinjra Tod also travelled to Gujarat when Jignesh Mevani raised issues of Dalit discrimination. She also points out that Pinjra Tod is issue driven rather than leadership driven. There is no set leadership or structure although the movement was founded by Devangana Kalita. Pinjra meaning cage is reminiscent of the metaphor in literature used by women since the nineteenth century. It is an independent group and is not affiliated to any political party. It is a students’ movement and would lose its essence if affiliated with a party which are riddled with their own problems. There have been attacks by ABVP disrupting meetings, and terming them as anti-women, pseudo feminists and so on. Pinjra Tod has shown solidarity towards

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student movements for similar issues in Ambedkar University Delhi, Jamia Millia Islamia, Delhi University, Jawaharlal University, Benares Hindu University and so on. They supported the movement in JNU about the gender sensitisation committee against sexual harassment. They have petitioned Prakash Javadekar to remove curfew, form functional internal complaints committees against sexual harassment, to provide safer transport and to do away with what is seen as too much protectionism for women. Begun by students in universities, the movement has mostly seen protests and gatherings in university spaces throughout the country. Some cities have specific democratic spaces where crowds can converge and protest. In Delhi, most of these protest gatherings happen at Jantar Mantar. However, the spaces are dynamic and are changed as need arises. The venue shifts to the University Grants Commission office if the protest is to make a demand from the UGC, to the Police Headquarters at Pragati Maidan (ITO) if the demand is against police atrocities in universities like JNU and Jamia Millia Islamia, or to Shaheen Bagh or East Delhi districts as Pinjra Tod girls organise a sit-in of local Muslim women to protests against the CAA-NRC. Happy to Bleed 12 was also begun in 2015 by twenty year old Nikita Azad from Patiala, Punjab. It began as a movement against women 12

Kalpana Sharma, “The Open Discussion on Menstruation is #Happy to Bleed’s Biggest Achievement”. Scroll. September 25, 2015, https://scroll.in/article/771449/the-open-discussion-on-menstruation-is-happy-tobleeds-biggest-achievement

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being kept out of the Sabrimala Temple in Kerala because of menstruation because they wanted to install a machine to detect whether women were menstruating. Women held placards or sanitary napkins saying ‘Happy to Bleed’ in protest. They raised questions of why euphemisms like chums, periods, menses, and ‘mahina’ are used to talk about menstruation. The major centre in Delhi for this movement was Jamia Millia Islamia where girls hung menstrual pads painted red from trees. The protest was not a plea for temple entry but a protest against patriarchal attitudes, writes Kalpana Sharma, though the temple authorities failed to understand. The hash tag Happy to Bleed went viral on social media which is full of photos with women holding up placards and sanitary napkins saying ‘happy to bleed’. The campaign has been covered by international journals. It may be interesting to note that this movement came from different communities of women. Begun in spaces like temples, where women were demanding their right to go into a male preserve or domain, to university spaces where the fight became a much larger one against menstruation stigma and did not remain one merely focussing on religious spaces. Historically, women have been kept out of both religion and education. The movement also went beyond menstruation stigma and focussed on environmentally sustainable aspects of menstrual hygiene. It made people aware about the harmful effects of the sanitary napkins sold in the market and encouraged a return to cloth pads which do not use plastic or chemicals and are hence environment friendly.

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Why Loiter 13 was launched in Mumbai in 2014 by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade to reclaim public spaces and to see more women on the streets - in parks, tea stalls, and dhabas, which is a right taken for granted by fifty percent of the population. Neha Singh too was involved in founding this movement. A similar initiative called Girls at Dhabas was begun in Karachi, Pakistan by Sadia Khatri. The initiative spread to Lahore University, Aligarh Muslim University, Delhi and Mumbai and women decided to frequent male dominated parts of the city. The gender studies students of Ambedkar University Delhi took out a march where they talked about the feminist theories they had learnt as they loitered in the city. City buses were another male dominated space which women occupied, especially in Mumbai. The movement reached its peak on December 31, 2015 as women posted narratives and images of loitering and having fun in public spaces. There was a challenge for the day posted on the Why Loiter social media pages which encouraged participants to do something they have not done before in order to change the mindset about whether we see public spaces as being safe or unsafe. Shilpa Phadke says that most sexual and domestic violence happens at home. But we never tell 13

Bhaskar Chawla. “Why Loiter: A Movement to Reclaim Public Places for Women in South Asia”. Vagabomb. January 04, 2016,

Rhitu Chatterjee. “#Why Loiter Reclaims Public- and Inner- Space for Indian Women.” PRI. September 17, 2015, https://www.pri.org/stories/2015-09-17/ whyloiter-reclaims-public-and-inner-space-indian-women

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people not to go home. Cities are aggressive towards minorities, especially poor men and middle class women are much more privileged than poor men. Women have to have a purpose in places. If they are seen simply loitering or having fun, men think women are asking for sex, and this in turn leads to protectionist attitudes towards women. Women have to somehow negotiate public spaces rather than enjoying or claiming them as explained in the book But Why Loiter which was the impetus behind the movement. Meet to Sleep 14 started as a student project at Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore and spread to other cities. Similar in intent to the Why Loiter movement, the two joined hands at some point. The plan was to nap in public parks and to sleep alone, yet together. Similarly, the Walk Alone hash tag and campaign were built up to walk alone to places you have never been to before. They had a blog which served as a platform for women to share experiences of sexual harassment. Youth groups working in urban slums put up posters regarding sexual harassment in local languages. Gathering details of sexual harassment through text messages, unsafe places were fed into police reporting systems. Steps were taken such as changing the lights or adding more security personnel. Why Loiter and Meet to Sleep are geared towards reclaiming male-dominated parts of the city, especially at 14

Kalpana Sharma, “The Open Discussion on Menstruation is #Happy to Bleed’s Biggest Achievement”. Scroll. September 25, 2015, https://scroll.in/article/771449/the-open-discussion-on-menstruation-is-happy-tobleeds-biggest-achievement

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night, a time considered dangerous for women in India. Pinjra Tod too is geared towards reclaiming the city at night. Thus, the movements involve risk and target spaces and times which challenge normative hierarchies. The protests are not really confined only to safe spaces. There was a separate Bekhauf Azadi march in Chandigarh in August 2017 after a stalking case by the Haryana BJP chief’s son. It was spearheaded by poet, activist, writer and theatre person, Amy Singh. The campaign was started not only for Chandigarh but for the entire nation, and not only in support of Varnika Kundu but to create a safe city. The march began at 9.45pm and continued till midnight to reclaim the night. Women were accompanied by an equally large number of men. They gathered outside the famous Rose Garden and marched on an unsafe stretch of the streets where generally macho men stare at women. There was singing, poetry, and speeches. The march was attended by three hundred women. There was also a twitter campaign to reclaim the night and the streets. They protested against macho Punjabi songs which stereotype women and demanded the name change from Geri Route to Azaadi Route or Meri Route. 15 Thus here too, as in the movements discussed above, women take possession of the spaces

15

Aditya Nigam, “Not to ‘Geri Route’, Bekhauf Azaadi/Reclaim the Night in Chandigarh: Janaki Srinivasan’ Kafila.org, August 18, 2017, https://kafila.online/2017/08/18/no-to-geri-route-bekhauf-azadi-reclaim-the-nightin-chandigarh-janaki-srinivasan/

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which are considered particularly unsafe for women. Doing this takes risk and courage and bravery. The ‘#MeToo’ 16 movement is a purely online movement actually begun years ago by African American women in actual physical space but which has recently been revived at an international scale via the internet. It is a worldwide phenomenon and the movement was searched for on Google in a hundred and ninety six countries. In India, mainstream actresses and politicians joined the movement as well. However, many such as Alka Kurian and Amrit Dhillon have called the movement elitist as only twenty five percent of people in India have access to the internet and of these, only thirty percent are women. V S Elizabeth, feminist and law professor, also called the movement elitist. Alka Kurian, citing the 2012 gang rape of Jyoti Singh in Delhi, writes that the discourse of freedom of sexuality, choice and desire needs to come into the mainstream public realm through introducing punishments for rape, expanding its legal definition, giving harsher punishments and criminalising stalking and voyeurism. Opposed to this purely online movement are the ‘Not In My Name’ protests against state led violence against Muslims and Dalits. Raya Sarkar, an Indian academic based in 16

Alka Kurian, “The #MeToo Movement Marks the Rise of a New Era in Indian Feminism”. Quartz India. February 2, 2018, https://qz.com/india/1195569/themetoo-movement-marks-the-rise-of-a-new-era-in-indian-feminism/ Amrit Dhillon, “India’s #MeToo Moment is Still About the Struggle to Survive”. Sydney Morning Herald. March 01, 2018, https://www.smh.com.au/world/asia/india-s-metoo-moment-is-still-about-thestruggle-to-survive-20180330-p4z750.html.

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California, took to naming and shaming seventy top academics in India for sexual harassment where names of assaulters could be given anonymously by women. Mainstream feminists decried this ‘vigilante approach’ where the accused could not defend themselves. However, in general India continues to remain apathetic to sexual harassment which happens with impunity. The Pink Chaddi 17 campaign was launched in 2009 by the ‘Consortium of Pub going, Loose Forward Women’ against Pramod Muthalik, the chief of the Sri Ram Sena who claimed responsibility for attacking women in a Mangalore pub. The Sri Ram Sena and the Bajrang Dal threatened to marry off couples found together on Valentine’s Day. The campaign was begun by Nisha Susan, employee of Tehelka political magazine, along with Mihira Sood, Jasmeen Patheja and Isha Manchanda. Over two thousand Pink Chaddis from India and abroad were couriered to Pramod Muthalik. The objective was decided on 5th Feb 2009 and announced on facebook and feminist blogs to send five thousand pink chaddis which could be old or new pink underwear. The Hindi word ‘chaddi’ is a childish word for underwear, and is also slang for right wing hardliners. The campaign had no leadership as such and was organised collectively. The campaign was sensational, humorous and a little ridiculous. It got great media attention. Muthalik called

17

Himanshi Dhawan, “Pink Chaddi campaign a hit, draws over 34,000 members’’. Times of India. February 14, 2009, https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Pinkchaddi-campaign-a-hit-draws-over-34000-members/articleshow/4126529.cms

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off the threat of Valentine’s Day violence. However, the Hindi blogosphere reactions were very different and showed the differences between Bharat and India. They called out the indignity and the shamelessness of the campaign. Even the National Commission for Women condemned the loosening of moral standards among young women and called for control on pubs and alcohol consumption. The facebook group had forty eight thousand members and a plethora of pictures were shared. Pub Bharo campaign was proposed by Renuka Choudhury, the then Minister of State for Women and Child Development, to show support for pub violence victims. P Chidambaram denounced the Mangalore pub incident and said that Shri Ram Sena must be banned. Muthalik said he would give pink saris to the women who sent him pink underwear. However, many Indians did not approve of the Pink Chaddi campaign. We see that by claiming possession of the space of the pub, women are yet again risking their safety and making demands to be a part of male dominated spaces. They are demanding access to spaces and making them more democratic. Blank Noise 18 was founded by Jasmeen Patheja in August 2003. It started out in Bangalore as a student project in Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology and spread to other cities in India. ‘Action Sheroes’ united to eradicate sexual and gender based 18 Sanchari Pal, “Reclaiming the Streets: Bengaluru’s Blank NoiseProjet is Encouraging Women to Fight Fear”. The Better India. September 6, 2016, https://www.thebetterindia.com/67337/blank-noise-jasmeen-patheja-bengaluruwomen-india/

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violence and to use power and agency to shift hostile environments of defence and threat, to those of trust. Action Sheroes bring or send in the clothes they wore when they experienced sexual violence. A garment is seen as bearing memory, witness, and a voice. The project is ongoing and by 2022, they envision having collected ten thousand garments. The aim of the campaign is to end victim blaming attitudes that justify sexual violence across genders and sexualities. These clothes are displayed in online exhibitions as well as physically in events organised by Blank Noise. Slutwalk 19 started in Toronto on April 3, 2011 to protest police indifference to victims of rape after the police said that women could avoid rape by not dressing like ‘sluts’. Women marched in skimpy clothes and bright red lipstick. The slutwalk in India in July 2011 was toned down to suit this different socio-economic context. The aim was to end victim blaming and slut shaming. Slutwalks have become a global phenomenon. However, most women in Delhi wore loose T-shirts and trousers or salwar suits, feeling that the cause was more important than the clothes. The Besharmi 19

Amrit Dhillon, “SlutWalk mocks Indian women, real issues”. Hindustan Times. June 21, 2011, ‘SlutWalk mocks Indian women, real issues’ - india - Hindustan Times

Nandini Ramachandran, “Dilemmas of a slutwalk in India”. First Post. June 9,, 2011, https://www.firstpost.com/life-blogs/the-dilemmas-of-a-slutwalk-in-india22709.html “Indians protest sexual violence with Slut Walk in New Delhi”. The Telegraph. July 31, 2011, https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/india/8673519/Indians-protestsexual-violence-with-Slut-Walk-in-New-Delhi.html

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Morcha or shameless front was viewed by many as provocative and distracting attention from a serious issue. Slutwalks happened in many Indian cities. However, Kaushik Ray wrote in the Foreign Policy of how dowry deaths were a reality in India and found the slut walk elitist whereas Amrit Dhillon wrote in the Hindustan Times that nobody needed the right to dress like a slut in India where infanticide, foeticide, honour killings and rapes are rampant. He too found the slut walk elitist and as mocking real issues Indian women face. He writes that rape does not happen because of clothes anyway and that the project Blank Noise has already shown that. Dhillon saw the slutwalk as self-objectification. Again, it was mostly students and young people who were a part of the slutwalk. Whereas Peter Griffin, poet and columnist in Mumbai tweeted that Delhi men could take the slutwalk in a different way. Chappal Maroongi, 20 or ‘I will hit you with slippers’ was conceived by five business management and media students at Wilson college in Mumbai, namely, Alisha Sharma, Shasvathi Siva, Abhishek Lamba, Malavika Mohanan and Bhavya Pandit. These were angry young women raging against sexual violence. Boxes of chappals were placed throughout the college premises, at bus stands and so on. 20 “Chappal marungi! A new campaign against eve-teasing” NDTV. September 24, 2011, https://www.ndtv.com/mumbai-news/chappal-marungi-a-new-campaignagainst-eve-teasing-468338

“Chappal Maarungi- Strike Back at Eve-Teasers!” The Alternative.in. September 6, 2013, http://www.thealternative.in/society/chappal-maarungi-strike-back-ateve-teasers/

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They also provided self-defence training for women. The campaign for a social cause began as a college project. They made a six feet chappal with messages placed on it and kept shifting its position. There were other similar drives. ‘Chhedega toh chhodenge nahin’ (Mess with Me and I Won’t Spare You) drive was begun by Rotaract clubs of HR College, Churchgate, Mumbai in December 2011. A street play was performed in the ladies compartment of a local train. The project head was Dinesh Sajnani. Similarly, the Cut It Out initiative was begun by Marissa Pinto, a student of St Andrew’s College, Bandra, Mumbai. This was another movement which was clearly begun and acted out within the university space. Bekhauf Azadi 21 began in 2013 after the Delhi gang rape of December 16, 2012. There was a People’s Watch over Parliament on February 21. Their demands were to enact a law against rape and sexual violence based on Justice Verma committee recommendations, budgetary allocations for rape crisis centre, rehabilitation and compensation for survivors of rape and acid attacks. They demanded the rape accused MPs to resign. They insisted that sex with consent among teenagers is not sexual assault. They asked for AFPSA to be repealed and brought up the issue of custodial police rapes, as well as rape as a weapon in communal and caste massacres. They demanded a recognition of marital rape and a ban 21

Shuddhabrata Sengupta, “People’s Watch Over Parliament: Bekhauf Azadi Movement”. Kafila.org, February 21, 2013, https://kafila.online/2013/02/21/peoples-watch-over-parliament-bekhauf-azadicampaign/

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on the two finger medical test. They asked for more judges and courts, budgetary allocations for rape crisis centres, and a law against sexual harassment at the workplace. They also protested at a clause framed by the Justice Verma committee which stated ‘gender neutrality for perpetrator’22 saying that it would make it possible for men to accuse women of rape. However, I do not think that the last demand is valid and justified. It is true that men may falsely accuse women of rape in a patriarchal society, just as women may also falsely accuse men. One must also take same sex harassment into cognisance. Such cases may be rare in India, and while the fear of the protestors may be valid within a patriarchal society, but a gender neutral law would definitely be the more progressive one. Feminism does not seek to state that all women are angels and does not seek to reverse the gender binary but instead to bring about equality among people of all genders and sexualities. Take Back the Night23 was an international campaign started by a non-profit organisation to end all sexual and domestic violence. Hundreds of events happened in over thirty countries annually. These marches, rallies and vigils began in the 1970s. They marched at night, singing, engaging with the public, and asserting women’s right to

22

Jagdish Sharan Verma, Leila Seth, and Gopal Subramanian, “Report of the committee on amendments to criminal law”. NYU Faculty Digital Archive.2013, http://csrindia.org/images/download/Amendments-To-Criminal-Law.pdf> 23

Nandini Rao, “Glimpses of a Take Back the Night Campaign in Delhi.” DNA, January 06, 2014, https://www.dnaindia.com/analysis/column-glimpses-of-a-takeback-the-night-campaign-in-delhi-1945992.

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safety- anytime, anywhere. The night march began at 10 pm. In Delhi, it happened on December 31, 2013. They raised issues of marital rape, raising sons properly, and so on. Citizens’ Collective against Sexual Assault (CCSA) is a Delhi-NCR based group of individuals and activists from women’s and progressive movements. They asserted the freedom to access spaces irrespective of caste, class, region, religion, gender identity and sexuality. They stood for the rights of victims in riots in Gujarat, Assam, Muzaffarnagar, AFSPA, and also for sex workers, domestic workers, and the Dalit movement. The first Queer Pride walk was held in Calcutta in 1999 and was attended by a tiny group of fifteen people. By 2012, it had grown a hundred fold with fifteen hundred people joining in. The first queer prides in Delhi and Mumbai happened in 2008. In Delhi, the Pride Walk generally follows the same route every year, beginning near Mandi House, going through the main, central part of the city, across Janpath and culminating at Jantar Mantar. These spaces by their very names have the connotations of being ‘people’s spaces’, and most protests in Delhi, not only the Queer Pride Walk, happen here. The fight against obsolete and vaguely worded anti sodomy colonial era law, section 377 of the Indian Penal Code began in 2001. In 2009, Delhi High Court struck down 377. The Apex court overturned the Delhi verdict in 2013, recriminalising homosexuality. The Transgender Rights Bill in 2016 was a watershed moment in Transgender self-determination. However the bill had an incomplete understanding of self-determination. The first Trans conference was

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held as far back as 1981. In February 2016, the Supreme Court began to hear petitions from Naz Foundation and others to examine its constitutional validity and organised a five bench panel. The Supreme Court on September 06, 2018 finally decriminalised homosexuality by reading down Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code although it is still a long fight till legalising gay marriage and getting other sorts of benefits and facilities for the community. The very word ‘pride’ suggests that the queer pride is a joyful event, celebrating love, and claiming space for queer people. Drag, cross dressing, paints, lipsticks and all kinds of rainbow colours add gaiety to this event, and the parades have only become more celebratory as section 377 has been read down. The gaiety, of course, is matched with the power of protest and the force of desire, but the two are no longer seen as opposing contradictions. There is joy in the fight, there is a strong synergy in the movement among people. Thus, the paper has tried to show how protests and people’s and students’ movements attempt to alter the abstract and implicitly hierarchical space of the city, as well as that of the internet, by converting them into social spaces where people of all communities and ethnicities claim space for themselves, as well as lived spaces, which are those spaces of synergy and solidarity formed in our mind maps during these protests. It has also shown how there is an element of playful subversion during these protests, driven mainly by the youth, and that protests are as much a place of fierce delight, as of fierce anger.

DELHI RAPE PROTESTS OF 2012 FROM A SPATIAL PERSPECTIVE SWATI BAKSHI

The urban spaces of protest, whether Plaza De Mayo in Buenos Aires, Takksim Square in Istanbul, Tahrir Square in Cairo or India Gate in Delhi, are emblematic texts of the cultural crisis, the power dynamics and the urgent call for action in a society. The materiality of a particular space is closely related to public dissent and collective actions as it affects their identity, capacity and mobilization. It plays a crucial role in shaping the nature, goals, and the impact of the protest itself. This chapter particularly looks at the spatial dimensions of protests against the rape of a young woman, which took place in the Indian capital city of New Delhi in 2012. The protests erupted in the aftermath of the gang rape where a group of men brutalized a female physiotherapy student in the late evening of December 16, 2012 in a moving bus. If social networks like Twitter and Facebook became the blood vessels of raging anger against the violent sexual crime, spaces such as Jantar Mantar, Raisina Hills and India Gate emerged as battlegrounds of the protesting crowds. This chapter investigates how the movement acquired a peculiar character through an intricate interaction of social, spatial and media

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practices. I dig deeper into the symbolic meanings of transforming the historic and monumental city spaces such as India Gate into the site of resistance. Keeping the Delhi rape protests at the centre, this chapter explores questions such as: How does a city designate the form and efficacy of a particular protest movement? What symbolic meanings and values can a space augment to the intensity of the protest and the response that it elicits? Can the spatial specificity of the protest influence legal and policy change on a broader level? The chapter attempts to draw major tendencies from spatial trajectories of Delhi rape protests. In what follows, I briefly mention the rape case that shaped the unprecedented contentious moment of public protests in Delhi. I pay attention to the spaces of the anti-rape protests, and particularly focus on the protests at India Gate to argue that the protest transformed the dominant narrative of the politically charged monument of the national capital into the contentious space of dissent and resistance. I demonstrate that the act of resistance altered the power dynamics embedded in the unique character of India Gate which occupies an in-between space, a space which is accessible to the public but is constantly under state surveillance, which utilizes it to dictate its own narrative of power. Delhi Rape Case, December 16, 2012 A twenty-three year old woman and her male friend were returning after watching a film in a mall in South Delhi on December 16, 2012. It was late in the evening when they boarded a private bus with five

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male passengers already on board. The bus soon diverted from its expected route and the five men sexually assaulted, raped and beat the woman inside the moving bus for more than an hour. While the bus kept moving around the city, they hit her with an iron rod and even penetrated the rod inside her, severely damaging her intestines. Her male friend was also brutally beaten and left unconscious by the men before assaulting the woman. The assailants later threw the woman and her friend out of the bus onto the road, where they were later discovered by the police and taken to hospital. Medical care was provided to the young woman in Delhi and later in Singapore, but her injuries were so severe that she couldn’t be saved and died on December 29, 2012. In a country where a rape is reported every fifteen minutes, 1 this case turned out to be the tipping point for public anger against the state in making the city safe for women. Since the Mathura rape case, 2 the Delhi rape case was the first to mobilize a collective action at such a massive level in the past four decades in India. News of the rape quickly pulsated through the media on December 17, 3 resulting in a widespread outrage. The demand for capital 1

Sudarshan Varadhan, “One woman reports a rape every 15 minutes in India,” Reuters, January 9, 2020.

2 3

Moni Basu, “The Girl whose rape changed a country,” CNN, November 8, 2013.

Deepa Ray and Monideepa Tarafdar, “How Does Twitter Influence a Social Movement?” 25th European Conference on Information Systems (ECIS), (June 2017): 3123-3132.

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punishment to be dispensed to the accused men started gathering momentum on social media soon after. From December 18, the public poured out onto the streets in protest against the state’s failure to curb sexual violence against women in Delhi, which gradually turned into violent encounters between the protestors and the police. The streets of Delhi emerged as a contentious geography of anger and dissent that gradually mobilized at India Gate, which transformed into the main space of the Delhi rape protests.4 Why space matters Since the spatial turn of the 1970s in the geographic traditions reiterated the need to reconceptualize space in understanding and explaining human life and social relations, space has been a subject of investigation in various disciplines including sociology, anthropology and cultural studies. The reassertion of ‘the interpretive significance’5 of space in social processes gradually paved the way for the interrogation of the spatial dimensions of social movements and collective actions. Though many scholars such as William

4 Jim Yardley, “Leaders’ Response Magnifies Outrage in India Rape Case,” The New

York Times, December 29, 2012. 5

Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The reassertion of space in critical social theory (London: Verso, 1989), 11

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Sewell, Jr.,6 Martin,7 and Tilly8 lament the neglect of geography as an essential constituent in researching social movements and protest, the available body of work helps in thinking through the spatiality of collective actions. Routledge discussed the spatiality of protest in Nepal and the role of unique local socio-spatial practices in shaping the strategies of protests. He argued that every protest takes place within a particular socio-spatial, political and cultural specificity which defines its strategies, tactics and impact. Therefore, any attempt to generalize protests occurring in different geographies will not help in understanding the ways in which protests are spatially constructed and expressed.9 Auyero contextualizes spatial dimensions in contentious politics through social relations, built environment, urban spatial routines and the meanings embedded in spaces.10 He 6

William H. Sewell, Jr. “Space in Contentious Politics”. In Silence and Voice in the Study of Contentious Politics, eds. Ronald R. Aminzade, Jack A. Goldstone, Doug McAdam, Elizabeth J. Perry, William H. Sewell, Jr., Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 51-89.

7

Deborah Martin, “Missing Geography: Social Movements on the Head of a Pin?”. In Geography and Social Movements: Comparing Antinuclear Activism in the Boston Area, ed. Byron Miller (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2000), 1-38. 8

Charles Tilly, “Spaces of Contention,” Mobilization: An International Quarterly, No. 2 (September 2000): 135-159. 9

Paul Routledge, “A Spatiality of Resistance: Theory and Practice in Nepal’s Revolution of 1990”. In Geographies of Resistance, eds. Steve Pile and Michael Keith (London: Routledge, 1997), 68-86.

10

Javier Auyero, “The Geography of Popular Contention: An Urban Protest in Argentina,” Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies, No. 5556 (2003): 37-70.

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maintains that “contentious action not only takes place in space, it also seeks to appropriate space”.11 This suggests that every protest, staged at a particular place, has a distinct relevance which can yield crucial information about the spatial logics of tactics used to express dissent. These scholarly assertions establish that, even though protests happen in many cities of the world, the spatiality of the protest remains a specific and constant potent articulation of the message, strategy, impact and the future possibilities for collective actions. As Pile states, “This is to say that when geographies of resistance are examined, then new questions arise, not only about the ways in which resistance is to be understood and about the geographical expressions of identifiable acts of resistance, but also about the ways in which geography makes possible or impossible certain forms of resistance and about the ways in which resistance makes other spaces – other geographies – possible or impossible”.12 In this sense, the geography of resistance is relational, which constitutes the resistance while also creating new territorial possibilities through the act of resistance, mobilization and power struggle. Spatiality is the primary resource that can intensify or thwart the efforts of mobilizing dissent in an effective manner. Not every space 11 12

Ibid, 59.

Steve Pile, “Introduction: Opposition, Political Identities and Spaces of Resistance”. In Geographies of Resistance, eds, Steve Pile and Michael Keith (London: Routledge, 1997), 1-32.

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in a city would have an equal value or meaning in terms of contesting space and power to make the protest visible and impactful. Thus, the fact that protestors decide to assemble outside a certain historic building or government office, despite restrictions imposed by the authorities, attests to the importance of the symbolic power of those built structures. A particular space produces a specific form and trajectory of protest, and is in turn produced by the nature, demands and tendencies of participation that it evokes. Protests take place in flowing streets, or at restricted places of political authority, or at historically significant monumental sites, or a space where a particular incident took place, or at places where big crowds can gather and command attention. It is obvious that certain spaces can have all these factors involved and become the most favourable venue for addressing collective grievances. Over the past few years, India’s national capital Delhi has witnessed an array of protests demanding urgent attention to issues deemed to be adversely affecting the daily lives of people. The most recent protests to catch wider attention and participation (apart from the Delhi rape protests) were the India Against Corruption protest (IAC, 2011), and the protests against the India Citizenship Act (2020). While Delhi remained the epicentre of these collective actions, the cause, anger and actions saw wider participation and solidarity across major city centres such as Mumbai and Bengaluru. Both the IAC and the anti-rape protests stirred popular sentiments against the existing corrupt practices and violence of the Indian social, cultural and

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political structures. As such, these protests shared certain broader tendencies in terms of attracting various sections of the urban population, challenging and rejecting the political leadership. However, the cultural imagination of India Gate, as a space that celebrates the collective ideals of national duty and sacrifice in the colonial and the postcolonial period, imparted a unique spatial character to dissenting voices in the wake of the Delhi rape protest. As a centrally located national site of rituals, emotions and collective cultural values designated by the post-independence Indian state, India Gate emerged as the most potent space to perform dissent. The trajectory of the protest from streets, government offices and the police stations to India Gate is also indicative of the gradual consolidation of its identity and goals from a Delhi-centric occurrence to an issue of national urgency and importance demanding quick policy action. As an appropriated built structural legacy of India’s colonial past with a unique public, yet statedesignated, character, India Gate provided the physical space to protestors, but also politicized it as well. Although the Delhi rape protest was not the first time that the monument became a site of resistance, the compositional diversity and the intensity of this protest was unprecedented. In both the protests – IAC and the Delhi rape case – social media platforms played a crucial role in triggering and mobilizing the crowds with no specific ties to each other in the physical space of the

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city, although there were clear differences in how both the protests were organized and articulated the demands. The IAC was led by the civil society activist Anna Hazare and it became an arena of contesting civil society organizations, while it also tried to represent itself as a social movement with no allegiance to any particular ideology or political party. The political demands of the IAC clearly underlined the need of a legislation to make public officials accountable, namely the Lokpal Bill. The IAC protests can also be called a catalyst of political change in Delhi, as it was during this movement that the current Chief Minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, emerged as a leader and floated a political party – the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) – along with lawyer Prashant Bhushan and activist Yogendra Yadav. The AAP won two consecutive legislative elections in Delhi and is currently in power. The anti-rape protest, on the other hand, emerged as a faceless mass protest running high on emotions, but the theatrics of the protest brought the issues of crime against women, sexual violence, and the right to the city discourse, back in the legal debates. It also differed from the IAC protest in terms of its spatiality and participation. While the state-designated site for protests, Jantar Mantar, remained the central space for the IAC movement, India Gate and Rajghat (Mahatma Gandhi memorial) served as other spaces of protest. Rajghat was also the prominent site of protests, at least until the 1980s, after which Jantar Mantar was made the officially sanctioned protest site. The Delhi rape protests did see some collective action at these sites as well, but

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the initially scattered demonstrations culminated in an intense protest at India Gate, prominently fuelled by social media. The first tweets about the rape appeared on the morning of December 17, 2012, to be followed by heavy social media exchanges of ideas, anger and calls for protests.13 The first public demonstrations occurred on December 18, with a candlelit vigil in front of the official residence of Sheila Dixit, the then Chief Minister of Delhi. Soon, however, people began to gather and express their demands at various city spaces including Raisina Hill; Vasant Vihar Police Station; Delhi University; Jantar Mantar; outside Safdarjung Hospital, where the victim was hospitalised; outside the residence of the ruling Congress party’s residence; Vijay Chowk; shopping malls; and city squares.14 The spatial trajectory of the protest is crucial in decoding the framing process of the collective action and people’s participation.15 The framing process with relation to social movements is an interpretive paradigm of socially and culturally shared meanings that allow people to participate in collective action and show solidarity

13

Ray and Tarafdar, “How Does Twitter Influence a Social Movement”, 3123-3132.

14

Richa Singh, New Citizens’ Activism in India: Moments, Movements, and Mobilisation: An Exploratory Study (New Delhi: Centre for Democracy and Social Action, 2014), 34 15

Michael T. Heaney and Fabio Rojas, “The Place of Framing: Multiple Audiences and Antiwar Protests Near Fort Bragg,” Qualitative Sociology, No. 4 (2006): 485505.

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for a particular cause.16 This process signifies the importance of socially constructed and shared lived realities, beliefs and ideas that become a pull factor in mobilizing the protest. It has developed from the work of Erving Goffman’s frame analysis, where primary frames refer to ‘schemata of interpretation’17 that allow for a perceived meaning of events and occurrences in ‘deciding what it is that is going on’18 to an individual. Goffman stated that an individual can apply multiple frameworks in understanding and interpreting the occurrences. Snow et al.19 and Snow and Benford20 referred to frames as framing processes, and paid greater attention to ideational and cognitive elements such as grievances and their interpretation as relevant factors affecting participation in movements. The framing process thus mobilizes people on the basis of “the shared meanings and definitions that people bring to their situation. At a minimum, people need to feel both aggrieved about some aspect of their lives

16 Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy and Mayer N. Zald, Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 1-20 17

Erving Goffman, Frame Analysis: An Essay on the Organization of Experience (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1974), 21 18

Ibid, 26

19

David A. Snow, E. Burke Rochford Jr, Steven K. Worden, and Robert D. Benford, “Frame Alignment Processes, Micromobilization, and Movement Participation,” American sociological review, No. 4 (1986): 464-481. 20

David A. Snow and Robert D. Benford, “Ideology, Frame Resonance, and Participant Mobilization,” International social movement research, No. 1 (1988): 197-217.

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and optimistic that, acting collectively, they can redress the problem.”21 Thus, people’s participation in movements and protests depends upon how they interpret the issue or problems collectively on the basis of socio-cultural beliefs, values and attitudes. By applying these insights from framing analysis in conjunction with the act of students and women pouring onto the streets at night, assembling at public officials’ residences and demanding justice, we can gather that people framed the Delhi rape protest as an action to claim the right to a safe city which is the responsibility of the elected government in a democratic system. While the cruelty of the sexual assault and its occurrence on the public transport of Delhi contributed to the outrage, what served as the primary framework for massive participation was the horrific experience of a young female in the capital city and across the country in general. There was an 873.3% increase in rape cases between 1971 and 2011 (from 2,487 in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011), and a 749% increase in kidnapping and abduction between 1953 and 2011.22 The increasing numbers of crime against women further strengthen Sadhna Arya’s argument that the constitutional promises of gender equality have not translated into the social reality, despite the legal

21 McAdam, McCarthy and Zald, Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings, 5 22

T.K. Rajalakshmi, “A Nation Outraged,” Frontline, January 25, 2013.

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changes that have taken place since the beginning of the 1980s.23 The simmering anger over the perceived apathy on the part of the authorities and the rising graph of crime against women was triggered by the December 16 rape case. The ordinary citizens framed the sexual crime as a law and order problem where they do not have access to intervene, and where it can be addressed only by the institutional powers of the government and the judiciary. The street thus became a symbol of the framing of the intensifying protest, an activated everyday public space occupied by the common citizen to reject the state power deemed to have failed in protecting its citizen’s right to the city.24 One cannot resist remembering a similar reference of India Gate in Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Hindi film Rang De Basanti (Paint It Saffron) which has been seen as a major influence behind youth protests in Delhi since its release.25 In one of the song sequences of the film, the young, cheerful characters are seen enjoying a drive in a car when they salute the India Gate, acknowledging the cultural value this monument holds in Indian life. The emotional geography of India Gate transforms into a conflicting and hostile space, when the characters organize an antigovernment peaceful protest and are brutally suppressed by the 23

Sadhna Arya, Women, Gender Equality and the State (New Delhi: Deep & Deep Publications, 2000) 48-50. 24 Manuell Castells, The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban Social Movements (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983). 25

Neelam Srivastava, “Bollywood as National (ist) Cinema: Violence, Patriotism and the NationalဨPopular in Rang De Basanti,” Third Text, No. 6 (2009): 703-716.

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police. The fate of the Delhi rape protest at India Gate was quite similar to Rang De Basanti as the protest was met with strong police action and incidences of violent skirmishes between the police and the protestors.26 In the initial phase of the Delhi rape protest, the demonstrations were led by students and women’s groups; however, within a few days, thousands of ordinary people poured out onto the streets and political parties also joined in to show solidarity with the protestors. The dispersed centres of outrage voiced a common concern against rape in India; but, as the number of participants began to swell, India Gate emerged as the epicentre of the protest where a horizontal and leaderless mass protest took shape and turned violent. It was dealt with by police action and later forced to dismantle with the implementation of section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Act27 which prohibits gatherings of four or more people in a territory. Why is India Gate a significant spatial icon when it comes to protesting against the state and its power? What is the message embedded in India Gate? The anti-establishment protest, intertwined with the

26

Rang De Basanti (Paint It Saffron/2006) is a story of five young, self-absorbed college students who become part of a documentary on Indian freedom fighters. During the course of the film, the characters transform and become fighters against corruption in their own government.

27

Shamik Ghosh, “Delhi Gang-Rape Protesters Being Removed Forcibly at India Gate; Section 144 Imposed,” NDTV, December 23, 2012.

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location, design and cultural-historical text of India Gate, is a unique language of the Delhi rape protests. Architecturally, India Gate is a 42-metre-tall arch, and is said to have been similar to the Arc De Triomphe in Paris.28 The gate is flanked by lush parks and is used for public leisure, which was not allowed during the British rule. So, to some extent, India Gate is accessible as a public space where people can have picnics, children can play and vendors can sell food, but the built arch and the Amar Jawaan Jyoti (the flame of the immortal soldier) which was constructed after the Indo-Pak war of 1971 remain protected by the armed forces. The everyday imagination of India Gate is generally that of an historical monument, a part of which functions as a public space which allows people to sit in the parks in front of it, meet peacefully and maintain the general order of the space. It is not a public space in the sense of a bus stop or a street, as the edges of the adjacent parks are chained and there is a constant police presence, but it is still a popular leisure spot in the urban topography of Delhi. However, the political and cultural significance of India Gate has to be contextualized through the original imagination of the monument as an imperial symbol of the British Empire in India. Originally conceptualized as the All-India War Memorial, India Gate is intricately linked to the shifting of the colonial capital from

28 David Johnson, New Delhi: The Last Imperial City (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015) 191.

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Calcutta (now Kolkata) to Delhi in 1911 against a backdrop of rising nationalist resistance against the British rule. The ‘construction’ of the new imperial capital as the architectural expression of the superior meanings of the British rule in India was seen as a new strategy of engaging and administering power in India.29 Designed and envisioned by Sir Edwin Lutyens, the memorial was placed at the eastern end of the Rajpath (formerly Kingsway), connecting the secretariat and the Viceroy’s House, which is now called Rashtrapati Bhavan. Unveiled in 1931, the All-India War Memorial was officially meant to honour the memory of Indian soldiers martyred in the First World War, but the monument had a larger political purpose. It was conceptualized as a symbol of imperial unity and loyalty to the British Empire for which Indian soldiers sacrificed their lives, legitimizing the existing colonial order.30 Thus, it served as an assertive symbol of British domination over India and the continued subjection of Indian masses to the British Empire. The postcolonial appropriation and reinterpretation of the All-Indian War Memorial, renamed as India Gate, implicated the monument into political ambitions and an expression of ‘national renewal and national unity’.31 The colonial ideals of loyalty, unity and service to 29

David A. Johnson, “New Delhi’s All-India War Memorial (India Gate): Death, Monumentality and the Lasting Legacy of Empire in India,” The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, No. 2 (2018): 345-366. 30

Ibid.

31

Ibid.

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the superior power found resonance in the construction of Amar Jawaan Jyoti under the arch, which further strengthened the idea of this monument as a text of hierarchical power relationship between the state and the subjects. A black marble cenotaph that embraces the Amar Jawaan Jyoti is India’s own version of a war memorial to commemorate the memory of the unknown soldiers who gave their lives to save the Indian nation. As David A. Johnson points out, when read together, these commemorative-built structures of sacrifice and duty create a postcolonial national narrative of the supremacy of the Indian nation and its unity.32 The national appropriation of monuments, such as India Gate which further transformed the colonial architectural narrative, is described by Hilal Ahmad as a part of the construction of official memory by the political leadership in the postcolonial, building-centric, nationalist discourse. Ahmed explains that the postcolonial national building project perceived buildings as an opportunity to create the Indian versions of history by renaming and introducing ritualistic performance as a display of national unity, glory and memorialization.33 The historical and political discourse of India Gate, combined with the physical and demographic nature of Delhi today, helps in decoding the spatial dynamics of the unprecedented anti-rape

32 33

Ibid.

Hilal Ahmed, “An Official Memory of India”. In Critical Studies in Politics, ed. Aditya Nigam, Nivedita Menon and Sanjay Palshikar (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2013), 389-416.

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protests that attracted a massive participation from ordinary people. There is no exaggeration in saying that the city of Delhi is truly the power capital of India. It hosts two governments, namely the central and the state government of Delhi, has a strong presence of national and international print, electronic and digital news media, along with a vibrant NGO sector working for women, children, senior citizens and other marginalized and vulnerable social groups. According to the 2011 census, the total population of the capital city of Delhi is 16.8 million, which will be significantly higher if we add up the population of the four cities that are included in the National Capital Region (NCR). The neighbouring cities of Ghaziabad, Noida and Faridabad form the NCR, which houses many industries and media organizations. The Delhi-NCR together is recognized as one of the largest urban areas of the world with a substantial population of salaried and professional classes.34 The city of Delhi has an improved public transport system with the expanding network of the Delhi Metro Rail, in addition to the public and private bus, taxi services and the three-wheelers enabling swift movement across the city. With the presence of several universities and colleges in Delhi, huge numbers of students come from all over India to study in the capital and its surrounding cities. The victim of the Delhi rape case was one

34

“The World Cities in 2016,” United Nations, accessed August 25, 2020, https://www.un.org/en/development/desa/population/publications/pdf/urbanization/ the_worlds_cities_in_2016_data_booklet.pdf.

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such student who belonged to a district in the Northern Indian city of Uttar Pradesh. The way demonstrations started after the rape and the manner in which it galvanized into a full-blown protest at India Gate is connected to the political, physical and demographic features of Delhi. As mentioned before, the initial protest strategies of assembling at a police station in the area of crime, or at the residence of the Chief Minister, signified that people took it as an issue related to law and order of Delhi. Hence, the administrative authorities were made answerable for failing to provide safety to women. The protests drew people from various walks of life and gathered support from political elites and popular celebrities, in addition to women’s groups and NGOs. It received 24/7 media coverage and acquired a somewhat national character. Therefore, India Gate seemed to be a natural choice, given the fact that it has been a space of protest at various points in the history of India.35 The space of India Gate was transformed and activated in a number of ways. First, as mentioned earlier, the parks in front of India Gate are used as a public space of leisure where people stroll and enjoy time with friends and family. However, the gathering of thousands of people raising anti-government slogans, placards shaming patriarchy and holding the state responsible for an unsafe city 35

Sushant Kishore, “From the Rajghat to India Gate: Places of Memory, Sites of State Sovereignty and Public Dissent”. Annales Universitatis Apulensis Series Historica, No. 2 (2015): 43-57.

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transformed the everyday recreational space into a contested space of dissent, argument and interrogation. The assembly of diverse social groups expressing discontent, anger and solidarity breached the general order of life at India Gate. Second, the anti-rape protest transformed the physical character of India Gate from a memorial of duty, sacrifice and loyalty into a contentious space from where the authority of the state was challenged by the ordinary citizens. This is even more significant when we consider that India Gate has served as a site of ritualistic display of Indian unity and dynamism on each Republic Day since January 26, 1950, and people gather to celebrate the moment. But when outraged people gathered at the India Gate to demand action in the rape case, the same India Gate was altered from the site of ceremonial performance to the site of performing dissent. It can be said that the republic stood against its own government and made it accountable for its inaction at the same place where the achievement and honour of being a republic is celebrated every year. India Gate’s history and strategic location provided an additional element and certain effectiveness to the crowd, which designated spaces of protest like Jantar Mantar could not have done. The question is why, and I would turn to the analysis of the spatiality of streets during the Iranian Revolution in 1979 by Asef Bayat. Bayat categorizes four spatial characteristics that facilitate the ‘streets of discontent’: 1) location – that is central, in close proximity to spaces

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that attract people and are easily accessible; 2) cultural value – space that evokes a cultural memory, or has a symbolic significance; 3) connectivity – the availability of swift mass transportation (e.g. metro lines, taxi, bus, etc.);36 and 4) flexibility – ‘a manoeuvrable space where protestors can easily flee from the police’.37 If we analyze India Gate from these perspectives, it emerges as an extremely effective space due to its capacity to mobilize a massive participation. It is positioned in close proximity to the administrative blocks of the Ministries of the central government and Raisina Hills, the official residence of the President of India. This prominent location has tremendous benefits of not only attracting a large number of people, but also in making the protest visible and heard. The locational factor played a major role in garnering 24/7 media coverage for the protest, which designated places of protest like Jantar Mantar generally fail to achieve generally. India Gate is a prominent attraction on Delhi’s tourist map, which makes it easy to access, even for strangers in the city. This ease of access creates possibilities for massive participation in response to a call for collective action at India Gate. As a strategic space of protest, India Gate served to attract the attention of the masses – as well as the state, which could not ignore the large number of ordinary people

36

Asef Bayat, Life As Politics: How Ordinary People Change the Middle East (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2010), 167-169. 37

Ibid

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challenging its power fearlessly in the presence of national and international media gathered in close proximity to its administrative buildings. Second, it plays a role in the state rituals of India’s Republic Day parade and the national renewal of India Gate as a memorial to the Indian soldiers’ sacrifices through the immortal flame, the Amar Jawaan Jyoti. The monument is inscribed with emotional values and cultural memory. Third, in terms of connectivity, India Gate benefits through the network of Delhi Metro, buses and the constant availability of private taxis and three-wheelers. It is well connected with the Central Secretariat metro station, and many buses pass through the bus stops around it, making it extremely easy to travel to India Gate at any time of the day. Fourth, as it allows the possibility for people to assemble in large numbers at India Gate due to the factors discussed above, it also allows flexibility for crowds to disperse as it is not a closed, narrow street, or surrounded by walls, so people have the ability to move away in order to save themselves from the repressive police actions. These factors of accessibility, cultural value and flexibility allowed a large number of people to participate in the call for action constantly publicized through social media as well as television news. As the protestors spontaneously came from different social groups and gradually swelled in terms of numbers, the spatial strategies also underwent a transformation during the Delhi anti-rape

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protest. Paul Routledge illustrates two spatial strategies, ‘pack’ and ‘swarm’, in the context of Nepal’s Movement for the Restoration of Democracy (MRD) in the 1990s. He explains: “Packs are small in number and often constitute ‘crowd crystals’ that may precipitate crowds or demonstrations… Packs effect a movement of deterritorialization of space – they tend to move across space, rather than occupying it. Their action always implies an imminent dispersion. The swarm, by contrast, is large in number, effecting a movement of territorialization. The swarm openly confronts dominating power by weight of numbers, by occupying space – be it physical, symbolic, political, or cultural.”38 In a strategy similar to this, the Delhi rape protestors also utilized the spatial practices of pack and swarm during the various stages of the protest. The initial stages of the demonstrations were mainly led by the ‘pack’ of students and members of feminist groups gathered at places such as police stations and outside the homes and offices of the Chief Minister and other government officials. However, as the number swelled, the strategy of ‘swarm’ came into action, where the protest benefits from a large number of people occupying the space with the intention of countering the dominant power.

38

Paul Routledge, “A Spatiality of Resistance: Theory and Practice in Nepal’s Revolution of 1990”. In Geographies of Resistance, eds. Steve Pile and Michael Keith (London:Routledge, 1997), 76.

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As a result of the strategy of organizing a protest at India Gate, at the eastern entrance of the corridors of power, the protest, which was largely populated by women, sought to contest and challenge the state power for failing in its own duty in creating equal opportunities for women to participate in everyday urban life. Conclusion I mentioned that people framed the protest as a collective action for the right to a safer city. This is substantiated by the fact that women were hugely visible at the contentious site of India Gate for the entire duration of the protest. A politically charged protest space populated by women during the late hours, demanding action against rape in the city, is a clear summation of the gendered order of the city space and its spatial contestation. India Gate may remain an attraction for visitors and tourists and be used as an accessible space of leisure, but the anti-rape protest did serve to alter the meaning and relationship of this built structure with the general public. It can no longer be solely remembered as a colonial legacy and a ritualistic space of ceremonial display laced with the state-defined memory of duty and sacrifice. The protest created a popular memory of outrage against the officially designated memory of sacrifice. The strategy of swarming the space with a performance of dissent, at a carefully appropriated memorial to celebrate the unity of the Indian republic, endowed a different meaning to India Gate by activating the space and showing the spatial possibilities for future collective actions.

UN VIOLADOR EN TU CAMINO: A PROTEST SONG AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE IN ILLUSTRATIONS ZEBA RIZVI

‘The Rapist in Your Path’ was first heard on November 25, 2019, on the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, outside the Supreme Court (and other places) in Santiago, the capital of Chile. 10000 women came together for a flash mob to sing this song against law enforcement, judiciary, patriarchy and associated culture of violence. Chile has a very high rate of reported sexual abuse (2 cases every hour), but only 8% of cases result in a conviction; the flash mob at the Supreme Court is therefore not coincidental. The title of the song is a reminder of the slogan “Un amigo en tu camino / A friend in your way” used in the 1990s by the Chilean police. Inspired by Rita Segato’s writings (about how sexual violence is a political problem), this ‘anthem’ has been created by the Chilean interdisciplinary collective Las Tesis, a feminist theatre group. Its members are Paula Cometa, Sibila Sotomayor, Daffne Valdés, and Lea Cáceres. They say that the song went viral because systemic patriarchal violence operates in the same way in every country and

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therefore everyone has to give this call. The song also became very beautiful when it got appropriated by others across continents. Women’s reaction to the tactics of intimidation in the form of shaming through performances have spread to many cities around the world - Bogotá, Lima, Mexico City, New York, Paris, Barcelona, Berlin, Milan, and Kolkata. Even though written before October 2019 - the first time it was performed, the song assumed its own popularity. Turkish women performed the song in Turkish, Lebanese women performed it in Arabic. Argentinian mothers demanding information about their disappeared children sang it, as did women in India protesting against patriarchal right-wing rule. There are choreographed steps to the song, too. The steps are reminiscent of violence when people are detained - right and left hands raised at different times, or put behind the head, or the dancer squats, but at the same time, the woman is free of the abuse and violence when she is dancing. The blindfold or eye bandage honours people who got injured in the eye during the Chilean protests. The revolt in this choreographed dance is an empowering tool against patriarchy and the oppressive state. In attempting to shake the systemic foundations, they provide the participant the much-required drive to face her patriarchal oppressors, and dancing to this song in big groups creates a kind of solidarity that every woman gets to experience.

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I saw the song performance on one of the YouTube news channels for the first time. When I was in Chile, I participated in the dance too, on Women’s Day 2020. The participants were from all age groups. I made friends with a seven-year-old. I also met a matriarch, who shared two tragic stories of sexual abuse of minor girls in her village. She also spoke about the lack of access to free and safe abortion that left teenage girls with no other option but to become mothers in their teens. The initial idea was to make illustrations for the line, ‘el estado opresor, es un macho violador’ or ‘The oppressive state is a rapist’, but as I sat down to illustrate, I saw how every line related to the story of abuse, control, and violence that women faced at the hands of patriarchy. From the initial idea of making only six illustrations, I ended up making sixteen. I have used water colors in the illustrations as it is my favorite medium and I have tried my best to keep the illustrations relevant to all cultures. The uniform of the cop is blue in color but ‘police’ is written in Hindi. The figure of the President has the color scheme that matches with the flags of many countries and the clothes of the victims are also from different cultures. I would just like to share that the drawing about rape is the toughest drawing that I have made so far. It also took me a long time to color it and I couldn’t bring myself to add details to it. There are a few more lines that I did not illustrate because I wanted my translation to

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end with the naked body of a woman, symbolizing the absence of autonomy. I also want these visuals to serve as a quick Spanish tutorial for the language enthusiasts and make this powerful song easier to understand for a person of any language.

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‘Un Violador en Tu Camino’/ The rapist in your path

El patriarcado es un juez Patriarchy is a judge

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que nos juzga por nacer, that judges us for being born

y nuestro castigo es la violencia que no ves And our punishment is the violence that you do not see

Zeba Rizvi

y nuestro castigo es la violencia que ya ves And our punishment is the violence that you now see.

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Es femicidio It is femicide

Zeba Rizvi

Impunidad para mi asesino It’s impunity for my killers.

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Es la desaparición It is the disappearance

Zeba Rizvi

Es la violación It is the rape.

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Y la culpa no era mía, ni dónde estaba And the fault wasn’t mine, nor where I was

Zeba Rizvi

ni cómo vestía Or what I wore

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El violador eras tú. El violador eres tú. You were the rapist. You are the rapist.

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Son los pacos It’s the cops!! (Cops are the rapist)

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los jueces the judges (Judges are the rapist)

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el Estado the state (State is the rapist)

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el Presidente the President (President is the rapist)

Zeba Rizvi

El estado opresor, es un macho violador The oppressive state is a rapist.

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SECTION III – THE SPATIAL POLITICS OF PROTESTS

SUBVERTING MAINSTREAM SPACE: HOW SHAHEEN BAGH ENABLED RESISTANCE HIMALIKA MOHANTY

Shaheen Bagh, an area spanning 80 acres in Jasola village, christened so after Allama Iqbal’s poem 1, Bal-i-Jibril: “tu shaheen hai, parwaz hai kaam tera, tere saamne aasmaan aur bhi hai” (You are a falcon, your task is to fly; before you there are other skies to cover as well), has become synonymous with a space of resistance within the Indian subcontinent. Located in the south of Delhi, on the highway connecting New Delhi with Noida (in Uttar Pradesh) and Faridabad (in Haryana), the space which houses several shops and residences was converted overnight into a protest camp, to express dissent against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019, passed by the Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) led government in India, and the future prospect of an all-India National Register of Citizens (NRC) that was promised by the Home Minister of the country. The Act, while assuring easier access to citizenship to persecuted religious minorities like Christians, Parsis, Jains and Buddhists from the neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan and 1

Fareeha Iftikhar, “Shaheen Bagh living up to its name, says man who christened the colony” Hindustan Times, January 24, 2020. https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/shaheen-bagh-living-up-to-its-name-saysman-who-christened-the-colony/story-PFsIKrwerxyiEx4sCTOYHP.html

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Bangladesh, denies such a privilege to the Muslims from these countries, and will ultimately end up creating a precedent of nonsecular logic within the Constitution. 2 This newly to-be persecuted minority thus decided to reclaim space – ‘reclaim’ it, since there is a consensus that space already exists for them, as legitimate citizens of India – and women from the community and the neighbouring area of Shaheen Bagh, sat for a record 101 days at the site, protesting the CAA and NRC, while simultaneously expressing their allegiance to the country. This paper tries to unpack the different themes that this space inspired within

the

country,

and

internationally,

about

resistance

movements, and the involvement of women within these movements. I will try to look at the conversion of space that is mainstream – as a means of commuting for hundreds of people residing in the National Capital Region (NCR) – into subversive space, that is space being used to resist the mainstream-ization of certain ideas and identities which trample on the rights of another. This very interesting phenomenon was the talk of the country every day for the more than three months that the protest sustained itself. I plan to refer to my few visits to the site, but more intently to newspaper articles around the same, as well as scholarly articles on the spirit of protest and protest spaces, borrowing heavily from

2

It might be interesting to note here that the term ‘secular’ was added to the Constitution not when it was originally formed, but only in 1975, under the then ruling Indira Gandhi-led Congress government.

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Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakrabarty Spivak’s work Who Sings The Nation-State? 3 The paper will be divided into three parts – the first looking at the significance of this newly passed Act on the question of building a voluntary and unpremeditated community in India, based in the lived realities of their experiences as citizens of this country; the second, looking at the different aspects of cultural, political and social subversion that this space enabled, and the final section trying to understand what this protest means for the subversion of a majority ethic that is essentially pernicious in nature and against the constitutional morality 4 that Dr B. R. Ambedkar spoke about. Spatializing the new community With the division of all available space into public and private spheres 5, and the imagination of the nationalist movement in India in the twentieth century, there developed almost an abundance of space for women within the homes, and a dearth in public, albeit with no autonomy in either. Since then, and since the beginning of 3

Judith Butler and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Who sings the nation-state? Language, politics, belonging. (Seagull Books, 2007) 4

Implying broadly effective coordination between different social groups based on a conflict of interests, and an administration that would try to resolve those conflicts through effective use of the law and bring about a solution among the different sections for the realization of the different interests, in Beteille, Andre. “Constitutional Morality”. Economic and Political Weekly (2008): 35-42. 5

Partha Chatterjee, “Colonialism, nationalism, and colonialized women: The contest in India.” American Ethnologist 16, no. 4 (1989): 622-633.

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the feminist movement in the 60s and 70s in India, a need was felt to reclaim space for women – inside the home (through legislations against domestic violence and dowry deaths), in the streets, in the workplace (through legislations against sexual harassment) and in state institutions like universities and administrative spaces (through reservation for women). Law was an important aspect of the creation of such space – a tool to gain the sanction of the social, a means to validate women’s appearance in public. However, in the claiming of such spaces too, other restrictions and regulations needed to be considered, for instance, the class and caste location of those claiming space, their religious identities, ethnic backgrounds, financial status and educational qualifications, among other things. The CAA was passed in the Parliament on December 11, 2019, amidst a lot of backlash from a large section of the Indian population at the blatant religious discrimination it promulgated. The legislation was justified on the grounds that it would allow for the identification of illegal immigrants in the country. On December 15, 2019 a few Muslim women along with some students from Delhi (the most prominent among who were Sharjeel Imam and Asif Mujtaba) gathered in the neighborhood of Shaheen Bagh in order to protest the passing of the Act. This protest which wasn’t planned as a protest that would eventually endure for 101 days gained momentum, until finally it was removed by the Delhi state government on March 24, 2020 owing to the restrictions put on the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Act and the NRC, in

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effect, suggested the disenfranchisement of those Indian Muslims who lack the necessary documents to prove their citizenship. The question of nation, state and belonging are of prime importance in this discourse, as is evident, but what is more visceral, yet remarkable, is the thought that these terms are important not only for what they mean, but also because of their counterpart meanings of non-belonging and expulsion from the boundaries of state and nation. In Who Sings The Nation-State?, Butler says “modes of national belonging designated by ‘the nation’ are thoroughly stipulative and criterial; one is not simply dropped from the nation; rather, one is found wanting.” She asks of her audience: What state are we in when we think of the nation-state?” and goes on to say that “we might expect that the state presupposes modes of juridical belonging, at least minimally, but since the state can be precisely what expels and suspends modes of legal protection and obligation, the state can put us, some of us, in quite a state. It can signify the source of nonbelonging as a quasi-permanent state. The state that makes us out of sorts, to be sure, if not destitute and enraged. Which is why it makes sense to see that at the core of this “state” – that signifies both juridical and dispositional dimensions of life – is a certain tension produced between modes of being or mental states, temporary or provisional constellations of mind of one kind or another, and juridical and military

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complexes that govern how and where we may move, associate, work and speak (emphasis mine) (Butler, 2007) It is within this mental framework that I try to look at the space the women had created for themselves and their community at Shaheen Bagh. To understand this better, I will first try to debunk the words ‘space’ and ‘community’ within this context. ‘Space’ here referred to that part of the neighbourhood that connected the city with Faridabad and Noida, two major portions of the NCR that housed the workplaces of a substantial portion of the population. There was a fenced off shamiana 6, at the centre of the site, with charpoys and mats inside for the women and children. At the head of this arrangement was a stage used for speeches and announcements. Loudspeakers to amplify what was happening on stage were kept at regular intervals throughout the area, signaling the volume of space this protest occupied. This formed the centre of the space. Around it developed a kind of carnival of sorts with food stalls offering everything from kebabs to tea, often free of cost; a library area named The Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library; several art installations including one of the India Gate, modified to now hold names of all those killed during the anti CAA/NRC protests, and a giant map of India with the words “We the people of India reject CAA-NRC-NPR” 7; and small groups of children playing, or 6 7

A tent-like shelter or awning

Syed Azharuddin, “What is CAA, NPR, NRC? What Is Its Impact on Indian Citizens?” Counter Currents. January 23, 2020.

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studying, or engaging in art and craft. A feeling of belonging to the nation-state, to being a citizen of the country and a rejection of anyone that tells them otherwise enveloped the entire space. The state was still binding for them – their loyalties extended to anyone who thought of this country as their country and held certain feelings of love for the nation. This brings us to the idea of ‘community’ that was delineated during this time in this space. The community that is formed here isn’t only a Muslim community, or a community of those who find themselves ousted from the state. The community is the people of India who reject the CAA-NRC-NPR – unbounded by religion, caste and class. The community is formed not just of the Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh, but of children, students, professors, activists, artists and even just well-wishers. This space and the community come together in time and space to remind those running the nation-state that they are as much part of this nation as those making the laws, and calling the shots. By taking away their citizenship, they are not being set free, but are being told that they do not belong to the nation by virtue of belonging to a certain religion. The belonging and un-belonging are simultaneous processes – but “what does it mean to be at once contained and dispossessed by the state?” (ibid)

https://countercurrents.org/2020/01/what-is-caa-npr-nrc-what-is-its-impact-onindian-citizens/

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What was the nature of this voluntary community of people? What aspects of this community were essential and what were molded by external stimuli? Around what themes did they function? What did this particular space in this unusual time mean for the other spaces in the subcontinent with respect to the question of linearity that often exists in the awareness and comprehension of space as a concept? Emerging themes of the space The day I first went to Shaheen Bagh was on a cold December night, with a few friends, mostly with the intention of seeing ‘what it was all about’. On entering the shamiana, and settling down to listen to the speeches on stage, one can’t help but be amazed at the aliveness and vivacity of the space. Protests begin in extreme circumstances, when there is nowhere else to turn for help, yet abjectness or despair doesn’t necessarily characterize the nature of protest spaces. The space was well lit, and hustling with a lot of sounds from all directions – almost as a way of resistance not just to the CAA-NRC-NPR, but also to the feeling of quiet imposed upon them. They took up space, they produced noise – they couldn’t be kept silent. One of the women I was sitting along with told me that she lived nearby and came to the protest site with her daughter whenever she finished her chores at home or had some time to spare. It wasn’t a continuous commitment for her, yet she was grateful that she had a

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space to voice her discontent with the way the government was treating her community. We were having this conversation at what seemed to be dinner time at Shaheen Bagh – plates of biryani 8 were being passed around, and close care was taken to ascertain that not a single person was left without a plate of food. Water was passed around simultaneously, and it felt like a big feast, with the men taking care of the kitchen and the women demonstrating under the tents. A reversal of traditional gender roles highlighted (and enabled) the protest space, a sense of carefree-ness prevailed; a commingling of the private and public domains was enabled. However, a sense of an imminent statelessness also prevailed, a fear of misplaced or absent documents. But what did this fear signify? A freedom from the oppressive government, or a sense of grief over lost land and rights? A distinction, however, needs to be made between statelessness and the outsider discourse, especially in the given context. The terms ‘outsider’, ‘infiltrator’, ‘termites’ were used by several statesmen to refer to certain populations of people, which would include the Muslims, especially with respect to the CAA/NRC. These terms were attached, in fact, to anyone who did not, in character, apply to the state’s idea of a faithful, patriotic citizen. For instance, to understand the extent of the alienation imposed upon certain sections of the population, in the last few months, very soon after restrictions for the pandemic were imposed on the country, the state 8

A mixed rice dish with meat

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machinery started tracking down activists, student leaders and sympathizers of the resistance, and taking them into custody for unraveling imagined conspiracies. The ‘outsider’ discourse was attached to them too, but not in a way that would proclaim their statelessness. That is to say, when one thinks of the conditions of outsiders in the realm of statelessness, one would imagine a state where no rules apply to outsiders and infiltrators, precisely because of their status of being outsiders. 9 But that wasn’t what the state was doing. Instead the state was labeling an ‘outsider’ anyone who challenged its authority, and this not in the sense of letting someone go, but with a sense of superiority, of adding to the person the character of someone who is untrustworthy, who should be suspected at every step – in short the state expels, while still holding them accountable to its laws. The outsiders stand a chance of being rendered stateless, but not without regulations imposed upon them – the state prepares laws not only for its citizens, but also for infiltrators, implying that the land is sacrosanct. The Muslims, now part of the group of ‘infiltrators’ or ‘termites’ were also the original ‘Other’, despite being a heterogenous community. However, despite the insinuation that something is lacking in the ‘outsider’, some reports suggest that it is often the state that creates,

9

I want to mention here that I understand that even for ‘outsiders’ as such, legalities are abundant. For instance, the prevalence of immigration laws, and the very real idea that without certain privileges of belonging to a state, statelessness can only produce fears and anxieties. I am attempting here only to create a distinction of terminologies used in describing this phenomenon, and the hollowness of the alleged freedom it alludes to.

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through certain propitious conditions, an outsider. For instance, a study on the status of Muslim women in India in 2005 states: On the completion of more than five decades of independence,

women

in

Muslim

communities

face

considerable challenges as citizens of India and as members of India’s largest minority. Their poor socio-economic status reflects a lack of social opportunity which, though not a feature exclusive to Muslim women, is exacerbated by their marginal status within an overall context of social disadvantage for most Indian women. (…) In the study, the literacy rate of Muslim women was found to be 21.91 percent – lower than even the national average of 24.82 percent. (…) Most Muslim women remain ‘invisible’ workers in the informal economy. The Muslim share in public employment is less than 3 percent. (…) the socially and economically impoverished condition of the Muslim community disallows the development of norms that would discourage gender bias and render the women free and respectable members of society. (Saeed, 2005) 10 Additionally, the state also holds rights on being able to grant citizenship to ‘outsiders’ and ‘foreigners’, which imply both those citizens who are Indian but do not live within the country anymore,

10

Shahbaz M Saeed, “Status of Muslim Women in India”. Strategic Studies 25, no. 3 (2005): 118-139.

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and those who are not citizens, but could follow certain procedures to avail citizenship. Through these legislations, however, the state makes certain ‘criterial and stipulative’ distinctions in order to define who the ideal Indian citizen can and should be. One does wonder then, if conditions for being favourable to the definition of ‘outsider’ are created by the state itself, not only in order to produce a homogenous population, to drive away forces that challenge their authority, and to create reason for discomfort and dissent, but only as a means to create an example of what happens to dissenters: If one asks: who writes on “statelessness” these days? – the question is hardly understood. In fact, it is generally dismissed as a trend of the 1980s. It is not that statelessness disappeared but only that we apparently have nothing interesting to say about it anymore. One has to wonder about what “interesting” means in such a context. (ibid.) Shaheen Bagh wrote about statelessness, it was motivated by anticipatory statelessness. But it wrote about this phenomenon, this becoming in a way that was sentient, that was invoking of the state, an almost-denial of their imminent statelessness. Despite the fact that such statelessness might have been systematically, over the last six years, been accumulated by the Muslim community in India, the atmosphere at Shaheen Bagh was not one of scorn or rancor. It was that of determination. What Shaheen Bagh tried to tell through its

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structure, its daily functioning, its sheer grit, was that the government suffered from the misplaced notion of nationalist, patriotic citizens. The government had veered off the railroad track, and needed to be reminded that the country wasn’t theirs – kisi ke baap ka Hindustan thodi hai?: from Urdu poet, Rahat Indori’s famous poem, a refrain commonly used as an anthem during the protests, not just in Shaheen Bagh, but also in protests against police brutality that took place at the same time against students, first at Jamia Milia Islamia University and later at Jawaharlal Nehru University. The protestors at Shaheen Bagh meticulously weaved a tapestry of protest regularities that silently, but effectively communicated to the government that the country also belonged to this Other community of people, who might not be homogenous in religion, caste or class, but a community that shared the same principles of love for the nation – not of jingoistic autocracy, but just of faithful allegiance. 11 They weaved their practices within this narrative, a glimpse of which I hope to be able to provide in this section. Knowledge Production One can start at multiple points, but I intend to start with the famous Fatima Sheikh-Savitribai Phule library at Shaheen Bagh. The obvious reference to women leaders like Fatima Sheikh and 11

Akash Bhattacharya and Kriti Budhiraja. “What the ‘Outsider’ Discourse on the Anti-CAA Movement Hides.” News Click, September 8, 2020. https://www.newsclick.in/what-outsider-discourse-anti-CAA-movement-hides

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Savitribai Phule isn’t a mere coincidence – pioneers of women’s rights and their access to education, their spirits were embodied within this library, which was started by Mohammed Asif from Uttar Pradesh, who shifted to Delhi for the protests. The library started in January, on the 4th death anniversary of Hyderabad Central University student Rohith Vemula. 12 The library’s being was drenched with the memory of such fighters and leaders, those whose rights were systematically usurped from them, not enough to constitute a ‘bare life’, 13 so to speak, but just enough to consume them within the narratives of illegality and illicitness, so that the state can then exercise power over them through detention centres, foreigners’ tribunals and court cases. A report in The Week in February this year said how “The Constitution of India is the most sought-after book in this library”. 14 The library made a statement in its own way – what a country and its people read, what are on its bestseller lists is an important marker of the fabric of the country,

12

A Dalit student in Hyderabad who killed himself after being harassed and physically assaulted by right-wing activists in 2016. Farooq, Omer. “Rohith Vemula: The student who died for Dalit rights.” BBC News. January 19, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-35349790 13

A term coined by Giorgio Agamben, and defined as “that which must be transformed, via the State, into the “good life”, that is, bare life is that which is supposedly excluded from the higher aims of the State, yet is included precisely so that it may be transformed into this “good life”, in Downey, Anthony. “Zones of indistinction: Giorgio Agamben’s ‘bare life’ and the politics of aesthetics.” Third Text 23, no. 2 (2009): 109-125. 14

Sneha Bhura, “The story behind the library at Shaheen Bagh.” The Week. February 18, 2020. https://www.theweek.in/news/india/2020/02/17/the-storybehind-the-library-at-shaheen-bagh.html

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the make of its principles, its morality. The collection of books, along with its most popular titles, points to a subversion of the popular literary and social sciences ethic. Books by Gandhi, Ambedkar, Nehru and Abdul Kalam Azad took up space alongside books by Arundhati Roy, Gauri Lankesh, Rana Ayyub and Rabindranath Tagore. The collection started with 40 books and soon boasted of almost 1000 books donated by people in support of the movement. What is even more interesting to know is that Asif intended the target audience of the library to be women, yet he said that very few women availed of its services. He attributed this to the circumstances of the women from the neighbourhood, who had stepped out from their private domains into a very public protest. The already sensitive situation of the larger community, and their gendered commitments at home like keeping the house, feeding all mouths and childrearing, along with work commitments outside the home, left them precious little time for themselves. So while this library was visited by a lot of men, and students (very few girls), all the women of Shaheen Bagh that embodied the reason for the existence of that space often could not avail of the possibilities of the library. As a result, later Asif’s library also started lending books only to women who could read it in their own time within the comfort of their homes, in order to encourage knowledge of the history that the women were creating.

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As Butler goes on to articulate, can the public ever be constituted as such without some population relegated to the private and, hence, the prepolitical, and isn’t this radically unacceptable for any radical democratic political vision? (…) The ‘public sphere’ and the notion of the ‘polity’ emerge precisely as alternatives to the ‘nation-state’ and its structural link with nationalism. (…) The public sphere does not elude the criticisms waged against the nation-state, though it alters the means through which statelessness is both assumed and induced” (emphasis mine). So one can imagine that the public sphere, where the private had been put up on demonstration, especially in the context of Shaheen Bagh, was a space of redefinition. A very significant aspect of this redefinition was the culinary atmosphere of the area. Inter dining B.R. Ambedkar in his seminal work Annihilation of Caste 15 speaks about the importance of inter-dining (and inter-marriage) in the process of creating equality among castes. 16 Of course, he spoke

15

Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, Annihilation of caste: The annotated critical edition. (New York: Verso Books, 2014) 16 “One Ambedkar Jayanti: Remembering the Annihilation of Caste”. The Wire, April 14, 2019.

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only within the context of the Hindu religion and the caste hierarchy within it, but essentially one could say that this solution could be applied to any other situation of social stratification. The underlying principle of this remedy is to blur the boundaries between the profane and the sacred, to desecrate that which is considered holy, and to create a picture of humanity in areas which such social stratifications often end up dehumanizing. To be able to take a stand against unwritten rules within communities which prohibit inter-dining is significant in creating a sense of solidarity between different social hierarchical situations. The atmosphere at Shaheen Bagh was also similar in terms of defying the regulations often imposed silently on communities. One of the first things that strike you on entering the area is the aromas of different kinds of food cooking – biryani, kebabs, ‘secular tea’ 17, preparations of meat – and a mass of people whose appetites seem satiated, yet hungry, both literally and figuratively. The selfsustenance mechanisms that are in place at the site are tremendous, especially when it came to the question of food. The emotion of creating harmony through food bordered between kind hospitality on the one hand, and a declaration to the right wing groups about

https://thewire.in/caste/on-ambedkar-jayanti-remembering-the-annihilation-ofcaste 17 A neologism in use during the duration of this movement to distinguish between tea that divides and tea that unites: tea that is not a marker of caste, class or religion – almost as a reproof to the right-wing Prime Minister of the country, who began as his life as a tea-seller or chai-wala.

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the creation of happy, harmonious protest spaces on the other. Water, bananas, plates of steaming hot biryani and tea were doing the rounds at all times, punctuated by the coming of a group of Sikh farmers, from Punjab, including members from the Bharatiya Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) to show solidarity at the site by serving langar (free meal service) – a service that is integral to the Sikh religion and is an essential part of all gurudwaras (Sikh places of worship). There were several pictures of solidarity in the news of the women of Shaheen Bagh helping in the preparation of langar.18 Once the group from Punjab left, the action of providing langar did not stop, and was taken over by a few people in Delhi, of which were D.S. Bindra 19, a lawyer by profession, and Haji Abul Kalam, a Shaheen Bagh local. Both of them, in interviews to local newspapers stress the importance of creating a sense of community among the people at the protest through food. Both insist that with this increase in the feeling of suspicion towards one’s neighbours, inter-dining can be used to establish a feeling of mutual trust and faith. However, the major importance of the food culture of Shaheen Bagh was the distrust it ignited in the hearts of the rightwingers with several op-ed articles talking about the nebulousness 18 India Today Web Desk. “Smells like langar spirit: Roti, kheer turn portest food at Shaheen Bagh.” India Today. January 15, 2020. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/shaheen-bagh-delhi-langar-food-sikhwomen-protestors-caa-nrc-1637166-2020-01-15 19 Furquan Ameen, “Hot food for protesters at Shaheen Bagh” The Telegraph, January 17, 2020. https://www.telegraphindia.com/india/hot-food-for-anti-citizenship-amendmentact-protesters-at-shaheen-bagh/cid/1736665

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of the ways in which food and funds were procured. Since a few people at Shaheen Bagh attributed this miracle to Allah (in a feeling of faith and goodwill, one could say), it created speculation that funds were being obtained through insincere means, or even that protestors were being paid to sit at the site. 20 The insecurity that the picture of abundance and joy sprung up in the minds of those whose protests do not create such a sense of serenity led several of them to persecute the protests and the protestors, with excuses of blockage of traffic and the discomfort being faced by daily commuters on that route. The kindness and hospitality that the protestors at Shaheen Bagh showed towards anyone who joined them was unparalleled in other protests within the country. Protest Art The art installations performed another very interesting function in the defining of this space – in a country that could be termed an open air prison for those without the necessary papers of citizenship, Shaheen Bagh was an open air gallery, where they could breathe free, among kindred spirits and proclaim their place within the country. Apart from the huge installations, like a map of India or the miniature version of India Gate mentioned above, there was also a space where posters and artwork were hung up, which decried the atmosphere of animosity towards minorities within the 20“Allah

has been delivering miracle food at Shaheen Bagh, claims a protestor while talking to media.” OpIndia. January 30, 2020. https://www.opindia.com/2020/01/shaheen-bagh-food-allah-gives-miracle/

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country. These spaces also contained cut outs of different newspapers, photos of women fighting against police brutality and state atrocities. The persecuted (in this case those without citizenship papers) were only nominally stateless; they were not essentially banished, instead there are plans to transport them to detention centres, to keep them constrained. In fact, if one were to hypothetically try and pit these two places against one another, one would find similarities in form – the protest site was boundary walled on all sides by police barricades, there was food for those who came, and the space kept increasing to accommodate more and more people – but not in content. The site gave an abundance of freedoms – of expression, of resistance, and provided education of a kind that would be in stark contrast to the nothingness of detention centres. This was evident in not just the flesh of the site, but in concrete speeches and endeavours of education undertaken at Shaheen Bagh. For instance, one of the most striking features of Shaheen Bagh was the insistence put on a non-conditioned freedom of expression and speech, but nothing that was against the nation, so to speak. Criticisms were directed towards the government and the police and the right-wing supporters, but criticism was not supported when they were directed at the land. The unease with the government was not understood in terms of political affiliations, but in terms of human states like grief that, unlike the Indian state that discriminates between citizens on the basis of religion, don’t

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discriminate amongst people. For instance, during the protest days, a four month old child lost his life to the dreadful cold of the Delhi winter, which was unprecedentedly harsh this year. 21 His parents, however, continued coming to the protests even after their son’s death, as, in their own words, they understood the imperative that this protest puts on the lives that they may want to lead. Shaheen Bagh was an example of the non-violent registration of grief. After the death of the child, the Supreme Court, based on the letter sent by a 12 year old National Bravery Award winner, asked whether a four-month old can go to a protest, in response to a group of lawyers who argued this case based on Swedish activist Greta Thunberg’s age. The apex court termed them ‘irrelevant arguments’ and proclaimed their ‘highest respect for motherhood’.22 They seemed to be condemning a sort of violence – a violence brought about on unsuspecting children through this protest. Yet, it is interesting to contrast this with activist Safoora Zargar’s arrest in the months following the countrywide pandemic lockdown. There arose the question also of the dichotomy between ‘good’ and ‘bad’ women, because Zargar was unmarried and pregnant. The law which espouses kinder treatment of pregnant women, was 21

“Mother returns to Shaheen Bagh protest days after four-month dies from the cold.” The Print. February 3, 2020. https://theprint.in/india/mother-returns-toshaheen-bagh-protest-days-after-four-month-old-dies-from-the-cold/359166/

22 “Supreme Court on Infant’s Death: Can a 4-month-old be taking part in protests at Shaheen Bagh”. The Times of India. February 10, 2020. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/supreme-court-on-infants-death-can-a-4month-old-be-taking-part-in-protests-at-shaheen-bagh/articleshow/74061460.cms

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interpreted almost as if only marriage can sanction pregnancy and hence Zargar was not deserving of compassionate treatment. 23 The violence of such convenient categorization, however, seems to go unnoticed by the court. The court deems the former act as a violent act by a negligent mother, and the latter as one by a ‘bad’ woman and expectant mother. One is then left to wonder whether the court’s claim of respect for motherhood stands only when their specific idea of legitimate motherhood is respected, just like the court’s respect for a certain definition of citizen. This is indicative of the meanings made of questions of violence and non-violence, and the contexts through which they are discussed. As Butler 24 says on the question of human response to different claims: The capacity to respond to a claim has everything to do with how the claim is formed and framed, but also with the disposition of the senses, or the conditions of receptivity itself. Indeed, the one who responds is crafted forcibly by norms that often do a certain kind of violence, and may well dispose that subject towards a certain kind of violence as well. So violence is not foreign to the one to whom the address of non-violence is directed; violence is not, at the start, presumptively “outside”. Violence and non-violence are

23 “Safoora Zargar: Bail for pregnant India student blamed for Delhi riots.” BBC News. June 23, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-53149967 24

Judith Butler, Frames of war: When is life grievable? (New York: Verso Books, 2009), pp 165-184

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not only strategies or tactics, but form the subject and become its constitutive possibilities and, so, an ongoing struggle. (emphasis mine) Mobility The location of the protest site, and the inconvenience it created for daily commuters travelling to and fro between Delhi, and Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, was a point of contention between the protestors at Shaheen Bagh and those who were opposed to the sitin. However, the hassle undertaken by commuters and the subsequent delay this caused them can be an interesting study on the question of taking up space, a theme very much in consonance with the general atmosphere of the protest. Women’s visibility and mobility within the public domain constitutes a separate strand of the feminist movement. The rising rates of crimes against women imply that for women to step outside the house, they have to keep in mind questions of safety and security. This notion comes from the design of the public realm as the dominion specifically for men, and generally of patriarchal regulations of mobility. The symbolism of the protest site within this framework of restricted mobility is insightful: while public spaces are designed with respect to masculine templates of mobility, the women of Shaheen Bagh were reclaiming their space. The nuances of restricted movement for anyone who does not identify as a male are varied. Specifically within the Indian

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subcontinent the privileged group, so to speak, would include cishetero-Hindu men. One can speak of transport that were originally created for men, but now have designated seats for women, or one can speak of the assigned hours in a day when women find it relatively safe to be in public, after which arrangements need to be made for being outside home, for instance, carrying pepper sprays, or informing someone else about one’s whereabouts, or allowing someone to track your phone’s location. All of this creates a sense of dependence that is antithetical to the principles of autonomy and independence that is one of the goals of the feminist movement. Shaheen Bagh as a space allowed for a tilt in the power scales towards minority communities, not only Muslims, but also women and dissenters of the ruling party. It is no less than a revolutionary act for women to be sitting at all hours on public roads, protesting for their rights, not worrying about their safety, finding solace in the large numbers of friends and sympathizers that one could find at any time at Shaheen Bagh. My visits there were mostly in the latter half of the evening, and often late night classes were held at the site in order to make the nights friendlier for the protestors. Not having to worry about my safety at 1 am in the morning was a liberating feeling. The gravity of the road blockade was evident when separate petitioners moved the Delhi High Court, and subsequently the Supreme Court, asking for directions to shift the protestors to an alternative, less disruptive site so that daily commuters do not face

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an issue. 25 The Supreme Court agreed with the issues raised, for instance that the protestors at Shaheen Bagh had made their point after having protested for so long, but that they shouldn’t be allowed to prolong such inconveniences. 26 Of course, one can wonder what the courts mean when it agrees only to protect the fundamental rights of citizens who were being harassed due to such arterial roads being blocked. This raises questions of who are the citizens of this country who can register their protest, and how the structure of our justice system and the law enforcement machinery are driven by certain prototypes of citizens that is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive. Even when the protest was finally removed from the site, despite the protestors demonstrating according to the guidelines of assembly introduced by the government in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, 27 the state illustrated its understanding of what matters they perceive as most significant, and what matters they deem to not require sensitive handling, thus setting forth a dichotomous picture of citizens whose concerns matter and citizens who are 25“Shaheen Bagh: People have right to protest but there must be balancing factor, says SC.” Economic Times. February 17, 2020. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/protestors-cannotblock-public-roads-supreme-court-on-shaheen-bagh/articleshow/74172747.cms 26

“Delhi High Court dismisses plea seeking to open Kalindi Kunj-Shaheen Bagh stretch, says police’s responsibility to manage traffic”. Firstpost. January 14, 2020 27

Prawesh Lama and Kainat Sarfaraz. “Slippers on bed, anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh continues amid coronavirus outbreak”. The Hindustan Times. March 23, 2020. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/slippers-on-bedshaheen-protests-on/story-OjGk6A1j0xrp6HfD4KCzGP.html

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creating a nuisance by voicing their apprehensions. Shaheen Bagh propagated the idea of taking back space by giving voice to marginalized communities, along with retrieving the night and making visible what was deliberately being invisibilized by the dominant political climate of the country. The discomfort being felt by the government and the courts was especially visible when another petition filed by Bhim Army chief Chandrashekhar Azad, social activist Syed Bahadur Abbas Naqvi and former Chief Information Commissioner Wajahat Habibullah which stated that the disturbance caused to daily users of that stretch of road was caused greatly by the police barricades put up in places far away from the site, thus blocking more area than was being taken up by protestors. 28 The unnecessary barricading was not only a source of trouble for daily passengers but also the source of unfavourable opinions 29 around the protest that was popular among large sections of the population. The purport of the space to those demonstrating at Shaheen Bagh gained more cogency when media persons Sudhir Chaudhury and Deepak Chaurasia, editors in chief of two right wing news channels 28

“Police, not anti-CAA protestors at Shaheen Bagh, responsible for inconvenience to commuters: SC told”. India Today. February 23, 2020. https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/police-shaheen-bagh-responsibleinconvenience-commuters-sc-told-1649268-2020-02-23 29 “Anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh: Irked by difficulties faced during commute, locals stage demonstration against closure of Kalindi Kunj road”. Firstpost. February 2, 2020. https://www.firstpost.com/india/anti-caa-protest-at-shaheen-baghirked-by-difficulties-faced-during-commute-locals-stage-demonstration-againstclosure-of-kalindi-kunj-road-7991611.html

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in the country ventured to Shaheen Bagh. Their prior reputation as news channels supporting the right wing government, however, preceded them. The protestors requested the journalists to speak to them on live television instead of recording them for the purpose of maintaining transparency in the process of reporting. They were wary of news channels quoting them out of context, and spreading unverified news. This earned the protestors at the site the dissatisfaction of the journalists who went on to draw parallels between the area and the unrest in Kashmir, and also insinuated that one would have to be part of the tukde-tukde gang 30 for them to feel comfortable and welcome in Shaheen Bagh. Their alleged ordeal at the site provided matter for an episode 31 on which some of the most common phrases used on the ticker, or uttered by Chaudhary or Chaurasia were: - “Aisa lag raha hai ki hum bahar ke log hai.” (“It feels like we are outsiders.”) - “Andar aana chahta hoon, aane denge?” (“I want to enter, will you let me?”) - “Visa chahiye kya?” (“Do we need a visa to enter?”)

30 Shivam Vij, “Tukde Tukde Gang is the ultimate fake news of the North Korean media”. The Print. April 25, 2020. https://theprint.in/opinion/tukde-tukde-gang-isthe-ultimate-fake-news-of-the-north-korean-media/52326/ 31

Deepak Chaurasia and Sudhir Chaudhary. “Khoj Khabar”. Aired on January 27, 2020 on News Nation, 23 min.

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- “Kya Shaheen Bagh me 370 laga hua hai?” (“Has Article 370 32 been imposed in Shaheen Bagh?”) - “Shaheen Bagh ko reclaim karna chahiye.” (“We should reclaim Shaheen Bagh.”) - “Khulkar batcheet se kaun rokna chahta hai?” (“Why are we being barred from holding an open dialogue?”) - “Hum log kaun hai? Kya hum deshdrohi hai, hum bahar se aaye hai? Hum yahan nuksaan karne aaye hai?” (“Who are we? Are we terrorists, are we outsiders? Are we here to cause destruction?”) - “Pradarshan ke liye kahan se funding?” (“Who is funding this demonstration?”) - “Kaun keh raha hai ki aapko desh se baahar nikala jaa raha hai?” (“Who says you are being driven out of the country?”) The twenty three minute episode devoted to the experience of the two journalists at Shaheen Bagh seemed strangely reminiscent of the experience of the protestors, the reason for their protest. The few phrases I have recorded here are faithful to the overall sentiment of the episode: the journalists felt their freedom of speech and expression was being trampled upon, they felt like outsiders, despite carrying a copy of the CAA and trying to uncover the 32 Article 370 of the Constitution of India gave special status to the northernmost region of India, Jammu and Kashmir which was under India’s administration from 1954 to 2019 and a part of Kashmir which has been a point of contention between India, Pakistan and China since 1947. Under this Article, this region had a separate constitution, a state flag and autonomy over the internal administration of the state.

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falseness of the protestors’ narratives. They kept reiterating their awe at the fact that even the police weren’t allowed into the area: “Waise toh humne suna tha ki har shahar me ek aisi jagah hoti hai jahan police bhi nahi ja sakti” (We’ve heard that every city has a designated area that even the police are barred from entering), says Chaudhary, possibly implying that the law and order within such spaces is negligent. Chaurasia opined that the CAA and NRC don’t threaten the citizenship of Indians, thus indicating an uncertainty about the citizenship status of those protesting. The argument revolved around the question of space, around the monopoly of the area by the protestors at Shaheen Bagh. In fact, both journalists urged other reporters to record their primetime shows at the site in order to ‘reclaim’ that space. Even the vocabulary of both the protestors and the right wing supporters were similarly worded, with the only difference being that in this instance it was the supporters of the CAA and NRC who were being made to feel like that they did not have the right to cohabit a space with the protestors. The logic that the new legislations were imposing on those without documents was now being imposed on right wing government mouthpieces, and the debate this gave rise to signified the unwritten, but discriminatory rules of right to space and mobility. A little bit of introspection on the part of the journalists would have reflected this, but maybe the grammar of rigid political liaisons do not permit such allowances.

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This episode was not only important for the question of selfdefinition that the protestors had undertaken, but also for the protection of the sanctity of the space they inhabited. Anything that might threaten to disrupt the tone of the space made them wary, sometimes to the point of taking pre-emptive measures. 33 One could argue that such spaces did not allow for a freedom of speech and expression, but that argument would come only from those who were barred to enter the space on their own terms. This reveals the entitlement of space felt by some, and one wonders why every time a previously disadvantaged section of society claims space or their rights, it brings up the question of misuse of the same. The notion that some spaces have their own rules is not alien to us; to enter into a space we often have to abide by certain regulations. But what points to our unchecked biases are which spaces we respect, and which spaces we deem audacious when they request our compliance with certain norms. The design of Shaheen Bagh as a protest space brought to light these biases, and requested the unprejudiced understanding of its audience, particularly for those who might not share the same religious identities, but self-identify as the allies of the movement.

33 Such measures are also taken by the BJP-led government at the Centre, a glimpse of which was seen at Muslim majority protest sites during this time, wherein security forces would often be ready with tear gas and septic tanks, and paramilitary forces on standby, in stark contrast to security forces at less visibly Muslim-dominated sites like Jantar Mantar and India Gate, where they would be less alert.

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Sisterhood and alliances Another very interesting phenomenon occurred simultaneously in the capital of the country, yet again turning large portions of mainstream space into subversive space – there were protests against police brutality by the students of Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) University and the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). On December 11, 2019, police had barged into the library of JMI, and attacked students who were studying, because earlier in the evening a peaceful protest was held by students against the CAA and NRC. 34 A few weeks later on the evening of January 5, 2020, a few right-wing goons entered the JNU campus, and brutally beat up students, including gravely hurting Aishe Ghosh, the President of the JNU Students’ Union. 35 In both these instances, what gained prominence was the role of women in not just initiating resistance but also in protecting the men from police brutality. The image of Ghosh with a bandage on her forehead and a plaster on her arms was an indication of the way this protest was gendered; 36 the image of the lone woman right-wing attacker of the students during the 34 Nehal Ahmed and Grace Raju. “’We heard gunfire’: Jamia students detail police attack on campus”. Al Jazeera. December 18, 2019. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2019/12/heard-gunfire-jamia-students-detailpolice-attack-campus-191218063347967.html 35

“JNU: Students across India protest against campus attack”. BBC News. January 6, 2020. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-51004204

36 “JNU students’ president, injured in attack on campus, booked for vandalism.” Hindustan Times. August 20, 2020. https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/ jnu-student-leader-aishe-ghosh-injured-in-sunday-mob-attack-booked-fordestroying-varsity-property/story-CbIZ7qMKgp4yE8fAuSjqPK.html

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tirade in JNU was an indication of the way protest was gendered 37; the use of pepper spray and acid by the attackers in JNU was an indication of the way the protest was gendered; 38 and, women students standing on the frontlines, creating chains to make sure their male counterparts do not get injured is an indication of the way the protest was gendered. The protest was gendered, albeit by different, more haphazard gender rules – it abided by some of the existing rules, while simultaneously breaking others. This range of protests, across the board, in different institutions also signaled the materialization of a sisterhood of sorts in the country, which spilled over to the subsequent arrests of students after the lifting of the protest in March. During the 101 days of Shaheen Bagh, one of the most eagerly sought after strategies of resistance was to establish a trans-regional alliance that would create ripples of the protest in other parts of the country, and encourage ally-ship with the women of Shaheen Bagh. This alliance was evident in the eruption of similar protests in Maharashtra, Bangalore, Kolkata, Ranchi, Uttar Pradesh, Gaya and Chennai and in six other sites within Delhi. Women were seen in large numbers at all protest sites, in keeping with the sentiment of the resistance. However, the spirit of those spaces might not have carried forward once the protests were 37 “JNU Attack: Delhi Police confirm masked woman is ABVP member Komal Sharma.” The Wire. January 15, 2020. 38 Meryl Sebastian, “ABVP Leader Admits on Live TV Its Members Were Asked To Carry Pepper Spray, Rods, Acid.” The Huffington Post. January 7, 2020. https://www.huffingtonpost.in/entry/abvp-leader-admits-its-members-were-askedto-carry-rods-pepper-spray-acid_in_5e143d81e4b0843d3618220d

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dismantled, thus bearing testimony to the import of the anatomy of the space. Sentiments flow, but the safety of material space may not always be found within the abstractness of ideas and emotions. Protest spaces allowed for a certain kind of liberation and idealism, a utopia of sorts that was structured differently than mainstream space. In resistance, one found the courage to not just resist a certain supposition, but to resist along with it, other similar oppressive suppositions. In resistance, one strove to create democratic ways to resist. This contrast was something that was written about by Ahmed Kadry (2015) 39 in his work on the structure of the Tahrir Square protest in Egypt 2011 which lasted for eighteen days. His paper described the idyll that was produced by the protest site, in not just creating hope amongst the protestors, but also in providing a sense of emancipation from the numerous repressive structures that hold one in place within a particular context. Because, what does resistance mean if it uses the master’s tools to dismantle the master’s house? 40 If sites of resistance cannot educate in alternate methods of existing, then will a protest be able to sustain?

39

Ahmed Kadry, “Gender and Tahrir Square: contesting the state and imagining a new nation”. Journal for Cultural Research, 19, no. 2 (2015): 199-206. Margot Badran, 1996. Feminists, Islam, and nation: Gender and the making of modern Egypt. (Princeton: Princeton University Press) 40

Audre Lorde, “The master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house”. Sister outsider: Essays and speeches 1 (1984): 10-14.

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Kadry, in speaking about the characteristics that defined the protest space in Egypt referred to a personal interview he had conducted with a women’s rights activist, who said: I think people exaggerate. There is this fascination and Tahrir fetish that I am not a fan of. Yeah it was good. It was a good eighteen days. I mean I smoked in Tahrir and it was fine and I remember thinking ‘this is crazy; I’m smoking in Tahrir and no one is looking or saying anything to me’. And I was never sexually harassed there either. But the moment you left Tahrir, you would get harassed again. So just because Tahrir was good didn’t mean Egypt on the whole was in a good place during those days. (Kadry, A., Personal interview with Engy Ghozlan, December 15, 2013) (ibid) Kadry then goes on to say: This could possibly suggest that the protest movement in Tahrir Square may have existed in a vacuum, as did its version of the nation, and was not just exclusionary towards the state but any Egyptian who did not conform to its criteria. This connects with Juan Cole and Deniz Kandiyoti’s observation about ‘how the culture of nationalism tends to create a positive image of the nation as homogeneous while defining itself against a hated and despised Other or set of Others, within and without.’ (ibid.)

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This also seems to align with the Shaheen Bagh protest. There are two major reasons that are suggestive of this. First, the protest at Shaheen Bagh started due to the atrocities done by the state on the Muslim minority community throughout the country. Even while the sit-in was ongoing, there were more instances of state atrocities on liberal spaces – for instance, in JNU – or the Delhi riots in Muslim majority areas in February, 2020. 41 The state of the state outside of that southernmost colony of Jamia Nagar was in less than ideal condition. Second, and more importantly the idea of state that was encouraged inside the site was one of strict adherence to India’s fundamental rights and a faith in the principle of justice. However, in the current political climate of the state, such idealism can only be restricted within certain areas, and those areas then become bastions of rebellion, 42 and the target of attacks by the ruling right-wing government and its supporters. 43 The India that was angry at brutalities by the police on Muslims as well as Kashmiri Pandits was present only in the area covered by the protest site. Outside of that, there seemed to be a resistance to that resistance. 41

N. D. Jayaprakash, “Delhi Riots 2020: There Was a Conspiracy, But Not the One the Delhi Police Alleges”. The Wire. July 15, 2020. https://thewire.in/communalism/delhi-riots-2020-there-was-a-conspiracy-but-notthe-one-the-police-alleges 42

Arvind Ojha, “Sharjeel Imam called for large scale ‘disturbance’ in Delhi to grab international attention”. India Today, February 3, 2020. 43

“Protestors Chanting ‘Jai Shri Ram’ Stage Demonstration Near Shaheen Bagh”. The Wire. February 2, 2020.

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Conclusion As I reach the end of my paper, I try to assimilate the nuances of this protest, and wonder about the larger meaning of resistance. The Indian Constitution provides its citizens a means of expressing dissent, of raising our voices against injustices, and while Shaheen Bagh altered the dominant vocabularies of courage and grit, it also sprung up questions of the prevalent syntax and grammar of the sites. For instance, the site saw the materialization of the insecurities of those running the country, threatened by the demonstration of what they considered a tiny minority whose collective strength wouldn’t sustain itself in the face of executive forces of the state. They took refuge behind the fact that often legal power has to submit to executive power – that brute force might be enough to trample over the human need for justice. This was also evident, when, after the lockdown was imposed in March of this year, police personnel were seen erasing wall graffiti 44 done by protestors in areas like Shaheen Bagh and JMI. The state illustrated its fear of what was left of the protests – its fear of the visible. It looked for signs of sedition from the protestors, and in its absence used the disruption and inconvenience caused in its wake to gain support, to strengthen their vote bank. Yet, what the protestors merely desired was to be able to hold dialogue, for their grievances

44

Talha Mujibi, “The Defaced Walls of Shaheen Bagh Still Sing of Revolution”. Live Wire. April 7, 2020. https://livewire.thewire.in/out-and-about/the-defacedwalls-of-shaheen-bagh-still-sing-of-revolution/

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to be heard, as was evident from a large poster at the site that read “Aao, Baithe, Baat Karein!” (translates to “come, let’s sit, let’s talk!”). The protestors were protesting not just against the CAA and NRC, but also against the coercion of public space and the commodification of the city to satisfy a politics of difference. In creating a city within a city, Shaheen Bagh succeeded in not just registering their disapproval of the way the state was treating their community, but also, through practice, succeeded in providing a blueprint of their assimilatory strategies, of a way to be of the nation, and to love it. The government tried time and again to get the protest removed, first through executive forces and then by moving the courts. But the protest only moved because of a pandemic. In cleaning the walls of the city, in attempting to reclaim those walls, in taking physical space back, the government can only hope to erase the memory of Shaheen Bagh’s eminence, but it forgets that it is ‘a falcon, its task is to fly’.

(I am very grateful to Dr Mamta Mantri and Paresh Hate for their insightful comments and suggestions on my chapter.)

IN SEARCH OF ALTERNATIVE SPACES: RECONSTRUCTING DIALECTICS BETWEEN SPACE AND PROTEST ANOOP KUMAR AND MAMTA MANTRI In India, in the last 30 years or so, coinciding with ‘neoliberal’ ideas of development, protests have been looked upon as nuisance and ‘obstructive’ and a hindrance to the ‘development’ of the country. The state enforcement has ensured that these protests, therefore, are removed far away from the normal ‘spaces’ of life. And the judiciary has, largely, become an accomplice in implementing these bans. Public opinion in this regard also seems influenced and manipulated by mainstream media, at least, for the last 6-7 years. However, when the average citizen thinks that they must resist the autocratic rule of the state, they come out on the streets and occupy not only the physical spaces but also mental spaces of the larger numbers. That is how change is sought. Human society collectively has access to its resources. In the urban – the streets, parks, beaches, playgrounds are all the places of free access. They are not owned privately; and everyone, irrespective of religion, caste, creed, and gender, can use, participate and lay claim to those spaces. It is when the state begins to crush the democratic ideals in the occupation of these spaces that the paradigms of

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claiming and reclaiming come to the fore. The city is where multiple communities and practices interact with each other to create overflowing alternative possibilities and public spaces are a culmination of these possibilities. As sites of public encounter and civic culture, these public spaces become important spaces for political dialogues and struggle. Protests are integral to rational and democratic societies. This ideal principle of democracy may, many times, not align with the personal ideals set by the ruling elites for their benefits. The state represses the rights and freedom of common people in a variety of ways. Creating and designating a dedicated ‘space’ and ‘site’ for protests is one of the ways. When this happens, protests not only lose their efficacy as a tool of democracy, their sanctity as a constitutional right is also endangered, as the ruling party may or may not be willing to safeguard these rights. Therefore, often people get themselves heard through the act of transgressing spaces that might not be originally meant for protests. Another reason for claiming and reclaiming new spaces is that government-designated spaces are situated far away from the centers of power and the eye of the public. The government ordains that the protests must happen at only one site, no matter what the issue is. In doing this, the government controls the protest and the cause that it strives for. In controlling the protest, rights, and freedom of people are taken away by default, and democracy is threatened. This, in other words, also means the establishment of an authoritarian state.

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The chapter undertakes three tasks: - Critique, with examples, the politics of and issues with designated and sanctioned spaces, with special reference to Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Lucknow, Chennai, and Kolkata - Identify the characteristics of alternative spaces of dissent in certain cities, with special reference to anti CAA protests in India - Locate student protests in universities of India as an integral part of reconstructing dialectics between spaces and protests Over the past many years, scholars and thinkers have drawn attention to the fact that designated sites sanctioned by the state were not conducive to raise voices of dissent. It has been no surprise that alternate sites, in the form of a neighbourhood, street, a small park, or such other public places have emerged in socio-spatial urban contexts across the world. India is no exception to this. This aspect was amplified many times during the anti CAA protests. Almost every city staged a protest. And every city did not protest in the ‘designated’ spaces. They created their own spaces of dissent. Some such sites of resistance will be studied in the paper, across the cities of Mumbai, Thiruchirapalli, Bengaluru and Lucknow. Politically speaking, capital cities fulfill two functions essentially: Firstly, all the institutions of governance, bodies, and ministries are

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stationed in the capital and govern the states and the country from there. Secondly, and consecutively, a capital city does, and should, become a true representative of the will of the state or country and its people. The first role is the responsibility of the government and the second role should be fulfilled by the civil society, students, academicians, social organizations, and political activists. Though these two roles are in contradiction with each other, the tension between two opposite sides is a necessary thing for socio-economicmoral development of the country in the right direction. To fulfill the second role, protest is the most important weapon. It endeavors to represent the will of the masses. It addresses the pain, suffering, and exploitation of the most marginalized. It is a sort of tussle between the government and the people. Civil society organizations, political parties, and student bodies raise their voices in favour of their demands to the governments. Though often they register their dissent in sanctioned spaces, when matters go out of hand, they have to resort to other means. In this context, sanctioning of protest sites by the government and transgression of new sites by the common people, stand in constant flux with each other. Democracy includes in its fold many diverse opinions. It does and must allow, tolerate and give voice to dissent. A healthy democracy even celebrates differences and dissent. Sohail Hashmi says that Bibi Ka Bagh in Shahjanabad, Old Delhi, was one of the prime sites of protest during the Independence Movement, and laments about how

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it has been fenced nowadays. Urdu Maidan, Parade Grounds, Ram Lila Maidan, Vijay Chowk, and Boat House were the chief venues of protests right up to the 1980s in Delhi. In the Farmers Protest of 1988 1, the protests turned violent, and: “The net result is that the only place where there is any possibility of democratic dissent being noticed is the narrow strip of road opposite the 18th century astronomical instruments at Jantar Mantar, off Parliament Street.” 2 Imagine a sight where about 5 lakh farmers come from Meerut on their bullock carts, tractor trollies, and parking themselves in the plush gardens around Rajpath! Such an exhibition of the power of people throws light on the importance of space as an essential aspect in the expression of dissent. In continuing with the tradition of protest during the colonial times, independent India found its space right there at the majestic, authoritative structure of Lutyens Delhi. The most obvious choice

1

In 1988, a protest started in Meerut, a city in western Uttar Pradesh led by Mahendra Tikait of Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) which on reaching the city of Delhi turned violent. It forced the government to change the protest site from Rajpath to Jantar Mantar. Sanjeeb Mukherjee, “The Farmer Protest that Brought Delhi to a Standstill 30 years Ago.” Business Standard, October 3, 2018. https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/how-mahendra-singhtikait-s-kisan-rally-resembles-1988-protest-by-bku-118100300103_1.html

2

Suhail Hashmi, “Delhi matters: Carving spaces for dissent”, The Wire. May 11, 2019. https://thewire.in/urban/delhi-matters-carvings-spaces-for-dissent

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was Rajpath, the road connecting the President House to India Gate. Rajpath symbolizes the power and authority of the state. Protest on the streets of Rajpath meant providing an ideological opposition and to remind governments that under the new constitution masses are bestowed with great power and governments are just ruling on behalf of them. The shifting of the protest site from Rajpath to Jantar Mantar made it amply clear that the provision of government-provided protest sites is an outcome of the state’s crude undemocratic nature. Allowed as a site for protest from 1993 onwards (2 years after India opted for liberalisation), it was physically closer to the Parliament (not so close though), and a big place to allow for larger numbers. Two narrow main entry and exit points made managing/controlling the crowd easy for the police. Protest is only allowed within the given premises and the argument behind is not to disturb the normal course of life neither of the public nor the government. The very objective of protests is to disturb the so-called ‘prescribed/normal’ socio-cultural-political and change it. Sanctioning a protest site restricts this attribute of protest and exhibits the government’s intrinsic undemocratic nature, which doesn’t allow for the transgression of space. Transgression of space is to be considered as a transgression of the authority of the government and ultimately the state. Under the pretext of strengthening democracy, the Indian government provided a space to register the dissent of the masses but it never made it strong; on the contrary, it weakened it. It is argued that it may be the intention of the

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government to do so. As a result, ‘politics of space’ became an important dimension of Indian politics. That was what happened in the capital city of India, Delhi. However, other cities in India also witnessed and keep witnessing protests of all nature, especially the capital cities of their states. Only when their voices are unheard of in their own states, protestors turn to Delhi and Central Government to express dissent. States have also followed the Center in terms of restricting protests to certain spaces. What happens when protests are relegated to certain spaces? Are they successful? Are the voices heard? Does it result in immediate action? What does it do to the protestors? What do they do as a result? In 1997, Bombay High Court decided that protests in the city should be confined to a designated space – Azad Maidan. Before that, protest marches began near Churchgate railway station and ended at Mantralaya, the seat of government. Protests were staged in the 4-6 pm slot, to capture the attention of every office goer returning home. A Marathi slogan on a poster reading, “Why are you watching? Join Us!’ 3, invited the onlooker to join. This interaction between the public and protestors was the life-blood of these protests. They knew that the roads would be blocked and they would have to wait for some time on the road, but that is how democracy functions. The city also

3

Jyoti Punwani, “Remembering city’s exuberant morchas”, Mumbai Mirror, October 10, 2020. https://mumbaimirror.indiatimes.com/mumbai/other/remembering-citys-exuberantmorchas/articleshow/78583951.cms

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had many other sites of protests – Mumbai University, Gateway of India, Mantralaya, Kala Ghoda, Hutatma Chowk, and some arterial roads. The nature and cause of the protests underlined the choice of space (as indicated in Punwani’s article). Azad Maidan is a very big ground of about 25 acres. It is so big that it takes some time to visually comprehend where the protests are happening. After the protests are visually mapped, it takes time to reach the site on foot. As a venue for 10-20 meetings in one day and overlapping sounds of speeches, it is not difficult to imagine the efficacy of these protests. In the past years, the space for protests on the Maidan has also shrunk with Mumbai Metro work in progress. This ground has more than 12 cricket pitches, too. When Azad Maidan became a prominent site of resistance during the anti CAA protests, the entire ground was taken over. But this time, there emerged a range of other protest sites too, which will be discussed later in the chapter. Freedom Park is the official site for staging protests in Bengaluru. Formerly the Central Jail, it acquired significance during the Emergency when several opposition leaders were jailed here. Today the space has a Jail Museum, Sculpture Court, People Courtyard, Water Fountain, Book Museum, Amphitheatre and a dedicated space for protests – recreation, entertainment, and activism all rolled in one. The Town Hall, another popular site for protests, doesn’t allow for

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people to come in large numbers, because it is very close to a heavy traffic-laden road. In Jaipur, Statue Circle, along with Central Park, was a very efficient site of protest as it faced the Vidhan Sabha straight in the eye on the road. Lawns around the Circle engaged people in large numbers. In fact, Statue Circle gave India the laws for Right to Information and the Employment Guarantee Scheme, two very important tools of democracy. 4 Today it is only known for its cold coffee and beautiful lawns on both sides of the road. And the state government keeps iterating its location as a recreational space. However, in the recent years, the common man has not even been allowed to sit around these spaces by the police. You may buy your coffee from your car and leave! Parking is not allowed except for a very little number of vehicles. Of course, Statue Circle was one of the many venues for anti CAA protests that emerged in Jaipur. The popular site for protests in Lucknow was in front of the Vidhan Sabha (the legislative assembly) of Uttar Pradesh. A certain ground in front of Lucknow University, far away from the power center and certainly beyond the media and public eye, was designated by the government for its protests. Needless to say, there emerged other protest sites in the city.

4 Anindo Dey, “Give us Statue Circle for peaceful protests: Memo to CM”, Times of India, December 30, 2009. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/Give-us-Statue-Circle-for-peacefulprotests-Memo-to-CM/articleshow/5393438.cms.

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Chennai’s Marina was a very active space of protest till the 1970s. Later venues shifted to T Nagar, Valluvar Kottam, and others. The government designated a large space near the Munro statue on Anna Salai, which doesn’t attract protestors though. When protests in favour of Jallikattu 5 emerged in 2018, it was only natural that Marina became the space of dissent due to its associations with earlier protests. But after these protests, the state government prohibited protests at Marina Beach, which was later upheld by the Madras High Court. An exception to official spaces of protests is Kolkata. Protests can happen on any street in Kolkata, the capital of West Bengal, a state ruled for about 40 years by a communist government, as laughably discussed amongst common people. There are many protest sites in Kolkata, but the Brigade Ground is used by political parties primarily (Mamata Banerjee, the current Chief Minister of West Bengal, rose to power by addressing rallies here and still strongly opposes the central right-wing government from the same venue). Needless to say, there is no designated space for protest in this city. All the cities discussed above are capital cities; they are centers of power in their respective states. They ignite the aspirations of a common person who comes from a village in the quest of decent living in these cities. But when these cities get presented as sanitized spaces by the authorities (especially these days, through CCTV or 24 5A

popular bull taming sport held during Pongal, the Tamil New Year

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hour security systems), they orient the newcomers to be law-abiding and non-questioning citizens. But when it is time for everyone to stand in solidarity against the authoritarian state, the state-designated sites of protests, tucked away in a corner, remind us that protests have to be initiated often to even demand a space to protest. When public spaces are under constant government occupation and surveillance, access and ownership of such spaces become important. All the former law-abiding and non-questioning citizens require and therefore seek a space near their neighborhoods. Every protest requires a spectacle; it requires masses, both as onlookers and participants 6. When the masses cannot choose a place to protest, it deeply curbs their freedom of expression, violating constitutional rights. Every public space gets determined and characterized by the activities it enables and the bonds that tie the people to it. Since most of the designated spaces are chosen by the government, they are constantly watched by the enforcement agency – the police. Permission for every protest has to be sought in the concerned police station. Certain numbers of police personnel are always deployed at these designated places. First Aid Kit, Ambulance, Fire Brigade Services, find space along with water cannons, lathis, protective gear, and other means of curbing protest.

6 Divya Chandrababu, “Time we gave space to mass protests in TN”, Times of India, February 15, 2017. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/time-we-gave-space-to-massprotests-in-tn/articleshow/57154158.cms

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Many simultaneous protests in the same (official) venue also deride the point of protest. The cacophony of sounds from the loudspeaker does not allow the protestor to focus and understand a single or many issues. Also, masses can be seen slipping from one protest to another, showing a lack of dedication to any cause. While protestors bond with each other over a range of issues, such sites also overload the audience with too much information and they get immediately put off. These ’ritualistic’ conditions ensure that the TRP hungry media does not cover the protests seriously. Access points to these spaces of resistance ensure that interests don’t arise in protests. Even though these spaces are connected with local trains, roads, metro stations, the immediate road or gate is placed or monitored strategically to not allow masses to enter or exit in large numbers and acts as a spatial deterrent of sorts. Jantar Mantar has two streets as entry points and Azad Maidan also has two entrance gates. Gates and narrow streets, juxtaposed against gardens, grounds and lawns, trickle down the number of protestors entering the designated official protest sites. It is intended that the protest site should be far from the direct public view. Proximity to protests on the roads and streets engage the common man and help them develop a perspective on politics, as they witness and hear the plights of the affected. Even as onlookers, they contribute to the numbers and maximize the impact of the protests. One has to remember the anti-corruption protests at Jantar Mantar

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led by Anna Hazare and Arvind Kejriwal demanding Lokpal Bill. Even though Jantar Mantar was the chief site, it became successful only because there were many parallel protests for the same cause across Delhi and other cities of the country. There is also a very huge list of protest events that have not been allowed by the police, under the pretext of maintaining law and order and crushing any possible dissent. This also pushes the citizens to go to courts. But it is a waste of time, resources and money for all stakeholders. On October 7, 2020, the Supreme Court ruled that the right to protest was a fundamental right but not an absolute one. Public spaces cannot be occupied indefinitely for protests and demonstrations. This decision came as a clear blow to the expression of dissent. First protests were pushed to designated spaces and then it was declared illegal to hold any kind of protest in any public space, on the same pretext of causing inconvenience to the common man. A big blow to Indian democracy and its resilient history of protests, the state has turned a deaf ear to the voices of dissent. T M Krishna writes 7: “Even the idea of designated locations for protest needs to be challenged. Who designates these spaces and on what basis? In a country like India, where the political class does not 7

T M Krishna, “Unless public spaces are freely available for demonstrations, we will remain a mute democracy”, The Indian Express, October 9, 2020. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/shaheen-bagh-caa-protestssupreme-court-6716469/

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appreciate being questioned, especially when in power, how does the court expect any fairness in protest space allocations? The consideration will always be: How can we limit its growth, effect and keep it under our control? There is little value in speaking about public inconvenience without addressing the limitations that are placed on our right to protest. It is also essential to realise that protesting is often a spontaneous act and cannot be bottled by allocations and permissions. A vital quality of protest is public awareness and participation; consequently, public roads cannot be off-limits. Unless we are shaken awake from our slumber by slogans, cheers, demands, songs and hundreds walking the streets, those of us who complain of disruption will never notice the farmer or labourer. Yes! We are now a democratic country; yet how can we be blind to the lack of freedom and independence and the pervading fear in the hearts of so many? The state is an enormously powerful machine and, in order to force a just response, common people need to apply collective pressure. In this tussle, public spaces are crucial to empower people, make them heard, and bring some parity into the discourse. Therefore, the occupation of highways by citizens whose lives have been torn apart by sexual, corporate and political

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violence is an important tool and to treat it as a public annoyance is majoritarian browbeating.” Yes, it is true that not all protests indeed occupy the national imagination. They don’t have to, maybe. But the anti CAA protests caught the attention of people, in almost every city of India. The Muslim minorities were the first to rise in protest against the insidious bill, as their identities and citizenship were threatened. No wonder then the first protests came up in Muslim neighborhoods. Other citizens joined in too. It is here that the designated spaces of protest and newer sporadic spaces emerged. Jantar Mantar, Azad Maidan, Freedom Park, and other ‘official’ spaces were definitely spaces of protests. After a very long time in the history of Independent India, people poured in such large numbers to protest against an unjust law. But these spaces were not in the limelight. Other sites, inspired by Shaheen Bagh, became the sites of resistance in the country. Bilaal Bagh, near Tannery Road in Bengaluru, like Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, had a shamiana (cloth tent) erected in the middle of the road. Businesses continued in nearby shops, even though traffic was not allowed, unlike Shaheen Bagh where all shops were shut down – while the protests were on. A wall of resistance, replete with posters and slogans, adorned the shamiana. A library was also built and made functional.

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The Clock Tower in the old part of Lucknow was used as a recreational public space since the time it was constructed. It came as a surprise that this particular space became a site of resistance. It is now a politically dynamic space, liked by a few, disliked by others. A year later the Clock Tower has been converted into a police cantonment area so that protests cannot be allowed. But people will obviously find other places/spaces to protest. Spaces, like people, have features and when historical events get attached to the place, they become alive along with their citizens standing for their constitutional rights. Jaipur found its sit-in protests at M I Road, though it wasn’t as extravagant or elaborate as other spaces. Protest marches were a regular feature around Gandhi Circle. The 12-feet Morland Road behind Arabia Hotel in Nagpada was Mumbai’s Shaheen Bagh. Its name, Mumbai Bagh, very beautifully, connected protestors’ identity that was inherently connected with their city. The Uzhavar Sandhai ground, next to the Uyakondan River in Tiruchirapalli, Tamil Nadu, was a fruit and vegetable market. A shamiana was erected on this ground and protests continued like in other cities. People also organized a protest march to the Collector’s Office, two kilometers away. These spaces are some of the innumerable protests that continued in India. An open ground, a colonial square, a small neighborhood, an arterial road, or a street – none of these spaces are as closed as designated protest spaces. They did not have any association or

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history with protests; some of them were not even public spaces in the technical sense of the word. They were decided upon organically and spontaneously and other elements (tent, stage, chairs, sound system, etc.) were arranged by the communities themselves. When the government did not pay heed to them, they became sit-in. At any time in 24 hours, participants voluntarily sat in protests. Now food and logistics also came into play. Many communities came to cook and feed the protestors. People supported the protestors from cities and far away villages, in whatever capacities they could. The act of eating together was not about satiating hunger, but bonding as fellow citizens to stand with each other – a lesson the country had long forgotten. Unlike designated spaces where none of this has to be thought of, every little detail in these spaces was ideated upon and executed by the protestors. The biggest advantage of these spaces was accessibility. They were in great proximity to the neighborhood and at walking distance. That helped the womenfolk to be involved every day. They could finish their household chores, college studies, or office work and come to the site and participate in the protests. The evenings were therefore very vibrant with a bigger number of participants. Women sat in quiet resistance and their children also learnt big lessons in democracy and resilience. These sites engaged in innovative and educational activities – volunteers taught painting, drawing, music, and dance to all those

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interested. Many protest sites also built a library for themselves to read and learn about the constitutional values and other important things about the country. Many artists came to these sites to perform for the protestors and express solidarity. The large numbers of people who stood for the abolition of the CAA law reminded everyone of the independence movement of India. India didn’t achieve its freedom from merely protesting in urban centers of Bombay or Delhi or Calcutta. It did so when every village and town participated in the freedom struggle. This time, too, protests in every city became a mass consciousness, like during the independence movement that brought people together for common political action. Locations carry meanings and those meanings become the meaning of the movement itself. The anti CAA protests have been named after Shaheen Bagh, a space that denotes freedom of expression. A point that requires mention here is that usually protests don’t get named by the site that they take place in, say after Jantar Mantar, Azad Maidan or Town Hall. They are usually named after people who organize these protests – farmers’ protests, workers’ protests, women’s movement, etc. But naming an event/protest is also about claiming identity. In this case, the name ‘Shaheen Bagh’ does not belong to a particular religion, gender, or caste, it denotes a space that does not discriminate against anyone, treats everyone equally, and propagates the ideal of a true citizen and nation.

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When people occupy public spaces, they reclaim those spaces that were already theirs; albeit in a different way. When a different socioeconomic order is employed in these spaces, they allow people to act in defiance against the state. This is a very liberating feeling. The notion of confrontation is subverted now! By locating the movement in a concrete space, they create a new community and confront the authorities, thereby amplifying the symbolism of freedom and democracy. Sanctioned spaces of dissent don’t possess these features; they function like mute spectators and as neutral containers of activity. The farmers’ protests at the borders of the capital city is also a validation of reclaiming spaces. However, this paper was written before the protests began. These protests, anyways, requires another elaborate academic effort, and hopefully will find their rightful expressions in the context of spatial criticism. Well, this is not the first time that alternate spaces for protests have been created. Universities are a classic example of spaces that get altered by protests in many ways. When students implement the lessons they learn in their textbooks, to voice their demands and register protests, Universities (barring administrative blocks or buildings) become a perennial, yet alternate space of protest. It does not require designated spaces to put forth its demands. It works within its own spatial dimensions and dynamics and sets up encouraging examples for itself and its students who will become citizens in the future. Whether it is a protest for fee hike or asking for amenities or changing hostel timings or against unjust laws of the

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state, students have always been at the forefront to demand their rights. It is surely not an exaggeration to state that every protest begins in a university. Violent attacks on the student population in Jamia Milia Islamia University and Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) were instrumental in making Shaheen Bagh what it became. Some recent key protests worth mentioning are Jadavpur University protest against molestation in 2014, FTII agitation in 2015, Pinjra Tod Movement protesting against canceling late nights for girls in 2015, protests against Rohith Vemula’s death, JNU’s protests against the hanging of Afzal Guru in 2016 and against fee hike in 2019. A point about Occupy movements in the context of universities. What does the word ‘Occupy’ mean? When the governments refuse to have a dialogue with the voices of dissent for days and months together, people have to think of other means to capture the attention. In the occupation of a space that belongs to the government, say the office of a prominent bureaucrat, or the complete government offices districts, the protestors demand that they be heard. The student community of JNU had organized an occupy movement around the Administration Block because their demand for a meeting with the administration about changes in admission policies was not met. It means that the student community has every right to claim spaces that are occupied by the administration. At another time, the student community of JNU occupied the office of the University Grants Commission (UGC) for half a month to get heard.

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Spaces are not just physical, they are also cerebral. They evoke certain emotions in people. Citizens feel safe when they know that there are spaces where they can speak for themselves and resolve their grievances. Protests also help keep the sanity of the society intact. When there are no spaces available for protests, people feel insecure about their conditions and identities. This form of violence is detrimental. Such violence manifests itself in two ways: violence to the self and violence to the other. Rohith Vemula, a student of Hyderabad University, killed himself by committing suicide because he felt that there was no space in the University or around him to voice his concerns and opinions. As he couldn’t find that space, he inflicted violence on himself in the act of committing suicide. The problematics of his caste further worsened his cause. Many students, like him, from the unprivileged castes, find themselves in this conundrum once or many times in their lives. Violence to the other include rioting, damaging of property, physically hitting, and killing. When protests turn violent, they cause monetary losses to common people and the state. But what these violent episodes also do is deepen the seeds of separatism and/or discontent even further, augmenting dissent to greater proportions. When spaces do not allow for healthy interactions with various sections of the society, people fail to recognise and understand each other; they cannot empathise with each other; and give in to violence when instigated by political parties, very easily. Hence, there is an urgent need to study and break the spatial repression and politics at so many levels.

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Conclusion These alternate spaces of dissent are a challenge to the cartographies of power. New spaces get socially reproduced as a result of contestation in and over space. A protest by itself may not be able to change unjust laws that come with hidden agendas. But it does send a message for people to rise in solidarity when required. New sites of resistance emerge when people come together to raise their voices against injustices. These physical spaces are not spaces merely in terms of their physical existence; they capture the socio-political and cultural imagination of their society. Too many spaces of protests also mean that the government cannot ignore them and has to finally relent to the dissenters. In addition to enhancing the intensity of the protests, it creates new discourses; it makes people aware of heterogeneity and the validity of accepting differences in opinion. It may also help in building newer and stronger ties amongst people. When masses join hands and transgress previously forbidden spaces, the government submits to them. In this process, newer cultural and creative symbols of expressions emerge, which become symbols with a potential to spread across the world. It also throws light on how protests, once they access or create those spaces of power which are generally forbidden; it becomes difficult for the state to maintain the authority of the location and stop people from marching into the forbidden land.

PROTESTING PERIPHERIES: EXPLORING THE DETERMINANTS OF PROTEST SPACE IN THREE NEIGHBORHOODS OF DELHI SUMEDHA CHAKRABORTY

Introduction Between December 2019 and March 2020, the anti CAA movement strengthened and spread across India. Delhi witnessed the largest number of protests, several of which were sit-ins led by women. As the movement developed, a new social geography emerged in the city. Social media helped produce and circulate dynamic, navigational maps linking protest sites to each other, and to the larger citywide (and nationwide) anti CAA resistance. These maps reflected a shift in the metro stations sought, the spaces reclaimed and celebrated, and the communities forged in the city. In other words, the axis of protests during the anti CAA movement shifted from prominent, ‘central’ locations to the city’s margins – the places where many of those impacted actually lived, and where their right to remain, and be viewed as legitimate citizens of the country, was continuously being challenged. In this paper, I consider the new imaginations of the urban protest produced by the anti CAA movement in Delhi. In metros, buses,

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share-autos, e-rickshaws, and on foot, citizens made their way across the city to join neighborhood sit-ins, often led by resident women, protesting the new act. Many working class, Muslimmajority neighborhoods witnessed sizeable and sustained protests. Some were in the old city, others were located across the Yamuna River, to the Northeast, still others dotted the area adjacent to Okhla canal running through the South-east of the city. These sit-ins drew participation and solidarity from across socio-economic contexts and ethnic and religious communities. Protesting by occupying public space is an important form of re‘commoning’ 1 material and symbolic realms of the city, and the nation. I locate my argument in theories of protest that centre the import of built form 2 and conceptions of spatial legibility 3 in the ‘doing of’ 4 resistance. I map the social and built landscapes of three protesting city neighborhoods to demonstrate how each site became

1 Anant Maringanti, “No Estoppel: Claiming Right to the City via the Commons”. Economic and Political Weekly 46.50 (2011): 64-70. 2

James M. Jasper, Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014)

Frantz Gheller, “From Protest Marches to City Squares and Parks: The Fight for Urban Commons under Neoliberalism." Problématique 15 (2013): 3-15. 3 4

Kevin A. Lynch, The Image of the City. (Massacheusettes: MIT Press, 1960)

James M. Jasper, Protest: A Cultural Introduction to Social Movements. (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2014)

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a unique ‘strategic arena’ 5 of protest, and enabled local communities to reclaim discursive and material space in the city. 6 The neighborhoods of Turkman Gate, Seelampur and Shaheen Bagh, witnessed vociferous anti CAA protests and garnered significant symbolic import. Residents of these working class, Muslim majority neighborhoods were multiply vulnerable to the existential threat posed by the CAA-NRC combination. The everyday marginalization of their neighborhoods within the city’s social geography spatialized this sociopolitical vulnerability. My study of the three sites is also informed by my own visits to them during the months of the protests in Delhi. Since the movement was aimed at reclaiming an increasingly demonized minority voice, and asserting indelible belonging within the city, and the country, 7 spatial and demographic composition of the neighborhoods was an important consideration in my choices of protest sites. The different sociospatial contexts of each of the three sites contributed to the disruptive potential of the protests individually and collectively. I consider the protests at these sites from December 2019 to March 5

Ibid

6

In highlighting the import of ‘locality’ (Appadurai 1996) for each protest site, I do not intend to argue the absence of shared contexts between different sites. On the contrary, the city’s numerous protests were closely bound together through shared “repertoires of contention” (Tilly 2003). 7 At the same time, I do not intend to suggest that these protests saw exclusive participation by minority communities- far from it. Extensive accounts of the diversity of communities that joined the protests can be found in contemporary reportage. For a detailed account see: ShaheenBagh: From a Protest to a Movement (Ziya Us Salam and Uzma Ausaf) Bloomsbury: 2020.

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2020, when large scale violence against Muslim neighborhoods in Northeast Delhi was quickly followed by the arrival of the pandemic, forcing an end to physical protests. The anti CAA protests in Delhi mobilized diverse groups and yielded new solidarities. As a participant, I experienced and cherished many of these solidarities. However, the vulnerabilities and dynamics – spatial, social, experiential – that I touch upon here are not mine to appropriate. It is as an outsider that I write of these neighborhoods; and moreover, as an outsider whose own privileged positionality (class, caste, gender, religion) is complicit in their socio-spatial marginalizations. I write with an acute consciousness of this, but in the hope that it will, in some small way, be generative to further reclamations of space (material, political, and epistemic) by historically marginalized communities. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) In December 2019, the BJP-led NDA Government, 7 months into its second term, tabled the Citizenship Amendment Bill (2019) in the Lower House (Lok Sabha) of the Indian Parliament. This bill was part of a series of major and minor legislative and legal ‘victories’ that the right-wing government had enacted and ‘won’ since its return to power. The bill fast-tracked the granting of Indian citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Parsis from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan (all three Muslim majority nations), on grounds of religious persecution. Despite the repeatedly

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claimed ‘humanitarian commitments’ of the bill, 8 its exclusionary limits on who could qualify for ‘persecuted minority’ status, and the explicit use of religion as a criterion for citizenship, marked a major break from constitutionally enshrined principles for granting Indian citizenship. The CAA (2019) legislatively reified what Willem van Schendel (2005) calls ‘the narrative of homecoming’: the idea that Hindus who find themselves on the ‘wrong’ side of the border must be recognized as people crossing into India – the nation to which they ‘naturally’ belong. Working in tandem with a National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is a demographic enumeration exercise to document ‘legitimate’ citizens of the country, the CAA in India appears poised to abet, rather than offer refuge from, persecution. Anti CAA protest in Delhi: Protesting ‘peripheries’ Global occupy movements resemble each other for the ways they anchor resistance to space. Protests at Tahrir Square, Ghezi Park, and Wall Street, drew part of their disruptive power from the occupation of spaces invested with symbolic and material capital (Amin 2008). The anti CAA protests in Delhi, however, were concentrated in structurally invisibilised and marginalized city 8 Rajeev Chandrasekhar, “Ignore the lies and fear mongers. CAA is a humanitarian act that provides future for those who have escaped religious persecution”.The Times of India. January 11 , 2020

Arjun Ram Meghwal, “Understand the CAA — it is a humanitarian legislation”. The Indian Express. January 20, 2020.

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neighborhoods. In a seeming paradox, many of these neighborhoods are rendered hyper-visible in times of ascendant communal tensions on account of socio-economic, religious, and caste-related identities of residents. However, everyday forms of urban politics, governance, and dominant metropolitan imaginaries routinely miss or dismiss them. Unlike the Trump Tower, Wall Street, or Ghezi Park, Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, Turkman Gate, Nizamuddin Basti, Seelampur, Jaffrabad, Hauz Rani (and others) are not centers of economic or socio-political power in the city. Hegemonic cartographies situate them as, and at, the city’s peripheries. I argue here that it was precisely this peripherality assigned to, and inscribed on, these spaces that made them potent sites of protest. In other words, the success of anti CAA protests in reclaiming their right to, and within, the city was driven by their location in marginalized neighborhoods. Capitalist, and more recently neoliberal, forms of socioeconomic organization are predicated on practices of enclosure (Gheller 2013). Enclosure – ways in which public spaces are acquired and converted to private property (by a combination of state actions, commercial activities, and social practices) – create wide-scale dispossession. It creates boundaries of access and delineates how public space can be ‘rightfully’ occupied and by whom. The Tahrir square protest in 2011, the Occupy movement, and the anti CAA protests in India destabilize enclosure-driven control over urban space. This often prompts violent states action aimed at (forcibly)

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removing ‘illegal’ occupiers and restoring ‘ordered’ control to public space. Urban commons, as shared spaces and socio-spatial practices (Hemani 2020), disrupt forms of enclosure, and enable contact between diverse and disparate groups that inhabit and shape cities. Commons animate Lefebvre’s transformative articulation of the ‘right to the city’ (1991). Harvey (2012) extended this to mean “the right to change ourselves, by changing the city more after our heart’s desires” and, “the freedom to make and remake our cities... is one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.” In reclaiming public spaces, and in some instances making public spaces for protests within marginalized neighborhoods, the anti CAA movement in Delhi spatialised this inherent right and freedom to (shape) the city. Anant Mariganti (2011) further argues that the right to the city is anchored in the right to urban commons, which in turn is crucially related to the ‘communing of knowledge’ of, and in, the city. The anti CAA movement in Delhi, as it grew and strengthened, ‘commoned’ knowledge of the city in many ways. It allowed the city’s ‘peripheries’ to reroute movement within the city, emphasize their right over public space, and rescript the socio-spatial cartographies imposed on their neighborhoods by the city. In unpacking these three protests and the anti CAA movement more broadly, my approach is also informed by James Jasper’s formulation of ‘strategic arenas’ (2014). The choice of an arena or ‘theatre of protest’, James suggests, is crucial to the ability of

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protesting groups to amplify the visibility and reach of their message(s), to garner media attention (and through it further public interest), and leverage spatial contexts and symbolisms to demand institutional engagement with their concerns. Building on this understanding of the strategic import of protests sites (materially and symbolically), I argue that many of the Delhi neighborhoods where sit-ins and protests were organized, indicate particular strategic value from their socio-spatial marginality. 9 In other words, sit-ins organized in these working-class Muslim neighborhoods indexed a singularly disruptive threat to the state, and to standardized imaginaries of the city. In compelling the city to engage with its peripheries, and drawing state and public attention to marginalized communities and neighborhoods, the anti CAA movements centered urban margins. This movement fighting for a disempowered minority’s rightful claims to citizenship and belonging in the nation saw a remarkable metonymic spatial mirroring in Delhi’s anti CAA sit-ins. The margins, briefly, were the centre.

9

Many of these areas are on the social margins (on account of their class, caste, and religious contexts), as well as at spatial peripheries of the city (on account of their distance from areas situated, socioeconomically and politically, as “central” in collectively-recognized, lived topographies of the city). Some of these are “planned” but most straddle multiple categories of planning- ‘informal’, ‘illegal’, ‘illegitimate’, ‘unplanned’– that dictate residence in the city (Bhan 2013). In ‘central’ areas across the city, labour sourced from the peripheries sustains much of the economic and production activities, but the powerful monopolize housing.

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Delhi’s contemporary socio-spatial landscape Rotem Geva Halperin (2014) traces how Delhi became a ‘city of suspicion’ beginning in the early 20th century. This argument offers historical context for the delegitimization of Muslim belonging in the city and in the country. It is an important point of departure to understand the ‘legible’ (Lynch 1960) histories that strengthened the strategic import of the city’s anti CAA protest sites. Geva Halperin argues that a movement takes place in (and further within) specific neighborhoods, because of increasingly delegitimized Muslims belonging in and to the city in the years immediately following Partition. This movement was a result of seeking sanctuary from burgeoning violence and everyday hostilities as the Indo-Pak Partition became a violent reality. For the city’s Muslim minority, this movement is replicated, till this day, in moments of heightened communal tension. The Indo-Pak Partition’s violent rescripting of city-space produced deep insecurities about ownership, community, and belonging. Inheritances of this moment continue to order life and experience, particularly among Muslim minorities and erstwhile refugee populations in Delhi. Many scholars have mapped the ways spatial patterns of ghettoization continued, and even strengthened, in the decades after 1947 (Pandey 2001, Oldenberg 1976), especially in the immediate aftermath of large scale anti-minority violence (the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, the 1992 Babri Masjid demolition and subsequent riots, the 2002 Godhra

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riots). This has incrementally delegitimized Muslim presence in, and right to, public space and commons. 10 Postcolonial Delhi has remained imbricated, spatially and socially, in the shifting dynamics of national politics. As many studies have shown (Das and Walton 2015, Hosagrahar 1999, Jamil 2017, Riggs 2020, Sidhwani 2015), the postcolonial state added its own, and repurposed colonial, spatial practices. The new nationalist government continued to place a premium on exercising complete administrative control over the city, and explicitly recognized its sustained symbolic importance and preeminence within the new democratic order (States Reorganization Commission Report, 1954). Delhi’s contemporary form, then, is closely linked with the continued desire of successive governments to ensure spatial and socio-political control. The 1970s was also a decade of heightened, coercive state intervention in urban life. Many of these interventions focused on ‘improving’ (Jagmohan 1975) the Old City, and shifting peoples out into new ‘planned’ rehabilitation colonies created at the eastern edges of the city (Tarlo 2003, Dayal and Bose 1977). Citing the ‘cramped’ and ‘unplanned’ (Jagmohan 1975) conditions of many Old Delhi neighborhoods, the DDA forcefully ‘resettled’ people into 10 It also yields colonies, small and big, across Delhi (like Shaheen Bagh and its many adjoining settlements (Farooqi 2020, Iftikhar 2020), that draw a sense of security and collectivity from their proximity to each other, and/or long-established Muslim neighborhoods (like the historic neighborhood of Jamia and its university, in the case of Shaheen Bagh).

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barely-built settlements, with little or no infrastructural support, and at significant distances from their older neighborhoods and places of work (Dayal and Bose 1977). Many of the same neighborhoods that became sites of sustained anti CAA protests were closely connected to these histories of displacement and dispossession. Decades since have witnessed new hegemonies (accompanied by new forms of corporeal and affective violence) that further reshaped the city’s neighborhoods. For instance, the Asian Games held in Delhi in 1982 added several sports stadia to the city, and modern apartments in the ‘games village’ (accessible only to the wealthy), while also bringing in large numbers of migrant workers to city to be employed in construction activities. This dual increase, of elite housing on the one hand and of working class populations on the other (Dupont 2011), reinforced existing and added new, spatial inequalities. Similarly, market liberalization in 1991 also reshaped the aspirational cityscape, and forms of urban belonging. The antiSikh pogrom of 1984, the wave of Hindutva mobilization leading up to, and building from, the demolition of the Babri Masjid in December 1992, and the anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat in 2002, all mark significant socio-spatial shifts within the city (even when the physical sites of violence were somewhat distant). Such moments inform everyday negotiations of space in the city, and imbricate the growth of many neighborhoods within these powerful economic and political flows.

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Spaces of protest in Postcolonial Delhi Areas such as Boat Club Road, Jantar Mantar, and India Gate have remained important sites for popular mobilizations in Delhi. Jantar Mantar, for instance, is well-known as the ‘official dharna-site closest to the parliament’ (Kanth, March 8, 1997). It indexes a rich and variegated history of democratic protest in the capital, spanning its postcolonial lifetime. The sections demarcated for sit-ins and protests see a variety of groups gather throughout the year to demand grievance redressal. It was also the site of the famous India Against Corruption movement in 2011, which many observers regard as having had major ramifications on Indian politics in the years since (Chowdhury 2019, Jaffrelot 2015, Sridharan 2014, Sengupta 2014, Rai 2011). Among other things, the movement also led to the formation of the Aam Aadmi Party, which won its second term to the Delhi assembly in February 2020, in the middle of the anti CAA protests. A similarly ‘legible’ (Lynch 1960) history of democratic resistance is indexed by India Gate, Boat Club road, and Mandi House. Many well established protest sites are in colonially built New Delhi. Some like Red Fort in the Old City, speak to stillolder histories of nationalist struggles. Protests held across these locations draw significance from their proximity to historic spaces of State power, and build on the legacy of past movements that occupied and reclaimed these spaces. Other important and wellknown protest sites also include the city’s university campuses: Delhi University (with two main campuses, one in the North and

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one in South of the city), Jawaharlal Nehru University, Jamia Milia Islamia, and the most recently established Ambedkar University. Early on in the anti CAA movement, protests and marches were called to Jantar Mantar, to Parliament House, to Mandi House, and to the Red Fort. The city’s universities also remained very active in organizing and mobilizing anti CAA protests within campuses. Brutal police action (and even attacks by armed mobs) marked the protests organized in many of these educational institutions. However, it was the city-wide mushrooming of sit-ins and protests (often led by women) in lesser known parts of Delhi from late December, that was the ‘unique gift’ (The Telegraph, July 19, 2020) of the anti CAA movement; one that strengthened the reclamation of spatial and discursive power by marginalized communities. Cities, Mohanty (2014) suggests, are ‘circuits of social, economic, spatial restructuring’, as well as the ‘amphitheatres of electoral democracy in urban India’. These statements also hold true for individual neighborhoods that together constitute cities. Each neighborhood is restructured, continuously, in social, economic, and spatial ways. And as is visible from anti CAA protests, each can also be treated as a strategic amphitheatre of democracy. This understanding of the ways each neighborhood mirrors the city-atlarge, while also operating its own unique context, is central to my consideration of anti CAA protest sites in Delhi. Continuous processes of state-driven enclosure, displacement, and resettlement

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in the city, have yielded a sense of ‘enforced localization’ (Tarlo, 2003) among the diverse populations that find themselves sharing space and life in the city’s margins. This experience of being ‘lumped together’ (Appadurai 1996, Tarlo 2003) is shaped by the shared context of dislocation and heightened vulnerability (material or otherwise), but also by the ‘memories and experiences of elsewhere’ (Tarlo 2003) that diverse individuals bring with them:

These were people who lived and worked in varied locations all over Delhi prior to experiencing demolition [or other kinds of violence or threats of violence]...[and] many of them built new shelters in Welcome using the bricks and corrugated iron from their demolished homes, so they construct their narratives out of their complex personal trajectories. (Tarlo 2003:15) Seelampur: “It’s Delhi but doesn’t look like it” 11 Seelampur, in Northeast Delhi, was created to house displaced people from parts of the old city demolished via ‘slum clearance’ policies during the 1970s. 12 Some estimates suggest that nearly one and a half lakh people were ‘resettled’ (government vocabulary for 11

Fareeha Iftikhar, “It’s Delhi but doesn’t look like it”. Hindustan Times. May 02, 2019.

12

These processes of demolition, displacement, and ‘rehabilitation’ were particularly emphatic during the Emergency (1975-77), when an estimated 700,000 people were displaced in a mere 21 months. (Times of India 1976).

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a massive exercise in shunting people out of the old city, and out of sight) in new ‘colonies’, located at the then peripheries of the city. In Delhi Under Emergency (1977), journalists John Dayal and Ajoy Bose present a striking description of Mangolpuri – a resettlement colony in northeast Delhi – from 1976. This description is presented through the eyes of a long-time resident of Delhi Gate, who had been displaced from there and allotted a plot in the new resettlement colony of Mangolpuri: “The truck had reached by now the outer limit of rural Delhi, and then there on the distant horizon rose a red smudge... Now a row of tiny brick hutments could be faintly seen... Almost treeless, the brick hutments that crisscrossed one another in geometrical patterns were mostly half built... the houses seemed so queer and misshaped that were it not for the naked children running in and out of them, they wouldn’t seem like houses at all. A terrible stench arose as the trucks came nearer and nearer the colony... There was a starkness about its squalid surrounding that stunned at first sight... Dwarka was desensitized enough to live in the most squalid of slums. But there was something inhuman about this colony... the order had a lifeless quality about it.” (101) This trope of ‘planned’ but ‘lifeless’ colonies, located far out at the edge of the city, almost entirely devoid of any infrastructural support (sanitation, water, public transport) is mirrored among many of the

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areas that came up during this period of forceful reordering of the city. Seelampur is one such ‘Emergency colony’, established close to the old, historic neighborhood of Shahdara. The Northeast Delhi district, within which Seelampur and many other resettlement colonies from this era lie, has (per 2011 census data) the highest population density of any district in the country. In the decades since the areas were first settled, levels of social mobility among residents have certainly increased. Like many resettlement colonies, Seelampur reflects the changing contours of an expanding city that swallows up all the land it can find. Originally, as Emma Tarlo (2003) describes, there was very little by way of basic and essential infrastructure set-up for the rehabilitated populations. It was only as the city grew and land prices in the area rose that municipal services and infrastructures were improved. 13 The area is also a major node in the e-waste dumping and recycling network within Delhi, and across the country. 14 The arrival of the metro increased Seelampur’s integration within infrastructural and economic circuits of the city. The Seelampur Metro Station, located on the Red line of the Delhi metro, bifurcates North Delhi between 13 Though many smaller localities continue to be riddled by the gaps in infrastructure (bad roads, overflowing drains, irregular municipal water supply) and socio-economic capital bequeathed to them by brutal histories of ‘planned rehabilitation’. 14 Contemporary reports describe it as Delhi’s “digital underbelly” (Mishra 26 May 2016). Several generations of e-waste recyclers live and work here, exposed to toxic e-waste, grossly underpaid and largely ignored by the government and the rest of the city.

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Shahdara in the East and Rithala in the West. Here, it runs parallel to the Grand Trunk road below, which separates Old Seelampur (on the South) from New Seelampur towards the North. The metro station is a point of intersection between the rest of the city and the two Seelampurs: the now well-settled, wealthier Old Seelampur, and its younger, working-class counterpart ‘New’ Seelampur. There are also several other smaller neighborhoods (Jaffrabad, JJ colony, Gautampuri, New Usmanpur, Maujpur) within the area. According to the 2011 census, Muslims account for nearly 30% of the population in the district. This is significant in a city where the Muslims account for little over 12% of the population. This population is somewhat socio-economically heterogeneous, and comprised of a large number of migrants. Many are employed within the e-waste recycling market, and a wealthy few control major monopolies within it. Others work in small garment units, or as rickshaw drivers, mechanics, hawkers, small-time vendors, guards and daily-wage workers. The area is extensively segregated along communal (and caste) lines: “...many pockets are either homogeneous Hindu or Muslim, and even in mixed communities, the narrow alleys have a slant towards one community or the other. Gali no 5 in Chand Bagh, for example, has only Muslim houses and only two Hindu families lived in the area... ” (Desai and Ajmal, March 01, 2020)

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A semi-paved area adjacent to the metro line that dominates the skyline as well as the street view in the area, offered the only open space wide enough for a protest to be organized. The impulse of ordering, and standardizing that had been used to justify the creation of Seelampur, has been outrun by the continuous centrifugal push the city exerts on its working-class minorities, the near-total absence of municipal intervention, and political apathy in the decades since. The Muslim residents of Seelampur, marginalized and denied space even within the most-densely-populated district in the country, reclaimed the only real open space available to them in the neighborhood – the street. Ironically, this space was strategically viable because it was bound on one end by the intervention of the Delhi metro, and by a ‘Muslim Gali’ (Desai and Ajmal, March 01, 2020) on the other. The metro is perhaps Delhi’s most widelycelebrated neoliberal form of enclosure. Siemiatycki (2006) illustrates how the symbolic import of the arrival of the metro, far outweighed its actual utility as a form of public transport in Delhi. In the months of the anti CAA protest at Seelampur (and elsewhere), the re-scripted ‘common-ness’ of the metro as urban infrastructure rivaled its symbolic function. A newspaper piece from mid-January (a month before violent right-wing mobs wrecked immense damage to life and property in the area) documents the determination of local women to sustain the protest: "Many of us had been going to Shaheen Bagh... It was impressive to see so many of them turning up every night to protest. We

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thought, why can’t we do the same?” (Fatima and Mohammad, February 26, 2020). In doing “the same’, the protest site at Seelampur furthered the spatial emphasis of the anti CAA movement. The protest emphasized the ‘publicness’ of space in the near-absence of any conventionally-imagined urban public areas. The side of the road, a niche carved out as ‘open-area’ made possible, visible and accessible by the metro line overhead, and became the urban commons and the strategic arena for protest. This making of public space, from the margins, was a crucial spatialization of the anti CAA protests reclamation of the city. The area’s marginalization vis-à-vis municipal intervention and relative unimportance in city politics, simultaneously furthers, and is furthered by, its characterization as an ‘undesirable’ and ‘criminal’ periphery (Sethi, October 20, 2006), in news media (and other informational vectors) that shape social geographies. In line with their Hindutva worldview, local and national Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) members and leaders have often attributed this ‘character’ of the area to the large Muslim population in the area (Sethi, October 20, 2006). 15 These attitudes and beliefs (of the state, its police and bureaucracy, and of the wealthy city) drawing on religious and class identities and politics, continue to inform the ways in which Seelampur is reflected in socio-political maps of the 15

In fact, Aman Sethi, in his report on an incident of police firing (now over a decade ago) that killed 4, allegedly in response to “rioting” in the area by daily wage workers, writes: “local policemen call it the nerve centre of criminal activities”. (Sethi, October 20, 2006)

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city, and were very visible when the police brutally repressed anti CAA protests held in the area on December 17, 2019. The usual invisibility of these areas in elite areas of the city was transformed into a hypervisibility. Newspaper headlines in the days following the violent police response index this dominant attitude in their headlines: ‘Delhi Seelampur protest: 21 injured, 2 FIRs filed; Kejriwal, Gambhir appeal for peace’ (Express Web Desk, December 17, 2019), ‘21 people wounded in violence over citizenship law in Delhi’s Seelampur’ (The Tribune, December 17, 2019), ‘Seelampur violence: Six arrested, section 144 imposed in Delhi’s North East district’ (Express Web Desk, December 18, 2019), ‘Delhi: With 1,200 personnel, lockdown in Seelampur’ (Sinha, December 28, 2019). A brief look at this handful of headlines suggests that state response to protests in Seelampur once again reinforced the notion of it being a highly ‘criminal’ area (Sethi, October 9, 2006). Considered in this light, the return of (mainly Muslim) residents to the streets – despite the state’s continued aggression – to continue protesting a law that posed an existential threat to many of them, suggests that the act of ‘reclamation’ both discursively and spatialconsciously underpinned the protest site. In returning to the street, residents marked their continued opposition to the discriminatory CAA, but also sought to reclaim the space itself; reclaiming it from the narratives of illegality and violence inscribed onto the area by the very same state that pushed them to the area in the first place.

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The import of returning to the very streets that had repeatedly been overdetermined as ‘violent’, ‘criminal’, and ‘dirty’ to stake their rightful claim over the space, over the narrative paradigm surrounding the space, and over belonging in the city and nation certainly makes Seelampur a uniquely strategic arena of protest. Turkman Gate: “The Sea of Khakhi threatened to swallow Turkman Gate” 16 To consider Turkman Gate is in some ways to explore a preface of sorts to the Seelampur story. It is also to learn the stories of any number of resettlement colonies built during the Emergency, and of the neighborhoods in Old Delhi demolished for being ‘eyesores’ (Times of India, December 14, 1977). While the residents of Turkman Gate faced massive physically-brutal state repression, residents of various other demolished neighborhoods were shunted off to the far ‘edges’ of the city (Mongolpuri, Khichripur, Seelampur, across the Yamuna river were the sites of resettlement ‘camps’ to be developed into ‘planned’ colonies (Dayal and Bose 1977, Bhan 2013). Here they were left to rebuild their lives from the rubble that was left. The Turkman Gate area takes its name from the physical gate that still exists there. This was one of the 14 red-brick walled gates regulating entry and exit within Shahjahanabad, the seventh city of 16 John Dayal and Ajoy Bose, For Reasons of State: Delhi Under Emergency. (Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 1977)

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Delhi (today known as Old Delhi) built in the 17th century. In the 20th century, Turkman Gate was one of two main concentrations of Muslims within Shahjahanabad (Oldenburg 1976). It marked one end of the concentration that extended southward from the Jama Masjid. Partition and ensuing violence left deep scars on the neighborhood. Muslims in the Old City experienced simultaneous ghettoization ironically, structurally reinforced by the practices of ‘Muslim Zones’ adopted by the Nehru Government with the goal of protecting Muslim minorities (Zamindar 2007, Halperin 2014, Riggs 2020), and further encroachments on their already much reduced space in the city, by incoming refugees. Muslim populations drastically dwindled in several neighborhoods of the Old City in these years (Halperin 2014). Turkman Gate was also one of the localities worst-hit by the violence that ensued after the Partition was announced. Between Partition in 1947 and the Internal Emergency declared in 1975, the area witnessed the return of some of those who had been driven out. By the Emergency, it was once again home to a sizeable Muslim population. And so it was in April 1976, when the residential settlements around the Masjid at Turkman Gate (the settlement itself was also referred to as Turkman Gate, a practice I follow in this paper), witnessed one of the most violent instances of brutal police actions against city residents. The police shot and killed (though no official count of causalities is available) at protestors, threw tear gas at them, and lathi charged the protesting

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residents, who were demanding that the arbitrary demolition of their homes be stopped. Over the years, the story of how Turkman Gate (homes and residents) was demolished has acquired lasting currency as a kind of colloquial synecdoche for the excesses carried out by the state during the Emergency. Ajoy Bose and John Dayal describe in detail the fraught evening of April 19, 1976 at Turkman Gate, hours before bulldozers were unleashed to tear down decades old wall and further violate the residents who had already been subject to extreme state repression: It was getting dark in Turkman Gate. Red flecks still coloured the dark sky as the sun sank further. A hush had fallen, though occasionally the silence would be broken by screams or hysterical sobbing. Not a light showed at any of the houses. The electricity had been cut off. So had the water and telephone connections. It was as if Turkman Gate had been disowned by the rest of the city. (64) For three days the bulldozers kept unwaveringly to their task of complete demolition, mixing the bodies of residents with the rubble. On April 22: ...they had decimated all signs of life as well as death in Turkman Gate. The rubble of Turkman Gate as scooped up into trucks and thrown behind the Ring Road every day where buzzards and jackals were seen rummaging through the rubble. Only the stink of stale meat which hung for days

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together over the thrown rubble remained to tell the story of the life and death struggle of the people of Turkman Gate. (65) This ‘critical event’ (Das 1995) bequeathed to what is now, once again, a crowded, bustling area of the Old City 17 strong affective resonances of a history of proletarian resistance, even in the face of tremendous violence. Considering the 1976 Turkman Gate protest in isolation does not perhaps, offer an easy bildungsroman-esque narrative for the history of popular resistance in the area. The residents suffered heavily at the hands of a violent, marauding police, and did not manage to successfully pushback against the state’s demolition of built structures, socio-political rights, and lives (literal and emotional). However, the symbolic import of the Turkman Gate story, particularly when framed against the larger history of the Emergency as a landmark moment when democracy was suspended but citizens galvanized to build and sustain dissent, situates it as another remarkably rich and generative ‘strategic arena’ in which to stage anti CAA protests. The state’s violent erasure of the protest, protestors, and the site of protest (en-masse) in 1976, was spatially and symbolically (re)filled when this was chosen as the site of a sit-in led by (largely Muslim) women from neighbouring areas of the old city. Restoring dissent to Turkman Gate in 2019, and that too by marginalized groups led by 17 If one marked by a kind of loneliness that surrounds the ‘well-preserved’ gate itself, now equipped with a boundary wall of its own.

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local Muslim women, invigorates an undeniable and palpable spatial symbolism connected closely to the area’s fraught sociospatial history. The history of violent erasure that underpins the area enhances the strategic significance of anti CAA slogans ringing through the air at Turkman Gate. Videos of the protest show residents, once again overwhelmingly led by women, gathering in the small, gated enclosure in which the Gate today stands – a sanitized and well-labeled relic. These make visible (and audible) a vociferous reclamation of a space literally enclosed by steel fencing, and also symbolically circumscribed within a state-approved history, that hide violent histories of popular subaltern resistance. The Turkman Gate protests drew on and in-turn strengthened, older legacies of protest in and around the area by choosing to occupy the small, carefully-bounded park that houses the historic gate. By storming the literal enclosure around the gate, and filling it with the echoes of protest anthems and callresponse rhythms, the Turkman Gate protests re-evoked what had been literally bulldozed into absence and silenced by decades of state-enclosure of city-space. Reflecting on the everyday life of the historic Gate a few years earlier, in 2014, a journalist observed: “The gateway itself barely attracts sightseers. The grilled entrance is always locked. “I open it when a visitor asks to enter," says the guard... [Yet] Perhaps no other monument in Delhi so openly embraces people, especially those living in

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its vicinity. The locals remain largely indifferent to the gate’s architectural highlights, yet they are pulled towards it like vacationers to a beach. An anthropologist can write an insightful treatise on the changing customs of the Walled City simply by hanging out at Turkman Gate.” (Soofi, October 30, 2014) The anti CAA protests at Turkman Gate embraced the Gate not so much as a ‘beach’, but as a historic site of people’s resistance to a repressive state, and certainly reflected the ‘changing customs’ of the city as historically marginalized communities reclaimed gates, parks, sidewalks, roads, and public spaces across Delhi. Shaheen Bagh: Newer inhabitations and forms of reclamation Delhi’s Jamia Nagar area comprises several smaller localities such as Gulmohar Enclave, Batla House, Zakir Nagar, Ghaffar Manzil, Noor Nagar and other smaller localities. Shaheen Bagh is the newest inhabitation among all of these. Detailing this recent history of the area, Farah Farooqui (2020) writes: Until around 1985, the area consisted of small vegetable farms. Around this time, members of the Hindu Gujjar community started to divide the land into plots for sale. Since the rest of Jamia Nagar had become densely populated, people began purchasing these cheaper plots. Many people

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earning petro-dollars in Arab countries bought property here. Until 1990, there were kaccha lanes, or dirt roads, no sewer lines and no electricity, and just about fifty to sixty houses. After the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Uttar Pradesh in 1992, the population of this area increased exponentially. Members of the Muslim community, residing until then in mixed localities, began to migrate to this area for the sake of security. The few Hindu and Sikh residents of Shaheen Bagh sold their properties at high prices and shifted to other places. Today, the area is densely populated and highly built-up. Tall apartment buildings rise from slender plots that range from 25 to 400 square meters. Narrow alleys crisscross and lead to the main Okhla-Kalindi Kunj road. Once again, like with Seelampur, this road is amongst the largest open spaces available in the densely built up area. The metro station and overhead metro rail line bound end of the neighborhood, and run parallel to the Okhla canal below. Many residents work as construction workers, plumbers, welders, carpenters, and grill-makers. Some others are professors at the nearby Jamia Milia Islamia University, and smatterings of ornate buildings are home to local businessmen. The residents of Shaheen Bagh, Farooqi (2020) points out, had for long ‘somehow made things work without raising their voice’. But the anti CAA protests were different. Paradoxically, the neighborhood’s sudden hypervisibility and previous invisibility both drew from similar, if not the

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same, socio-spatial contexts that characterized it: it was an ‘unplanned’, ‘informal’ colony (Bhan 2013) comprising a majority of working class Muslims. By blocking a road that ran past the neighborhood and connected ‘major’ city-areas, the protestors spatially and symbolically located Shaheen Bagh within the city that otherwise marginalized it. The GD Birla road that connects Okhla to Kalindi Kunj is arterial for everyday office commuters traversing between two major suburbs – Noida and Faridabad, as well as a major thoroughfare for inter-city movement. In staging an indefinite sit-in on this major road, and making the protest site their home (Salam and Ausaf 2020), the women of Shaheen Bagh capitalized on the proximity of this major thoroughfare to their actual homes, and leveraged the hyper-visibility of this space, to draw attention to and demand socio-spatial legitimacy for the neighborhoods and peoples living alongside this highway; lives and homes it otherwise invisibilised. The protest site itself indexed the celebratory reclamation of the self, and of space within the city. There were tents put up to accord the women a kind of social and spatial sanctuary, from the inclement weather outside, literally and metaphorically. There were fried snacks stalls, tea stalls, and striking paintings on nearby walls. Direction signage on a foot-over-bridge was altered to suit the new spatiality of the street. What used to direct vehicles on this busy intersection to the suburb of Faridabad, now guided pedestrians in what had transformed into a walking-only zone to ‘Inquilab

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Zindabad’ (‘Long Live the Revolution!’). The protest soon saw a library and a photo-gallery. Curious visitors and determined protestors alike were encouraged to add to and circulate from the library, and see the space represented back to itself in the ‘gallery’ carved out of the shuttered fronts and staircases of two adjacent shops. The emergence of a multi-modal protest site, on this occupied thoroughfare, once again signals a relationship between the spatiality of the protests and the ‘commoning of knowledge of the city’ (Maringanti 2011), and the reclamation of public space in the city. As Shaheen Bagh grew into a ‘festival of democracy’ (The Wire, February 04, 2020), the section of the Okhla-Kalindi Kunj road that had now become synonymous with this once-quiet neighborhood, acquired an increasingly festive form as well. The sit-in at Shaheen Bagh returned the Muslim women to the street in a literal sense, while also allowing the neighborhood as a whole to produce a spatial reclamation of ‘important’ commons within the city. In some sense, the blocked road witnessed an intersection of ‘real-and-imagined’ (Soja 1996) spaces – of belonging, of resistance, and of the city; spaces where the material reality of a legible developmentalist, urban narrative indexed by the road itself was rescripted within new, carnivalesque imaginings of an equal city (and nation), emerging from a neighborhood no longer willing to be relegated to its periphery. This ‘main road’ was made home by women whose brave and undeterred presence there visually indexed that, “It was okay to be seen as an Indian Muslim.

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To accommodate diverse views, one did not have to tone down one’s personal identity.” (Salam and Asaufa 2020) 18 Conclusion Every space is important for the unique intersections of affective and material landscapes that shape its uses and meanings, in routine and exceptional times. A space can become larger than its basic functions when required, and in such times often draws inspiration from its historical lineage and bearings. In my examination of some of the sites of anti CAA protest in Delhi, I have highlighted the importance of locating each site within its unique socio-spatial history. Through this, I seek to encourage an imagination of the anti CAA movement in Delhi as co-constituted by several uniquely ‘strategic arenas’, produced by residents in their different parts of the city. Each ‘arena’, in turn, strengthened the citywide network of protests. Similar considerations may generatively be extended to any of the numerous other protest sites that emerged in Delhi during the anti CAA movement (Hauz Rani, Nizamuddin, Wazirpur, Govind Puri, and others). 18

In fact: “...they did not bring only their manifest religiosity to the protest. Besides hundreds of women of different faiths, they brought with them a whiff of Muslim culture of North India, their language, their poetry, their attire. With their coloured salwar kameez, glass bangles, often henna-soaked hands, they pretty much took the Muslim attire and shringar (adornment) to the public domain. Add to that their numerous Urdu poetry sessions where they taunted the authorities by reciting or singing the poems of Muhammad Iqbal, Habib Jalib and the Faiz Ahmad Faiz. As Shaheen Bagh women sang ‘Hum Dekhenge’, the nazm of Faiz took wings of its own and found home with thousands of protestors across the country.” (68-9, Salam and Ausaf 2020)

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Further, the socio-political and material contexts considered in this paper also produced a set of vulnerabilities that loomed over the protest sites and the protestors themselves. These vulnerabilities are central to how these instances of collective action form part of what Tilly calls ‘broken negotiations’ (2003:196). In this paper, I do not discuss these vulnerabilities and focus only on the ways spatial rights and narrative power were reclaimed in the city by protests, as they emerged and gathered force in a range of marginalized neighborhoods. It is also, unfortunately, not within the scope of this paper to consider the other ways in which these numerous sites were linked through flows of people, of relief materials, and of solidarity during the anti CAA movement. These are all generative strands that merit consideration and further exploration.

References Amin, Ash. “Collective culture and urban public space”.City 12.1 (2008): 5-24. Appadurai, Arjun. Modernity at Large. University of Minnesota Press, 1996. Bhan, Gautam. “Planned Illegalities: Housing and the ‘Failure’ of Planning in Delhi: 1947-2010”. Economic and Political Weekly 48.24 (2013). The Editorial Board. “Undying tale.” The Telegraph Online 19 July 2020. Bose, Rashi. “A Month After Seelampur-Jaffrabad Violence, Women Claim the Streets to Protest Against CAA”.New18 online 16 January 2020. Chowdhury, Aheli. “Anti-Corruption Movement: A Story of the Making of the AamAdmi Party and the Interplay of Political Representation in India”. Politics and Governance 7.3 (2019). Das, Veena. Critical Events. Oxford University Press, 1969. Das, Veena and Michael Walton. “Political Leadership and the Urban Poor Local Histories”. Current Anthropology 56.11 (2015).

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Dayal, John and Ajoy Bose. For Reasons of State: Delhi Under Emergency. Delhi: Ess Ess Publications, 1977. Desai, Ketaki and Anam Ajmal. “Portrait of a riot-hit neighbourhood”. Times of India. 1 March 2020. Dupont, Véronique D. N. “The Dream of Delhi as a Global City” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research (2011). Express Web Desk. “Seelampur violence: Six arrested, section 144 imposed in Delhi’s North East district”. The Indian Express 18 December 2019. Express Web Desk. “Delhi Seelampur protest: 21 injured, 2 FIRs filed; Kejriwal, Gambhir appeal for peace”. The Indian Express 17 December 2019. Farooqi, Farah. “To better understand the Shaheen Bagh protest, we must understand the locality itself.” The Caravan 20 January 2020. Fatima, Laraib and Huda Mohammad. “A Shaheen Bagh at Turkman Gate.” The Citizen. 26 February 2020. Halperin, Rotem Geva. The City as a Space of Suspicion: Partition, Belonging and Citizenship in Delhi, 1940-1955. PhD Thesis. Princeton University, 2014. Hosagrahar, Jyoti. “Fractured Plans: Real Estate, Moral Reform, and the Politics of Housing in New Delhi, 1936-1941”. Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review. 1999: 37-47. Ifitkhar, Fareeha. “It’s Delhi but doesn’t look like it”. Hindustan Times 2 May 2019. Iftikhar, Fareeha. “Shaheen Bagh living up to its name, says man who christened the colony”. Hindustan Times 24 January 2020. Jaffrelot, Christophe. “The Modi-centric BJP 2014 election campaign: new techniques and old tactics”. Contemporary South Asia 23.2 (2015) Jagmohan. Rebuilding Shahjahanabad, the walled city of Delhi. Delhi: Vikas Publishing House, 1975. Jamil, Ghazala. “Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review”. Working Paper Series: Centre for the Study of Law and Governance. Jawaharlal Nehru University: 2017. Kanth, Pratyush. “Visitors to Jantar Mantar are up in arms against govt.” The Times of India. 8 March 1997. Lefebvre, Henri. The Production of Space . Trans. Donald NicholsonSmith. Blackwell, 1991. Mishra, Pankaj. “This is Seelampur: India’s digital underbelly where your phones go to die”. Factor Daily May 2016.

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Mohanty, Aditya. ““Bhagidari to Mohalla Sabhas” in Delhi: When Participation Trumps Governance”.Economic and Political Weekly 49.14 (2014): 16-18. Naik, Rineeta. “Why banning protests at Delhi’s Jantar Mantar harms the right to dissent and public accountability”. Scroll.in. 9 October 2017. Oldenburg, Philip. Big City Government in India: Councilor, Administrator, and Citizen in Delhi. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1976. Pandey, Gyanendra. Remembering Partition. Cambridge University Press, 2001. Rai, Dhananjay. “Corruption Fight and Language of Indian State: A Tale of the Indian Public Sphere”. Canadian Social Science 7.4 (2011). Riggs, Erin. Partition, An Archaeology of Refugee Resettlement: Delhi After Partition. PhD Thesis. Binghamton University, 2020. Salam, Ziya Us and Uzma Ausaf. Shaheen Bagh: From a Protest to a Movement. Bloomsbury, 2020. Schendel, William Van. “Spaces of engagement: how borderlands, illegal flows, and territorial states interlock.” Illicit flows and criminal things: states, borders, and the other side of globalization. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005: 38-68. Sengupta, Mitu. “Anna Hazare's Anti-Corruption Movement and the Limits of Mass Mobilization in India.” Social Movement Studies 13.3 (2013): 406-13. Sethi, Aman. “Uneasy Reprieve.” Frontline. 20 October 2006. Sidhwani, Pranav. “Spatial Inequalities in Big Indian Cities”. Economic and Political Weekly 22.L (2015). Siemiatycki, Matti. “Message in a Metro: Building Urban Rail Infrastructure and Image in Delhi, India”. International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 30.2 (2006): 277-292. Sinha, Jignasa. “Delhi: With 1,200 personnel, lockdown in Seelampur”. The Indian Express 28 December 2019. Soja, Edward. Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-andImagined Places. Wiley-Blackwell: 1996 Soofi, Mayank Austen. “Delhi's Belly | Turkman, the survivor.” Mint. 30 October 2014. Sridharan, Eeswaran. “India's Watershed Vote: Behind Modi’s Victory.” Journal of Democracy 25.4 (2014): 20-33. Staff Correspondent, “Demolition Blamed on DDA”. Times of India. 14 December 1977. Tarlo, Emma. 2003. Unsettling Memories: Narratives of the Emergency in Delhi. Hurst, University of California Press, Permanent Black , 2003.

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The Tribune. “21 people wounded in violence over citizenship law in Delhi’s Seelampur.” The Tribune. 17 December 2019. The Wire Staff. “Stars and Artists Line Up for Spontaneous Festival at Shaheen Bagh.” The Wire.4 February 2020. Tilly, Charles. The Politics of Collective Violence. Cambridge University Press: 2003. Zamindar, Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali. The Long Partition and the Making of Modern South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. Columbia University Press, 2007.

SECTION IV – EXPRESSIONS OF PROTESTS

A SERIES OF ILLUSTRATIONS ON PROTESTS AROUND THE WORLD ZEBA RIZVI This chapter is a personal ode to protests around the world and the protestors who relentlessly fight for justice and equality - Tahrir Square, Baghdad; Beirut and other cities in Lebanon; St Martin’s Square in Lima, Peru; Trump Towers in Manhattan, New York, USA; Santiago, Chile; Pussy Riot in Moscow, Russia and farmers protests in Delhi, India.

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Look at us Protests were an integral part of the social life of Iraq since 2015 and Tahrir Square in Baghdad became the chief venue for these protests. The first round of protests began on October 1, 2019, and killed about 150 people. In the second round, people gathered back on the Square on October 25, 2019, and about 200 people were killed. Eventually the protestors captured the Square and the adjoining building of the Turkish Restaurant. They also built an alternative model of sustenance in the area through a barter system that constituted of basic monetary transactions in exchange of medical care, reading facilities and cooked food. The Tahrir Square is interconnected with and speaks the history of the city and the country. The tunnel with gardens on both sides was built in the 1970s and has now been converted into a site of aspirations. Many murals that protest against the inefficiency of the Government, rampant corruption, growing unemployment and poverty and interference of Iran find space with those that dream of a new Iraq. Women also participated equally and have raised a demand for a society that treats them equally and fairly. The illustration is an imaginative one, bringing elements of certain murals and peaceful, humanitarian actions, in one frame. The recent violent past of Iraq is intriguing for various reasons, but it isn’t the violence that fascinates me. It is the grit of the people to survive

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through it; that Iraq has done that over the years and is still ready to do it, with its perseverance, as seen in its murals. There is Rosie the Riveter in one of its many forms; as an inspiration for Iraqi women to be a part of the new Iraq, in the illustration. The Auto/tuk- tuk marks the bravery of auto drivers that aided the protest by taking the injured to the hospitals. These tuk- tuks show up in a lot of protest art that was created. At the bottom, is a homeless man sleeping under a newspaper. He stands for the economic degradation of Iraq that pushed the protestors on the streets. The walls of the tunnel are so much more than artistic expressions. They bear testimony to a country’s commitment to the right to live in dignity and hope in a decaying system of governance. On the top are runners participating in the peace run - a run organized for a peaceful protest, amidst vandalism and violence. In both the elements - murals and runners - the space is occupied peacefully and speaks of a counter narrative, where the protestors aren’t just young disillusioned violent rebels but passionate, artistic enablers who are asking for change.

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Stand with Us Protests and the San Martin Plaza in the capital city of Lima in Peru are synonymous with each other, whether it is for the fundamental right to water, gender equality, removal of President Fujimori, or this particular protest against festering corruption in the judicial system. The Square with an equestrian statue of Peru's liberator, José de San Martín, is a haven for local artists and performers. In the illustration, protestors are holding a very large flag of the country. Since San Martin helped Peru attain liberty against the Spanish colonizers, it is befitting that today this square has become a primary location for proclaiming and asserting the national identity of its citizens. Peru has a history of creative and visually appealing protests. In another protest in 2017, people, covered with mud, walked in slow motion to protest against mismanagement of water that had left a part of the city without water for about 5 days. Protests in Peru are so creative, that it was difficult to choose from, to make an illustration. This illustration is peculiar because of the placement and size of the colourful flag. The flag had become the sole unifying element involving and uniting everyone. There is no ‘performer’ or

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‘audience’ or ‘observer’; everyone in the illustration is a participant. The flag is the central element in the illustration with people from all walks of life coming together to hold it. Those wearing hats represent the Quechua who are the indigenous population of the country. A slogan ‘La Corrupcion Mata’ (corruption kills) sums up the raison d’être of this particular protest.

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Sit with Us A dissent is guaranteed longevity when it is convenient to its members and at the same time relevant and effective. Lebanon came up with innovative ways to do that. The protests from October 2019 were of a different kind. Lebanese cities are not without squares and were brimming with able bodied protestors. Those who were unable to leave their homes and could not join the protests in these massive squares - the elderly, the kids, the physically impaired - participated from their balconies. They banged pots and pans, every night at 8, to make themselves be heard by the government. For the first time people across all religious sects came together to raise their voices against declining economic conditions.

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They also organized convoys of cars to make themselves seen and make creative uses of all the space they had. The protest that came to be known as the October Revolution is still going on. In the illustration, protestors have occupied their balconies, buildings and pavements. These spaces also became significant because Beirut has grown into a bustling metropolis and now doesn’t have many open spaces. The pavements also become a place to take a break from all the protesting and enjoy a traditional snack or coffee. It is often assumed that the protests in the Middle East do not have many women stepping out and participating. Lebanon, like Iraq, breaks that stereotype and the girl in the illustration, dressed unconventionally, is a representative of multi-cultural and multireligious Lebanese identity. Protestors sitting around barricaded roads seem casual and relaxed, as they take breaks between protests.

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Walk with Us A movement that started with a hashtag has now become the largest movement in the history of the USA, in terms of participation. More than 20 million people participated and the numbers kept growing. June 6, 2020 saw protests in about 550 places across the country, the highest ever seen by a protest in America. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner, Michael Brown - the victims drew attention to the issues of racism in the USA, a movement that everyone thought had died down. In the illustration, the street is the space on which the action is happening. This street is outside the Trump Towers and the choice of the location is not coincidental. The American President Donald Trump had criticised the protests publicly and called the planned mural a “symbol of hate”. A handful of people with masks are seen in the poster, thus contextualising their participation in the protest even in the middle of a raging pandemic. The illustration only showcases the word ‘Black’. ‘Black’ is a politically loaded word and is often considered offensive, and numerous debates centre around the use of the right terminology and being politically correct, without addressing real issues. The illustration, in questioning that, is meant to be a creative act of protest, as a tremendous sense of pride and solidarity with those marginalised and victimised.

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March with Us I saw a protest from my balcony the same evening I reached Santiago, Chile. Chile has a rich history of students’ protests and this participation has made the students more adept at organising themselves and dealing with police brutality. Protests have an energy that cannot be described, only felt. The music, songs, solidarity and everything else that gives Chile its strong spirit can be seen during the protest. But there is another side to it - many lost their eyes to pellet guns and many more got injured with tear gas and water cannons during the protests. The Plaza Italia, as seen in the illustration, has the equestrian statue of General Manuel Baquedano, the military victor of 1879- 1884 War of the Pacific. The Square has been the site of protests for a diverse range of issues and is unofficially called the ‘Dignity Square’. Before the protests in October 2019, the Square was a popular picnic spot with many beautiful flowers growing around it. The protestors had captured the Square and even climbed the statue with Chilean and Mapuche (a group of indigenous inhabitants in this region) flags. Graffiti of freedom sprung over every inch of the area. In the illustration, the statue is shown at a simulated height, to facilitate the portrayal of protests across the rest of the canvas. The

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impression of a tall climb is a metaphor of the demand for a new Constitution. Mapuche flags coexisted with Chilean flags during the protests and find place in the illustration too, symbolizing the indigenous communities. Fire and smoke in the sky was a constant feature throughout the protests, as depicted in the illustration too.

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Dance with Us Pussy Riot is a feminist punk rock performance group based in Moscow. It is a guerrilla group whose performances are designed as a protest against patriarchy, religion, and the state and in favour of feminism and LGBTQ rights. Punk feminists didn’t originate from anything beautiful. With its precursor in ‘Riot Grrrl’, a 1990s counterculture movement that helped create the feminist punk scene, Pussy Riot emphasises the questioning and throwing away of the binaries created by patriarchal structures and creating their own point of view, thereby empowering women. In making space for women as performers and audience in the punk rock scene, it spoke of pain, abuse and violence that one goes through as a woman. For this reason Pussy Riot is anything but beautiful. And it is comfortable to be so. Their importance and popularity around the world continues to inspire other feminist movements, especially in South America. This particular illustration has the Saint Basil Cathedral, Moscow as its backdrop indicating their protest against organized religion and mixing of religion with the state (the Church has demonstrated support for Vladimir Putin, Russian President). The large scale of the state and the religion is juxtaposed with the small size of the protestors. The Cossack militia – an auxiliary police force – at the bottom, with red colored hats, make the audience feels enclosed and suffocated while the running stance of the performers gives an

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impression of freedom. The illustration shows them getting hit by the police with whips and leather belts (deliberately magnified in the illustration). One of the performers has also put a dent on the belt, symbolizing their impact.

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Settle With Us Farmers across India have gathered outside Delhi to protest against the three Farm Acts, introduced in India in 2020. When they were not allowed entry into the capital city, the farmers settled themselves on its borders. They cook, they eat, they sing, they sleep, they bathe and wash clothes all as a form of protest, all on the road, in New Delhi’s cruel winters. The mere act of living is a sign of protest for the farmers. On the Tikri border between Delhi and Rohtak, seven sites (nagar) have been named as Baba Banda Singh Bahadur Nagar, Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Bibi Gulab Kaur Nagar, Chacha Ajit Singh

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Nagar, Shaheed Sadhu Singh Takhtupura Nagar, Shaheed Kartar Singh Sarabha Nagar, and Ashfaqullah Khan Press Gallery. In the same way, farmers have occupied the Singhu border, Ghazipur border and Shahjahanpur border. This illustration is not an artistic creation. All elements in the illustration are picked up from the actual scene at Singhu border. At a particular junction, the Nihangs – a warrior sect of the Sikhs – have taken it upon themselves to guard their farmer brothers and sisters against the draconian actions of the police under the government. They take their horses and weapons wherever they go and they have done the same here. Just next to police garrisons, they have set up their temporary tents and monitor every movement in the protest. All the things that were used by the police to stop the protestors to march into Delhi - containers, barbed wires, barricades made out of metal and cement and digging up of the road - have been used to close off the space for the animals and one Nihang stands guard, directing and managing visitors at the protest site. They have used the barricades to hang the fodder bags for their animals. All elements demonstrate the state's efforts to thwart the protest but the same elements were used by the protestors to their advantage to make a little space for their own and for their horses. The horses, like Loukanikos and El Negro (canine friends), participate in the protests with their masters.

CITIES OF PROTESTS AND POETRY: THE RHETORIC OF URBAN DISSIDENCE SREEJATA ROY

I Modern cities, no matter how inclusive, liberal or democratic, are built on principles of exclusion. 1 Consequently, much of the drama that unfolds on these Mumfordian ‘theatres of social action’ 2 is directed towards voicing dissent and staking claims that find expression through protests and collective social movements. Urban theorists Henri Lefebvre and David Harvey have conceptualized protests and rebellious movements as an integral aspect of capitalist urban space and life itself. 3 Research has established that cities are more than just a setting or a canvas on which the action of protests is played out. 4 The spatial practices of an urban locale have an agential 1

Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan, and Shilpa Ranade. Why Loiter?: Women and Risk on Mumbai Streets. (Penguin Books India, 2011). EPUB file, 24-35.

2 Lewis Mumford, “What is a City.” In The City Reader, edited by Richard T. LeGates and Frederic Stout, 6th ed., 110-114. (New York: Routledge, 2016) 3

David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. (Brooklyn: Verso Books, 2012), 115.

4

Walter J. Nicholls, “The Urban Question Revisited: The Importance of Cities for Social Movements.” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 32, no. 4 (December 2008), 841, 841-859. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2427.2008.00820.x.

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role in generating such movements and conflict. Just as cities engender protests, the latter also shape and influence cities. Cities and protests are co-constitutive. Protests are also demonstrable as individual acts of rebellion and articulations of dissent. One of the expressions is the flexible and emotive genre of poetry. There are two strands of enquiry in the interjections of poetry, protests and cities. The first interjection showcases the contempt and anger with the city itself that is expressed through poetry. In the creative expression of poetry, poets protest against the inequalities of the city, but also appropriate the city for themselves. In the second form of interjection, some poems of certain urban poets become creative expressions and the face of protests that take place in the city. This paper touches on both aspects in the context of India. The first part of this study will draw upon Lefebvre’s theory of the production of space to show how select twentieth-century poems on subaltern experiences of cities vocalize individual protests that appropriate or claim the respective urban spaces. Selections from works of Marathi Dalit poets and the Hungryalist poets of Kolkata have been made for this purpose. Explicating the relevance of poetry in contemporary urban protests, the second part of the chapter highlights a few instances where protest movements in Indian cities used poetry as a mode to make their presence felt on protest sites, social media and shaped the national consciousness, as seen in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019.

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II The particular spatiality of Indian metropolitan centres has a propensity to incite protests for the problematic nature of their modernity. The stark inequalities which elsewhere are spaced out over a larger or less populated area are tightly packed within these concrete and condensed urban localities. Gyan Prakash observes that interest in late capitalist processes of globalization, migration and displacement brought the focus on cities. 5 Also, the peculiar hybridity of the postcolonial city began to embody the national character making it at least as representative of the nation as its villages. 6 Cities had always harbored problematic conditions of exclusionary practices, inequality, destitution etc. But because of migration, processes of modernization and the shift in their cultural import, they became sites of different kinds of contestations and politics giving rise to new voices who attempted to assert their rightful claim on the city. Freedom songs, poems of resistance and verses of protests have long been recognized but poetry itself has a destabilizing effect on psyche which is incongruous with the urban connotations of rationality, order and system. Poetry becomes a way of articulating the

5

Gyan Prakash, “The Urban Turn.” Sarai Reader: The Cities of Everyday Life 2 (n.d.), 2-7. https://sarai.net/sarai-reader-02-cities-of-everyday-life/

6

Roshan G. Shahani, “Polyphonous Voices in the City: Bombay's Indian-English Fiction.” Economic and Political Weekly 30, no. 21 (May 1995), 1250, 1250-1254. http://www.jstor.org/stable/4402794

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inexpressible, the unverifiable, a means to capture the truths that cannot be found in the official or ‘scientific’ discourses, and finally a tool for speaking truth to power. These qualities make poetry and poets in urban contexts to traverse through outright expulsion from Plato’s ideal republic 7 to modern-day censorship and incarceration. 8 This is the same reason which made poets and poetry to be employed as instruments propaganda as well as conduits of protest. In relation to urban space, however, protest poetry has another unique function which brings us to the question of how protests forge cities. Urban theorist Henri Lefebvre’s analysis proves that cultural texts have a certain contribution towards the production of urban space. Marxist urban theorist from the twentieth-century Henri Lefebvre, in his seminal work The Production of Space revolutionized the concept of (city) space as a dynamic entity which is produced through the interaction of three interconnected axes. 9 One of the three axes is that of the representational space which is dependent on experiences of inhabitants and includes art, culture, images and literature. Representational space is the dominated arena that in 7

Morriss H. Partee, “Plato's Banishment of Poetry.” The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 29, no. 2 (Winter 1970), 210, 209-222. http://www.jstor.org/stable/428602. 8 Manik Sharma, “Why Faiz Ahmed Faiz Would Have Gone ‘Yeh Hum Nahin Dekhenge’ Today.” Qrius, January 12, 2020, 8. https://qrius.com/why-faiz-ahmedfaiz-would-have-gone-yeh-hum-nahin-dekhenge-today/#:~:text=From%20Bano %20to%20Coke%20Studio,Haq's%20dictatorial%20rule%20in%20Pakistan 9

Henri Lefebvre, The Production of Space. Translated by Donald N. Smith. (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 1991), 38-39.

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Lefebvre’s words is “the space of inhabitants and users...of artists…writers...philosophers, who describe... this space is passively experienced—space which imagination seeks to change and appropriate…”. 10

Spaces

of

representation

include

literary

productions and enable appropriation 11, re-imagination and reexamination of space thereby facilitating resistance 12 and change. The oft-quoted Lefebvrean phrase ‘right to the city’ 13 entails that the urban is not just a result of the processes of production and consumption and ensuing socio-political relations. It is the “oeuvre of the citizens — a work of art constantly being remade”. 14 It can be exercised through participation in the production of urban space from the ‘dominated’ axis in two ways – through creative appropriations of the city and political struggle. 15 Thus, urban imaginaries and creative expressions of the historically marginalized people become a form of protest to affirm the right to the city. Lefebvre, Harvey and

10

Ibid, 39.

11

Ibid, 165-166

12

Lynn Stewart, “Bodies, Visions, and Spatial Politics: A Review Essay on Henri Lefebvre's The Production of Space.” Environment and Planning D: Society and Space 13, no. 5 (May 1995), 611, 609-618. doi:10.1068/d130609.

13

David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. (Brooklyn: Verso Books, 2012), x.

14 Chris Butler, Henri Lefebvre: Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City. (London: Routledge, 2012), 143. 15

Chris Butler, “The right to the city and the production of differential space,” in Henri Lefebvre: Spatial Politics, Everyday Life and the Right to the City (London: Routledge, 2012), 143.

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others who adopted and reused the concept of the right to the city primarily do so in the context of global capitalistic processes and the resultant disenfranchisement of various working-class communities. 16 However, communities such as Dalits, women and other genders in India have been denied the right to the city. Their poverty adds another layer to these exploited groups. Some voices are heard in the form of protest poetry with an immense subversive capacity through their portrayals of urban underbellies, in the depiction of their lives and experiences of the nation’s cities. One of the most significant instances of such subversion is found in the poetry of the Hungry Generation or the Hungryalist Movement of 1960s Kolkata or Calcutta. The Avant-Garde movement was sparked off by the iconoclastic voice of poet Malay Roychoudhury at a time when former capital was going through post-partition changes with thousands of migrants and refugees swarming into the city.17 Along with the consequent contestations, the economic dividends were far from equitably distributed leading to joblessness and discontentment among vast sections of the urban population. 18 The 16 David Harvey, Rebel Cities: From the Right to the City to the Urban Revolution. (Brooklyn: Verso Books, 2012), xiv. 17

Nayanima Basu, “A sour time of putrefaction.” Business Standard, January 21, 2013, 4. https://www.business-standard.com/article/beyond-business/-a-sour-timeof-putrefaction-111121000058_1.html.

18

Kunal Ray, “Review: The Hungryalists by Maitreyee Bhattacharjee Chowdhury.” Hindustan Times, July 12, 2019, 2. https://www.hindustantimes.com/books/reviewthe-hungryalists-by-maitreyee-bhattacharjee-chowdhury/storyQQVuprYOXqwn5OwC9Rz2oJ.html.

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Hungryalists, as their name suggests, articulated the collective rage and disappointment of these people who were hungry for the basic survival needs. The movement snatched Bengali poetry out of the comfortable Bhadralok 19 drawing rooms and took it to the bare streets both figuratively and literally. 20 According to Maitreyee B. Chowdhury, the poets of the Hungryalists highlighted the city affected by a poverty politics that could only be presented in a new idiom appropriate for their angst as in the following lines by Samir Roychoudhury. 21 …Oh, Sir, nobody uses the Jadavpur subway for a road crossing During night aristocrat lunatics sleep there A passenger queried – is the taximeter OK? I delivered a counter – is the Country OK? In front of Tollygunj Metro both flyover and subway are being constructed That does not mean pedestrians will not come under the wheels How will then media-files dailies-files run?...

19

Bengali gentlemanly middle-class

20 Akanksha Singh, “The Beats, the Hungryalists, and the Call of the East.” Los Angeles Review of Books, February 19, 2020. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/the-beats-the-hungryalists-and-the-call-of-theeast/ 21

Maitreyee B. Chowdhury, “Talking Poetry, Ginsberg and the Hungryalists: Samir Roychoudhury, a retrospective.” Cafe Dissensus, June 16, 2016. https://cafedissensus.com/2016/06/16/talking-poetry-ginsberg-and-thehungryalists-samir-roychoudhury-a-retrospective/

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In these lines, the poet underscores the city’s limited spatial capacity when it comes to sheltering the poor and the lower castes. The ones who get space in the deserted subways to even rest for the night are aristocrats among the urban destitute. The sarcastic dialectical style brings out the anger that curdles underneath the surface. There are no imageries here. The poetry lies only on the terse rhythm of the lines. Their

attempts

at

subverting

authority

and

raising

class

consciousness among downtrodden citizens soon got them arrested. This was immediately after they brought out a publication to showcase the Hungryalist voices. Malay Roychoudhury, Samir Roychoudhury, and Debi Rai were the three accused of the eleven poets whose names were found in the Bengali publication titled Hungry Generation. 22 The arrest was specifically for “criminal conspiracy to bring out...obscene publication”. 23 Obscenity is apparently provocative and disturbing but so should be the deplorable state of city street-dwellers with no privacy for even the most intimate activities. It is of no wonder that these poets adopted this strategy to hit back at the bourgeois modesty of the Bengali gentleman’s class. Malay Roychoudhury’s ‘Shame on You

22 Steven Belletto, “The Beat Generation Meets the Hungry Generation: U.S.— Calcutta Networks and the 1960s “Revolt of the Personal”.” Humanities 8, no. 1 (January 2019), 4, 1-16. doi:10.3390/h8010003 23

Ibid.

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Calcutta’ 24 offers a small glimpse at how they executed their intentions: Stay and live with your eunuchs You are their nurse who piss in bed in winter rain Lift their legs and change wet pants Write great words on walls to be urinated by pimps I don't want to meddle in your affairs now. Lips will turn sour if I kiss you after death. Go and join the revolt of clerks in BBD Baug You call us to drop our coin in your Bank of Skulls But I am a monster inferior to man Can smother you with my elastic limbs Tie boulders on your legs and throw you in the sea. When I enter, the pimps keep knocking at your door 'Hurry up, a customer is waiting for a go' Few of the Hungryalist poets were only barely better off than being homeless 25 so their conjuring up of the frustration of urban

24 Malay Roychoudhury, “Shame on You Calcutta-- Poem by Malay Roy Choudhury.” PoemHunter.com (blog). n.d. https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/shame-on-you-calcutta/ 25

“The Bohemian Hungryalists of Bengal.” Hungryalist Poems & Photos (blog). March 26, 2018. https://hungryderphoto.wordpress.com/2018/03/26/the-bohemianhungryalists-of-bengal/1-9.

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homelessness is raw and realistic as in these opening lines 26 of Shakti Chattopadhyay’s ‘Not a Very Happy Time, Not a Very Joyous Time’ 27: Tottering from head to toe, from wall to wall, from parapet to parapet, swapping pavements at midnight On the way home, a home in a home, feet in feet Breast in breast Nothing more – (a lot more?) – even earlier Tottering from head to toe, from wall to wall, from parapet to parapet, swapping pavements at midnight On the way home, a home in a home, feet in feet, breast in breast Nothing more. ‘Hands up’ – raise them high – till someone picks you up Another black van in a black van, and yet another A row of windows, doors, a graveyard – skeletons lying awry White termite in the bones, life in the termite, death in life – therefore Death in death Nothing more.

26

Maitreyee B. Chowdhury, The Hungryalists: The Poets Who Sparked a Revolution. (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House India Private, 2018), 96- 97.

27

Arunava Sinha, “Not a Very Happy Time, Not a Very Joyous Time: Shakti Chattopadhyay.” Translations (blog). March 22, 2014. Accessed September 26, 2020. https://arunavasinha.in/2014/03/22/not-a-very-happy-time-not-a-very-joyous-timeshakti-chattopadhyay/

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The Hungryalist generation could carry forth their verse protest to the western world through a chance encounter with Beat poet Allen Ginsberg when he visited Kolkata. The Beat generation poets of America were also counter-cultural rebel poets. 28 Drawing inspiration from the Hungryalist vision of Kolkata, Ginsberg penned his lines 29 on a similar vein before leaving. He materialized the image of hunger-stricken, shelter-less outcasts of the erstwhile capital in the following manner: …O Spirit of Poetry, no use calling on you babbling in this emptiness furnished with beds under the bright oval mirror--- perfect night for sleepers to dissolve in tranquil blackness, and rest there eight hours ---Waking to stained fingers, bitter mouth and lung gripped by cigarette hunger, what to do with this big toe, this arm this eye in the starving skeleton-filled sore horse tramcar-heated Calcutta in Eternity--- sweating and teeth rotted away---…

28 Maitreyee B. Chowdhury, The Hungryalists: The Poets Who Sparked a Revolution. (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House India Private, 2018), ix-xi. 29

Ibid, 174.

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An original poet himself, Ginsberg’s lines did enable the popularization of the Hungryalist’s voices beyond Bengal thereby giving the language of their protest a broader avenue. Another remarkable instance of protest poetry on city-life is Marathi Dalit poetry from Mumbai. Dalit voices have left their marks on the entire body Indian literature since ancient times but in the context of the bourgeoisie, Brahmanical cultural spheres of contemporary metropolitan cities like Mumbai, their poetry has been nothing short of a revolution. 30 Mumbai as a city has often been considered to be representative of modern India. 31 Indeed, the discontents of Mumbai’s modernity is evidenced by the fact that half of the city’s population are slum-dwellers or homeless 32, without basic amenities. The word ‘Dalit’ which means ‘broken’ and ‘oppressed’ was first used in the 1960s to distinguish the writings of ‘ex-untouchables’ and other depressed classes of people. 33 Dalits were traditionally outcastes of society in a village, and many of them arrived in Mumbai after being uprooted from their villages with dreams for a better

30

Mamta Mantri, Bombay Novels: Some Insights in Spatial Criticism. (London: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019), EPUB file, 161.

31

Prashant Kidambi, “Introduction.” In Bombay Before Mumbai: Essays in Honour of Jim Masselos, edited by Prashant Kidambi, Manjiri Kamat, and Rachel Dwyer, 112. (New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 2019), 1.

32

“Bombay's Urban Predicament.” In Bombay: Metaphor for Modern India, edited by Sujata Patel and Alice Thorner, xiii-xxxv. New York: Oxford University Press, USA, 1996.

33

Ibid.

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existence. 34 But they were subjected to the worst of both parochial feudalism and modern capitalism. It is only natural that their poetry will be organic utterances of protest. Among the poets from the Dalit community, Namdeo Dhasal, a founding member of ‘Dalit Panthers’ 35 has made a prominent dent in the cultural arena of the city. Formed in the 1970s, the Dalit Panther was an Ambedkarite political organization constituting of the Scheduled Caste community of Maharashtrian ‘Mahars’ (the caste of people who used to dispose of carcasses) as its base. 36 Inspired by the Black Panthers of America, 37 its members created a large body of protest literature which goes beyond the concerns of a single caste. According to Hovell, Dalit literature in urban Maharashtra has helped to “identify, unite and direct the Dalit political movement while working to create a positive and identifiable Dalit culture”. 38 Born a Mahar, he grew

34

Ibid, 113

35

Laurie Hovell, “Namdeo Dhasal: Poet and panther.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 23, no. 2 (1991), 77, 77-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1991.10413153.

36 Jayashree B. *RNKDOHဨ7XUQHU “The dalit panthers and the radicalisation of the untouchables.” The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 17, no. 1 (1979), 77-93. doi:10.1080/14662047908447324. 37

Nico Slate, “The Dalit Panthers: Race, Caste, and Black Power in India.” In Black Power beyond Borders: The Global Dimensions of the Black Power Movement, edited by Nico Slate, 127-130. Basingstoke: Springer, 2012.

38

Laurie Hovell, “Namdeo Dhasal: Poet and panther.” Bulletin of Concerned Asian Scholars 23, no. 2 (1991), 77-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1991.10413153, 77.

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262

up in the slums of Mumbai. 39 As someone who was forced to experience the city streets closely, his poetry and politics were rooted in the city’s street-life. 40 The poetic simulation of Mumbai in poems like ‘On the Way to the Dargah’ 41 in Golpitha bear testament to that fact: A leaking sun Went burning out Into the night’s embrace When I was born On a pavement In crumpled rags--And became orphaned— ...And I grew up Like a human with his fuse blown up On the shit in the street Saying, ‘Give five paisa, Take five curses’ On the way to the dargah.

39

Ibid, 78.

40 Anupama Rao, “The word and the world: Dalit aesthetics as a critique of everyday life.” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 53, no. 1-2 (2017), 147, 147-161. doi:10.1080/17449855.2017.1288314. 41

Dilip Chitre, A Current of Blood: Namdeo Dhasal (Poems selected and translated from the Marathi by Dilip Chitre, Dilip Chitre, 2nd ed. (New Delhi: Navayana, 2019), 29.

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He worked as a taxi driver when he wrote the poems in the collection Golpitha. 42 According to Vidyut Bhagwat, ‘Their Eternal Pity’ and ‘Mumbai, Mumbai, My Dear Slut’ from the collection Golpitha are most representative of his poetic articulation of Mumbai. 43 The former portrays the contradictions of the city where the extremely wealthy reside next to the pitifully poor, with an undercurrent of wrath: Their eternal Pity no taller than the pimp on Faulkland Road No pavilion put up in the sky for us Lords of wealth, they are, locking up light in those vaults of theirs. In this life carried by a whore, not even sidewalks are ours, Made so beggarly it is nausea to be human, Cannot fill our shrivelled gut even with dirt. Each new just day supports them as if bribed Not a sigh through the fingers of day’s plenty as we are cut down. Dhasal draws Mumbai on the bodies of the poor Dalits who are excluded from any claim on the city-space such that not even the footpaths can accommodate them. It is the stark contrast between the “lords of wealth” on sky-high pavilions and the dirt-dwellers with

42 Anupama Rao, “The word and the world: Dalit aesthetics as a critique of everyday life,” Journal of Postcolonial Writing 53, no. 1-2 (2017), 147. 43

Vidyut Bhagwat, “Bombay in Dalit Literature,” in Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture, Sujata Patel, and Alice Thorner, editors. Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture. (New Delhi: South Asia Books, 1995), 122

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264

“shrivelled gut” that legitimizes his outcry of protest. His poem embodies both the inflammable space as well as the fire of the protest. But the anger that is found in ‘Mumbai…’ is more towards a bitter resignation in the last two lines where he complains about the corrupt day which fails to hand out any means for subsistence to people like him. In ‘Mumbai, Mumbai My Dear Slut’, he compares Bombay with the exclusionary Hindu Brahmanical goddesses of Laxmi and Saraswati. Taking the cue from the practice of denying entrance to Dalits in temples, he subverts the whole idea of ‘purity’ which becomes a question for both women and Dalits, he writes: …Laxmi, Saraswati The discriminating harlots. We invited them but they never came. We asked them to spread under us but they refused. Through this provocative and angry image, Dhasal condenses the ideas of how the city’s wealth and culture which are controlled by upper-class and upper-caste citizens, give Dalits a miss. Hence the poet says that the Hindu icons of Laxmi, the goddess of wealth and Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and arts do not enter Dalit homes. But he hopes that Mumbai would be different and initially he entreats and requests the city to not erase Dalits or leave their contribution unrecognized, he almost prays to the city as if to a Muse to inspire his creativity:

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Dear Bombay, you be true and loyal to us, Keep our beds alive, Play on the flute of eternity, Tantalize our semen to yield fruit. But he does not leave it at mere pleas for inclusion and representation in the city’s physical and cultural space, his rage and determination pour out as he asserts his right to claim the city in the following lines: Mumbai, Mumbai O my dear slut I may say good-bye But not before I will take you in multiple ways Not before I will pin you down Here and how Thus and thus.. Dalit poets like Dhasal were different in background from the relatively well-off upper caste Hungryalist poets, yet the sentiments and motifs found in their poetry about urban indigence are similar. Choudhury’s personification of Kolkata as a nurse for the delicate bourgeoisie in ‘Shame on You Calcutta’ is comparable to how Dhasal refers to each day of the city as being bribed into meting out

266

Cities of Protests and Poetry

wealth to some and nothing to the rest in ‘Their Eternal Pity’. While Kolkata is a prostitute in service of the pimp-like overlords for the Hungryalist, Mumbai was Dhasal’s slut. Though Dhasal’s verses as expressions of a Dalit Panther aimed to serve a specific political function, his art goes beyond wrathful ventilations. They are evocative and brilliant works of imagery. It is, however, unfortunate that his (or the Hungryalists’) assertion in some poems is expressed through a masculinist urge to dominate or derogate the feminine when it is the (Dalit) women of the cities who have it worse. Marathi Dalit women are rarely covered or translated by the scholars and anthologists who focus almost entirely on the male Dalit poets. 44 However, Dalit women have also articulated their cities memorably in the form of poetic protests. One such fiery voice is Jyoti Lanjewar who is pungent in her take on the plight of women in the cities they inhabit in ‘Why Were You Born?’ 45

44

The prominent studies and anthologies being referred to here, among others are: Dharwadker, Vinay. “Dalit Poetry in Marathi.” World Literature Today 68, no. 2 (Spring 1994), 319-324. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40150159. Vidyut Bhagwat, “Bombay in Dalit Literature,” in Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture, Patel, Sujata, and Alice Thorner, editors. Bombay: Mosaic of Modern Culture. (New Delhi: South Asia Books, 1995) 113-125 Dilip Chitre, A Current of Blood: Namdeo Dhasal (Poems selected and tranlated from the Marathi by Dilip Chitre, Dilip Chitre, 2nd ed. (New Delhi: Navayana, 2019) 45

Veena Deo and Eleanor Zelliot. “Dalit Literature: Twenty-Five Years of Protest? of Progress?” Journal of South Asian Literature 29, no. 2 (Summer 1994), 41-67. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25797513: 47- 48.

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And why were you born in this ghetto of rotten lampposts dust-choked streets and stumps of trees with elephantiases why were you born? No shelter here not even a hoarding or a cement column and behind barbed wires flowers bloom for maggots and worms; why were you born? The lines 46 are more poignant than angry. Just like Dhasal noted how even sidewalks were unavailable for the under-trodden, these lines comment on the paucity of space for women---not even cement columns or a hoarding allow for these women when maggots can feast on inanimate flowers thriving on barbed wires. The status of a Dalit woman in the city is worse than animals. Hence, she is better off not being born: …Here horses are redundant 46 Jyoti Lanjewar’s extract from ‘why were you born?’, Ibid. It is translated by Gauri Deshpande.

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and elephants retired; recruitment has begun to enlist men into stables for dragging humanity along. Why were you born? Ironically in this poem, she appropriates space through her wish for complete erasure from it because it asserts her humanity next to animals whose lives are more fulfilling. These and many such poets across the world do and will continue to inspire till posterity to weaponise to jolt people into a disturbing awareness and initiate change. III While the exchange of creative ideas and inspirations for protest movements across countries is not new, the twenty-first century has brought a host of technological means which facilitate mobility of discourses to an unprecedented level. Social media is one such medium that accelerates the circulation of ideas and articulations. Virtual space is known for exteriorizing the personal or the private and therefore has the unique ability to cut across the binary of public and private spaces into which cities are often divided. For these qualities to be used advantageously by individuals or protest movements without having state or corporate support bases, the information directed must have the potential to go ‘viral’ on its

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own—that is, attract users and make them share and re-share the information or something related to it on their social media profiles, handles and channels. 47 This is where protest poetry was found useful in

the

recent

anti

Citizenship

Amendment

Act

or

anti

CAA/NPR/NRC protests across the cities of India. Aside from furthering exposure, the use of poetry as a strategy in urban protests around such a contentious issue also served the crucial function of bypassing the restraints to physical demonstrations. The 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act stoked fears among the Muslims and secular citizens in India as many perceived the move as the systemization of anti-Muslim discriminatory practices 48 and violence that the hegemonic Hindu regime 49 routinely sanctions. Here too cities took the centre stage. The urban, liberal, democratic non-Muslim citizen stood side by side with the Muslim community to demonstrate dissidence collectively and the mass protests found fresh modes of engagement with the larger national and international populace through social media.

47

Maria Petrescu, Viral Marketing and Social Networks. (New York: Business Expert Press, 2014), 3-9. 48 A Narrowing Space: Violence and discrimination against India's religious minorities.

Center for Study of Society and Secularism & Minority Rights Group International, 2017. https://minorityrights.org/publications/narrowing-space-violence-discriminationindias-religious-minorities/ 49 Dunu Roy, “CAA-NPR-NRC Represent the Culmination of Golwalkar and RSS's Vision,” The Wire, January 23, 2020.

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Mike Crang while explicating the relevance of virtual space in modern cities refers to Guatarri’s comment about how a single capital dominating the world economy is a thing of the past. “There is instead an ‘archipelago of cities’ or even, more precisely, subensembles of big cities, connected by telematic means and a great diversity of communication media”. 50 There have been few scholarly attempts at conceptualizing the dynamics of virtual space in terms of material space. One of them by Viktor Berger refers to two theories to introduce the spatiality of the online world: Martina Low’s idea of “geographically non-continuous spaces where remote objects are … synthesized by means of telecommunications” 51 and Waldenfel’s concept of ‘telepresence’ which considers “something that is transmitted by means of telecommunications” 52 as space as well. The application of these ideas on to ‘user-generated’ or user-oriented virtual space created through social-media platform (which is also a way

of

transmitting

information

or

communication)

bear

implications on democracy. It means that users can now have a claim onto the city-space through their virtual presence and what they communicate therein. As channels of mass communication, social media platforms give individual voices a wider influence. Since most 50

Mike Crang, “Public Space, Urban Space and Electronic Space: Would the Real City Please Stand Up?” Urban Studies 37, no. 2 (2000), 302- 303, 301-317. doi:10.1080/0042098002203.

51

Viktor Berger, “Phenomenology of Online Spaces: Interpreting Late Modern Spatialities.” Human Studies, 2020. doi:10.1007/s10746-020-09545-4.

52

Ibid.

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urban agencies, whether corporate or public have a similar online presence, they cannot dismiss these users as anonymous voices of faceless inhabitants in the way they can choose to ignore physical public demonstrations. India saw one of the most accelerated paces of digitisation over the last few years with exponential growth in the internet-infrastructure, mobile connectivity and data consumption. 53 When administration and control mechanisms move on to digital platforms, protest movements and rhetoric of resistance follow. The anti CAA protests in Indian cities adopted poetry as one of the tools of protest to stand out amid the prosaic affairs of politics and the state. In doing so, their physical protests garnered special attention via the videos or texts of their utterances and poetic clarion calls which went viral on social media channels like YouTube, Facebook or Twitter and news media platforms. 54 The use of poetry also helped to universalise the issue of the protest and give it a secular, libertarian appeal. Poems and translations for the paper have been taken from newspapers, magazines or blogs.

53

Arun M. Kumar, “A refreshed ‘Digital India’ programme will play critical role in the pursuit of $5 trillion economy.” The Economic Times, July 4, 2019. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/small-biz/startups/newsbuzz/a-refresheddigital-india-programme-will-play-critical-role-in-the-pursuit-of-5-trillioneconomy/articleshow/70067053.cms?from=mdr.

54

Shayoni Mitra, “Protest poetry defies conventional barriers, leaves lasting impact in digital age.” The Indian Express, February 10, 2020. https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/citizenship-amendment-act-caapoetic-protest-poetry-anti-caa-nrc-protest-6259673/

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One of the most direct dissident poetic expressions was stand up artist and lyricist, Varun Grover’s ‘Hum Kagaz Nahin Dikhayenge’ (“The NRC papers, we won't show”). 55 He admitted drawing inspiration from poet Rahat Indori and Bengali slogans for coming up with lines that translate to: Dictators will come and go The NRC papers, we won't show. You blind us with tear gas You poison our waters That our love will sweeten And we'll drink it all in a go The NRC papers, we won’t show This nation is all we got Where Ramprasad is also ‘Bismil’ How will you divide the motherland? That has blood and sacrifice of every Indian Raise your batons all you can Shut down every train you can We will walk, we will flow The NRC papers, we won’t show We will pitch our tents here… We will save the constitution before we go.. 55

News18. “’Kaagaz Nahi Dikhayenge’: Varun Grover Pens Heartfelt Poem Against NRC, Police Crackdown on Protesters.” December 22, 2019. Accessed September 26, 2020. https://www.news18.com/news/buzz/kaagaz-nahi-dikhayenge-varun-groverpens-heartfelt-poem-against-nrc-police-crackdown-2432559.html.

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We will sing the national anthem bro.. You will try to divide us by caste and religion United, we will keep demanding food and truth The NRC papers, we won’t show. This self-explanatory poem acquired the Twitter endowed status of the anti NRC anthem and was shared innumerable times on the platform; even by prominent opposition leaders like Congress Member of Parliament Shashi Tharoor and Sitaram Yechury. 56 Grover explicitly stated that he will not claim the poem’s copyright and that the lines could be used or adapted anywhere by anyone. In several protests, authorities prohibited assembly of crowds by imposing specific constitutional restrictions provided by Section 144 of the Indian Constitution, used violence some times and even put some in jail. Within such oppressive spatial dynamics, poems like the above provide a legitimate yet non-confrontational instrument for protests on a platform which cannot be as easily shut down in a stillfunctioning democracy. Another poem which is of interest for similar reasons is ‘Dastoor’ by Pakistani poet Habib Jalib. It was initially written and recited as a pro-democracy verse during the first military dictatorship in

56

“’Kagaz Nahi Dikhayenge’: Varun Grover's Anti-NRC Poem Is Viral.” Outlook. December 22, 2019. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-newskagaaz-nahi-dikhayenge-varun-grovers-anti-nrc-poem-is-viral/344545

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Pakistan. 57 In India, it was rendered in a different context (to protest against fee hikes) by Shashi Bhushan Samad, a student from JNU 58. But it re-emerged and went viral amid the anti CAA protests as the lines resonated with the protestors. At Shaheen Bagh in Delhi, where hundreds of women gathered to voice dissent, Shashi Bhushan Samad of the Jawaharlal Nehru University sang the lines yet again. The most pertinent lines of the (translated) 59 poem are: Like audacious Mansoor I declare I have no dread of the hangman’s plank. Why do you fear the prison walls? These acts of cruelty, these nights in jail I will not accept, I will not condone. The tone and message in these lines are similar to the previous poem in its bold and idealistic defiance against the oppressive measures adopted by city-authorities. The unprecedented courage displayed by the women peacefully resisting on the grounds of Delhi’s Shaheen

57

Saba Rahman, “Habib Jalib, his Dastoor — Why the people’s poet and his verse are inspiring India’s youth.” The Indian Express, January 2, 2020, 1-2. https://indianexpress.com/article/lifestyle/art-and-culture/habib-jalib-his-dastoorwhy-the-peoples-poet-and-his-verse-are-inspiring-indias-youth-6194746/ 58 59

Ibid, sec.1.

“Dastoor – Habib Jalib Poem with English Translation.” Ravi Magazine. August 5, 2015. Accessed September 26, 2020. https://www.ravimagazine.com/dastoorhabib-jalib-poem-with-english-translation/.

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Bagh acquired a sublime significance due to incorporation of such poems. Anti CAA protestor’s use of revolutionary Pakistani Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s anti-dictatorship verse ‘Hum Dekhenge’ jolted the authorities into serious unease. The poem was recited by students of IIT Kanpur to protest against the repressive atrocities against the anti CAA protestors of Delhi’s Jamia Islamia University. 60 The (translated) 61 poem starts in the following manner: We shall see Certainly we, too, shall see that day that has been promised to us When these high mountains Of tyranny and oppression turn to fluff and evaporate… But the lines which got interpreted too literally as ‘anti-Hindu’ and made the IIT Kanpur authorities to investigate about the poem are the following:

60

Markandey Katju, “Why the Controversy Around Faiz's 'Hum Dekhenge' Is So Fatuous.” The Wire, January 4, 2020. https://thewire.in/communalism/faiz-humdekhenge-iit-kanpur 61 Debojit Dutta, “Faiz Ahmad Faiz Recites his Poem “Hum Dekhenge”.” Antiserious: Journal of Laughter in Slow Motion, June 2, 2016. https://antiserious.com/faiz-ahmad-faiz-recites-his-poem-hum-dekhenge75c23b00ecb3.

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…When from this God’s earth’s (Kaa’ba) All falseness (icons) will be removed Then we of clean hearts-condemned by Zealots those keepers of Faith, We, will be invited to that altar to sit and GovernWhen crowns will be thrown off- and overturned will be thrones… The above lines were considered to be anti-Hindu for the reference to the destruction of idols as Hindus practise idol-worship. However, as Markandey Katju puts it in his Wire article, this is a superficial reading. The idols are representations of oppressive regimes on earth rather than symbols of divinity for ritualistic worship. Had it not been for this poem, the protesting students of Kanpur would not have captured this much space in the news. The integration of poetry as a mechanism of protest was a timely strategy when journalists were attacked and their cameras were broken while recording events on anti CAA protest sites; when corporate media gives little coverage to dissident movements beyond the chaos they create. The poems legitimized the movement and universalized its causes going beyond the immediate concerns to encompass longstanding festering issues related to systematic state oppression. In the use of poems from the neighbouring historical antagonist, it was outright subversion to voice these concerns as

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Indian Muslims are routinely accused of being loyal to the Islamist nation over their own country. 62 There were other poetic utterances of slogans which were written for similar protests to appeal to a specific urban audience as well as. For instance, in 2016, another scholar from JNU, the (in) famous Kanhaiya Kumar had got into trouble for organizing protests and discussions around controversies and issues of national importance. He was booked for sedition for chanting ‘anti-national’ slogans demanding ‘azaadi’ or ‘freedom’ from repressive Brahmanical regimes. 63 The slogan had found a way through his song which was purportedly interpreted as a separatist verse of Kashmiri origin. 64 A rough translation of how it was appropriated shows that its concerns were pan-Indian: ...It is our right – Azaadi! We will snatch it for ourselves – Azaadi! [we demand] Freedom from riots

62 Laila Tyabji, “Why I Will Never 'Go to Pakistan'.” The Wire, February 7, 2020. https://thewire.in/communalism/go-to-pakistan-indian-muslims. sec5. 63

Samiha, Nettikkara, “Why an Indian 'freedom' speech has become a viral remix.” BBC News, May 2, 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36032537 64

Nirupama Dutt, “‘Hum kya chahte? Azaadi!’ Story of slogan raised by JNU’s Kanhaiya.” Hindustan Times (Punjab), March 5, 2016. https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/kanhaiya-kumar-s-azadi-chant-not-a-giftfrom-kashmir-separatists-but-from-feminists/story-K7GQNzhzE1Z8UFBDGVY h6J.html

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Freedom from feudalism… Freedom from hunger Freedom from capitalism Freedom from Brahmanical systems… 65 The lines were actually a re-interpretation of feminist activist Kamala Bhasin’s 1992 chant against patriarchy at Jadavpur University. 66 It was later remixed as a rap song by Dubstep artist Siddharth Sharma. The remixed song went viral on YouTube. 67 Subsequently, it was appropriated by the Bollywood movie, Gully Boy. 68 The multiple usages and ensuing hype of controversy around them underline the potency of the refrain for freedom. It also showed how a single

65 “The JNU Azadi Song: a Must-listen!” India Resists (blog). February 23, 2016. Accessed September 27, 2020. https://indiaresists.com/the-jnu-azadi-song-a-mustlisten/ 66

Nirupama Dutt, “‘Hum kya chahte? Azaadi!’ Story of slogan raised by JNU’s Kanhaiya.” Hindustan Times (Punjab), March 5, 2016. https://www.hindustantimes.com/punjab/kanhaiya-kumar-s-azadi-chant-not-a-giftfrom-kashmir-separatists-but-from-feminists/story-K7GQNzhzE1Z8UFBDGVY h6J.html 67 The Indian Express. “This rap version of Kanhaiya Kumar’s speech is what you should listen to.” March 4, 2016. Accessed September 27, 2020. https://indianexpress.com/article/trending/trending-in-india/jnu-agitation-kanhaiyakumar-speech-remix/ 68 Nairita Mukherjee, “How Ranveer Singh's ‘Gully Boy’ track ‘Azadi’ turned ‘sedition’ into ‘nationalism’.” Daily O, February 13, 2019. https://www.dailyo.in/politics/how-ranveer-singh-s-gully-boy-track-azadi-turnedsedition-into-nationalism-kanhaiya-kumar-alia-bhatt-anupama-chopra/story/ 1/29435.html

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slogan-like poem can become such a powerful dispersing agent of protests. The above poems were not written exclusively for social media. They were recited or used in protests on the streets, on university campuses, in actual physical spaces. But by making these poems viral on social media has helped the predominantly urban protests to get more attention as these lines resonated even with those people who are not directly affected by the CAA, ultimately acquiring more exposure for the movement. Thus, even if the poems do not refer to any specific urban phenomena or materiality, their appropriation of urban imagination in the urban space takes place because they highlight the city-protests through their mobility in virtual space, imitating Lefebvre’s third axes explained in the first part. They enacted the role of banners and clarion calls from individual physical locations to other cities and countries in a globalised sphere. IV The study took up lower caste and lower-class poetry from 1960-70s urban Maharashtra and Kolkata and the poems which went viral after being used in contemporary city-protests. Apart from poetry, the two cases taken up in this study are woven by the common strand of postcolonial urbanity, and its specific conditions that generate particular modes of protests. While poetry is far from being a new medium of defiance, what is of significance is how protest-poetry relates to the contentious urban condition and vice-versa. There are

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two aspects which are of interest concerning protests and the spatial dynamics of post-independent Indian cities – one, how they find articulation in the voices of the disenfranchised and secondly, how poetry is integrated into protests to become legitimate ways to assert, demonstrate and popularize the claims of excluded identities. Poetry is one of the elements through which protests and cities become coconstitutive. Irrespective of whether these protests are successful or not these poems and their utilization have successfully altered the identities of associated cities. It is through the poetry of or for protests that the movements and the respective cities will go down to posterity. This itself could be a response to Plato’s rebuttal of poetry from the ideal city or the recurrent dismissal of poet’s significance in modern times. In his eloquent foreword to Mantri’s book, Amrit Gangar refers to 15th-century poet Saint Ravidas‘s usage of the suffix ‘pura’ for the sorrow-free city of Begumpura. He says that the affix ‘pura’ recalls “an interesting real, utopic or ideal image of a city” 69 as Ravidas had poeticized. In their angry illustrations of subaltern city spaces, the Hungryalists and the Dalits ultimately point towards how (ideal) cities ought to be—and how they are instead. Finally, the task of imagining the ideal city and demanding its existence is accomplished by the songs and verses which are instrumentalized by protests.

69 Mamta Mantri, Bombay Novels: Some Insights in Spatial Criticism. (Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2019). EPUB file, xi-xxi

HINDI CINEMA AS A THEATRE OF PROTESTS: SOME OBSERVATIONS DEVAPRIYA SANYAL AND MAMTA MANTRI

This paper interjects itself at three points: Cinema, City and Protests. With intertwined histories, both cinema and city have informed the spaces, techniques, technologies and images of each other. Cities change rapidly and cinema not only reflects those changes but accelerates those very changes. In the process, the city space also gets occupied by the cinematic city. Cities become spectacles, not only for its natives, but for the entire nation, and this relationship operates and is experienced in cinema as a lived social space. Cinema, one of the essential features and components of our society, combines art, aesthetics and technology to provide entertainment (sometimes information and ideology) and that is its business and economics. In all of this, cinema is also very closely tied with the society that it is produced in. It is an account of the social, political, economic and cultural realities of its time. Ordinarily, any film made in India has a protagonist wronged by and fighting against the evils in the society – personified by the moneylender, local goon, dons or terrorists. In destroying these evils that plague the nation, the hero performs the act of making the nation a better and just place for its

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citizens. Some films do go beyond the individual and binary relationship of the protagonist-antagonist and become a stage for portraying and precipitating the fight of the nation’s evils on the level of the nation itself. Many iconic films have played an important role in inspiring rights’ movements and protests around the world. Protests have also been used as a form of resistance in many films, some of them being Neecha Nagar (1946), Leader (1964), Garam Hawa (1974), Rang De Basanti (2006), Lage Raho Munnabhai (2006), etc. Such films inspire people to become instruments of change. The authors have felt the impact of the last two films mentioned above, very particularly. These two films motivated people to take to the streets against rape, corruption and other evils in India, leading to a new age of governance and politics in 2014. This paper wishes to look at 3 films, Main Azad Hoon (1989), Shanghai (2012) and Haider (2014). Any film, even though narrated in time, happens in a certain space. There are many aspects that make a film, but a lot of thought and expenditure actually goes into making of a certain space in which the story is told. Whether created or real, that space is the site where protagonists undergo tumult and fight against the evil representative. It is also a set of conditions/features that add to and carry the story further. The paper looks at how urban spaces created in cinema (through these three films) facilitate problematics in the narrative. It also looks at how the

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reciprocities between cinematic narrative, architectural settings and urban space add visibility to anguish and dissent in the everydayness of an individual and heighten the performative circumstances of protests. The choice of these films is determined by the following thoughts: All films are a scathing commentary on state policies and politics that favor the rich and deprive the poor of their basics. Cities are the focal points of all action and cinema here becomes a crucial mediator between the spatial reality and its imaginary status in mental life. The films show a range of protests that are enabled in a city, and therefore, these protests have a very urban character. Even though the issues addressed are of national importance, the sensory and symbolic urban provides a paradigm for understanding one’s own struggles, imaginations, experiences and lived realities through them. In the city as a form of cultural expression, the urban landscape and its markers become both contested and transformed spaces that function to mobilize memory for an imagining of the society, both national and local. Making these films are an act of protest, like any other creative means of expression against social and systemic injustice. In the

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externalization of the internal (mental) processes and imagination through a film, they grant comfort and reassurance about the world. Synopsis Main Azad Hoon (1989) (Directed by Tinu Anand) is the story of a man, a vigilante, in the fictional city of Raj Nagar, set up by a journalist, Subhasini, to pose as Azad to get back at the corrupt. Azad promises to fight against corruption and even die for it. Gokul Das encourages Subhasini who writes very proficient articles against the issues that plague the state to make Azad a widely publicized figure. In this Indian adaptation of the 1941 Frank Capra film, Meet John Doe, Azad soon becomes a messiah of the masses – the underprivileged and the downtrodden and obviously enrages his benefactor, Gokul Das, who had wanted to control Azad for his own benefit. He is soon perceived as a threat by the local politicians as a potential national leader. Later when Azad learns that he has been used, he decides to sacrifice himself for the nation and prove that he now identifies with the ideology of the imaginary character Azad. To prove that what had begun as fiction, has now become the actual truth, he actually jumps from the 30-storey under-construction building and dies. But before that, he records a message for his supporters and urges that Azad should evolve in each one of them. 1

1

Main Azad Hoon, Accessed September 28, 2020, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Azaad_Hoon#:~:text='I%20am%20Azaad')%2 0is,huge%20response%2C%20she%20finds%20an

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Shanghai (2012) (Directed by Dibakar Banerjee) is the story of a country where high-rise business parks backed by capitalists are replacing housing colonies for the economically weak and any voice of dissent is silenced by the State itself. In a world run by the morally bankrupt, idealists are maligned with scams and duty-conscious government bureaucrats wrestle with their conscience before passing every file. 2 An adaptation of Greek writer Vassilis Vassilikos’s book Z and in imitation of Costa Gavras’s film Z, the story revolves around an upcoming election, lofty promises and ambitious plans of making this township a dream-city. Dr Ahmadi, a socialist academic, comes to the fictional city of Bharat Nagar to give a speech to oppose the plan of the state government to build an International Business Park (IBP), making the city another Shanghai. Of course, he is killed in a road accident. And Shalini, his student who also loves him, takes up the cause of finding the perpetrators. When Dr Ahmadi’s group protests about it via the local media, the government feels threatened and appoints T.A. Krishnan, an IAS officer, a favorite of the Chief Minister’s, to head the enquiry commission probing the death of Dr Ahmadi. Krishnan is also the chairman of the IBP project. He is assured by Principal Secretary Kaul, of a promotion and a trip to Stockholm. But he does not let that get in the way of his investigative duties, however his efforts are treated with indifference, ill humor and a lot of hostility by various people. Finally, Shalini and Yogi 2

Kamath, Sudhish, “Shanghai: The Plot Thickens.” Accessed September 28, 2020, https://www.thehindu.com/features/cinema/shanghai-the-plotthickens/article3509381.ece

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come up with the evidence and Krishnan threatens to expose Kaul and Chief Minister to the central government and the investigating agencies, in order to gain justice for Dr Ahmadi. However, the construction of the IBP goes ahead and in a surprising turn of events Dr Ahmadi’s wife now becomes the new face of the state. A modern take on Shakespeare’s Hamlet and an adaptation of Basharat Peer’s memoir Curfewed Night, Haider (2014) (Directed by Vishal Bharadwaj) is set amidst the insurgency-hit Kashmir of the early 1990s. Haider’s father Dr Hilaal Meer is arrested by the Indian Army for treating a militant commander Iqlaq Lateef in his home, and sent off to detention camps while his house and his life is torn apart by a missile in front of his eyes. Haider, his son and a student at Aligarh, returns to Kashmir to seek the whereabouts of his missing father. When his mother, Ghazala marries his uncle, Khurram Meer, Haider feels betrayed, and decides to find his father on his own. Of course, he is unable to find anything about his father until Roohdaar, a part of a Pakistani separatist group, who had spent time with Dr Meer in the detention camps, comes back to give Haider his father’s message and expose the traitor in their midst. Haider decided to kill his uncle but is unable to do so. In a series of events, Haider’s friend, Arshia’s father and brother are killed, Arshia commits suicide, and Haider expresses to his mother his desire to cross the border and go to Pakistan. Ghazala insists that revenge is not the answer to this angst and wears a suicide vest, injuring Khurram and killing herself. In the

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end, torn apart by grief, Haider leaves the injured Khurram to die without taking revenge and walks away. The City as location In a film, how does one know that a place is a city? How does the director establish the site of action? How does the opening sequence establish the site of action and about what lies ahead in the film? The opening shots of these films do not begin with long or wide shots explicating the photographic quality of the cityscape. Instead they are a clue to the numerous visual and spatial assemblages that connect with the mind’s spatial and visual configurations. In its concern for human experience, the mise-en-scène becomes a construction of new ‘situations’ of daily urban life to show unrest and confrontation – a new kind of psychogeography showing the city in a different way. The opening sequences in each of these films establish the urban locations – Main Azad Hoon begins in the boardroom of a newspaper office, indicating that this film cannot but take place anywhere else but in a city, as the media baron Gokul Das impresses upon the editor to change himself to make the business profitable. The map of Asia is a spatial hint to Gokul Das’s ambition that he expresses later. We don’t know the name of the city Raj Nagar until 15 minutes later in the film. Haider begins with Hilaal Meer and others travelling through narrow streets to save the life of Ikhlaq Latif, a leader of proseparatist militant group in a home with wooden doors and walls, which then opens onto a panoramic shot of the landscape of Srinagar,

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Kashmir. Shanghai begins with a google map and then establishes people assaulting a local book store owner who had stocked copies of Dr Ahmadi’s latest book that criticizes the government for not taking care of its poor in its march forward toward development, in Bharat Nagar. As these films seek to address the concerns of a changing India, they begin by visually transporting us from the universal to the particular-to the universal – the condition of man in society – be it Kashmir, Bharat Nagar or Raj Nagar. It is generally known that when films use the familiar visual territory of an urbanscape and match it with the existing notions of a place in the audience psyche, these settings retreat into the background and divert audience attention to the subject of the film. Brian Jacobson writes in his thesis that the relationships between people and space are achieved in films through visual, narrative and atmospheric stylistic markers as set in their times. 3 In Haider, costumes, accents and vernacular languages, references to kahva (native herbal tea) and bread, the allusions to nature, roads around Dal Lake, season and landscape changing from autumn to snow, military vehicles, military camps spatially establish Kashmir. Roohdaar narrates about how the icy waters of the Jhelum, the life line of Kashmir saved him. The school and other urban buildings, now taken over by the Indian

3

Brian Jacobson, “Constructions of Cinematic Space: Spatial Practice at the Intersection of Film and Theory”, (Massachusetts: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2002)

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military, speak of a prosperous and developed past and a perplexing present. The markers of the urbanscape – railway station, bus stop, auto rickshaw, University, auditorium, stadium, open grounds, workers’ colony, mills and buildings becomes the instruments of cinema in Main Azad Hoon. Here, individual imaginary (of all characters) circulates with collective imaginary (in the auditorium or on the ground), rendering attributes and ascriptions to these spaces. As both linked and fragmented, the film makes ‘visible’ a heterogeneous image of modern urban through a projection of these spaces and becomes a visible medium of projection, make-believe and identification for the audience, giving a minimum trace of hope. Azad’s speeches, in asking the common man to unite to fight and filmed across many personal and public spaces referred to above, in the city, reiterates the fact that every protest has to be fought in every space; that no space is transparent and neutral. Likewise, the colony, its ground, its houses, houses and shops interiors, its streets, public meetings, its riots, festival celebrations and other markers (hospital, police station, government offices, etc.) become the hallmark of space in Shanghai. The audiovisuality, spatiality and movement heighten anxieties over identity, memory and recognition, creating ‘non-places’ in a cityscape, to produce the required painful effect. The film has many instances (especially during the riots) of how characters engage in creative spatial tactics

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to maneuver around regulations and re-claiming that space, in a time of heightened privatization and surveillance. Cities and their names Shot in 70 mm, all films are based in an urban space. Haider is based in Srinagar, along with some rural locations. The city in Main Azad Hoon and Shanghai can be any city in India. Raj Nagar in Main Azad Hoon and Bharat Nagar in Shanghai are created as fictional cities. Raj in Raj Nagar means ‘the rule’, implying that the city is both the ruler and the ruled. The government, capitalists, and media have chosen to ignore the pertinent problems of unemployment, education, labor, and farmer reforms. When Azad disrupts and amends the functioning of the whole system, he is also subverting the name of the city in the act of transferring power to the real people, to those that matter. The only time that it can be understood as a city somewhere in North India, is when some farmers get sugarcane, their produce to a sugar mill and speak in the local dialect, hinting that this city is somewhere in Uttar Pradesh, the largest state of India. Bharat Nagar, a reminder of the name of the country, is shown as in the process of getting demolished for the sake of development, as epitomized in Shanghai, the name of the film. Here also, spoken Hindi and presence of Bollywood indicates that it could be Bombay/Mumbai.

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Perhaps in using fictional names the creators become able to take liberties or mix attributes of two or more cities in that one fictional city. It also says that the underlying problems of health, education, sanitation, clean drinking water, unemployment, exploitation, plague every city in India, and therefore a particular name doesn’t matter. However, references to Delhi, the capital city of India, abound in both films. The use of the word and city ‘Delhi’ points to the power wielded by the center, without alluding to any person or party. The name of the city is enough to indicate government, its power and its rootedness and location in India, even though it is not shown in the film. The name of the city is shown as enough to create ripples wherever required in the film. In Haider, Delhi, the city, is not so much mentioned as the entire country, India. The film does not shy away from using real names. It has the names of Srinagar (its areas including Downtown, Dal Lake), Anantnag, Baramulla, India. India is shown as villainous through its army characters. In using the real names of cities and locations, such films dealing with sensitive yet pertinent issues, make a direct and hard-hitting impact on the viewers. When Haider uses the name Islamabad (the capital city of Pakistan) for Anantnag, a town in Kashmir, the Indian army gets alarmed. Arshia has to explain to them that Anantnag is also called Islamabad in Indian Kashmir. This interplay takes the audience too by shock.

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The importance of locations When people gather to hear Haider do the Chutzpah 4 speech at the Lal Chowk (the hub of all political activism, dissent, youth uprising) it becomes so much more than just a mere backdrop. It tells us spatially and cinematically that Kashmiris think of Indian military actions as chutzpah (Hebrew word for audacity or insolence). Chutzpah in the film is associated with AFSPA, a draconian law responsible for ghastly human rights violations in the valley. The emptiness of Lal Chowk, when combined with the speech, is a clear marker of the injustice to Kashmiris, even as the film director uses efficient wordplay to get this particular critique of structures of authority past the censor board. In fact most of the spaces that the film is shot in, tell of an unfortunate world marred by army surveillance, random security checks, and torture. The famous chowk of Srinagar is the stage on which Haider moves from the philosophical question of “Hum hai ki hum nahin? Hum hai to kyun hai aur nahin hai to kaha gaye… Hum the bhi ki hum the hi nahin?” 4

“chutzpah” is instituted as one of the central tropes of the film—a characteristic that Haider alternately criticizes and adopts. Incongruous usage of the word “chutzpah” peppers the film. Mispronounced and often misunderstood, it serves as a placeholder, its meaning constantly shifting. It is never translated, never defined as a word, remaining permanently in the abstract, it requires demonstration to be made intelligible. Unlike the other English words that pepper the film—crackdown, curfew, militant, etc.—this remains marked by its foreignness, resisting translation or definition. In the drunken perception of Salman and Salman, the ridiculously over-the-top analogues to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, it is both a homophone and a synonym of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA). Taarini Mookherjee, “Absence and repetition in Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider”, Cogent Arts & Humanities, Volume 3, 2016 - Issue 1. (November 28, 2016), https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23311983.2016.1260824

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(“To be or not to be? If we are, then why are we, and if aren’t, then where did we go?... Were we there or never there?”), to a very clear articulation of “Hum kya chahte?” (“What do we want?”). It is precisely here that Haider’s focus shifts from exacting personal revenge to opposition of the larger corrupt system. His predicament now turns into a public protest and echoes its inhabitants, too. Like the chowk, the other locations of the city – the Dal Lake and the cinema halls, are full of civil servants and politicians who wander around, suggesting that only a certain group can maneuver and claim the cityscape and landscape of Kashmir. The scenes in Downtown are a sharp contrast to this. On the other side of the bridge, Downtown is navigated by common people and gives a feeling that some parts of the city are functioning in a routine manner. This is punctured by a man who is standing blankly in front of his own house. He cannot enter the house despite his wife asking him to do so. Roohdaar comes, frisks and checks his pockets, and asks for his identity card. The man enters the house only after providing the identity card. Check posts and crackdowns in the valley continually challenge the dream of freedom and autonomy. The door is not only a physical barrier, it is a psychological barrier too. Haider’s grandfather says, in another scene, “Din pe pehre aur raaton mein taale” (The days are restricted and the nights are under the locks). The door is a constant spatial motif throughout the film. It demarcates the difference between the two worlds of security and love in the indoors of Haider’s home and the hostile and harsh conditions of the

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valley ridden by the sudden ‘disappearances’ of men; and ‘half widows’ who wait for them, not knowing if they are dead. The door of the cemetery reminds us to ponder on which side of it is heaven. The entire valley, described in Persian poetry as ‘heaven on earth’, is now a different space. It is the first time in the history of Bollywood that cinema halls and Hindi films are shown in a different light. Rather than using Kashmir as a scenic setting for a romantic song or anti-India militancy, Vishal Bharadwaj, the film director, has shown the reality of cinema halls in Kashmir. He shows them as interrogation centers and military garrisons of the Indian army in the early 1990s. The scene where arrested men line up behind a Hindi film playing on-screen shock us with this rather horrible juxtaposition of entertainment and bloodshed, stands out in the film. In a country that survives on Hindi cinema largely for its entertainment, it is very shocking to know that an entire generation in Kashmir has not watched a film in a cinema hall but only on videotapes. The Sucheta hospital building, unfinished due to corruption, is the chief spatial motif in Main Azad Hoon. All state efforts are channelized to prevent Azad from committing suicide by jumping from the building terrace on January 26, Republic Day of India. Goons are hired to prevent Azad from getting into the premises and kill him, yet he reaches the terrace and kills himself. Amidst rumors of death, people gather in a stadium, defying the police curfew (a

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means of spatial restriction). An unfinished hospital building is a symbol of a failed socialist state incapable of providing its people basic amenities such as food, water, sanitation, health, and education and rather of that of might for the industrialists. High rise buildings, usually symbols of modernity, development, and nation-building, are used as a subversive and phantasmic metaphor that can devour both government and capitalists. On the other hand, open spaces and colonies become spaces to gather where voices can dissent, agitate and demand for justice and rights, like the stadium, the venue of Azad’s last speech. The strike of the mill workers in front of the mill strikes a nostalgic chord of an era long gone in the 1980s. The entire city helps by donating food to the hungry mill workers too. Azad calling for farmers and mill workers to be united against the sugar mill owners in a village is reminiscent of the Gandhian call to develop the villages to develop the nation. The film, in evoking such spatial imageries, becomes a historical document of sorts. The train and the railway station, the mobile architecture of India’s modern consciousness becomes a place of reflection for Azad to go back to complete his unfinished task. Raj Nagar is appropriately introduced only when Azad gets down at the station and comes out on the street, a very common spatial introduction to any Indian city. The workers’ colony is a site of protest in its very existence. Every element in the colony speaks of injustice against the poor workers.

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Azad invites college students to teach children and elders in the colony and a make-shift structure functions as a school. When the independently functioning school is demolished and its residents are hit by the police, this act of spatial destruction exposes the capitalistgovernment nexus, depriving the rights of the mill workers. But the stadium, where the recorded speech of Azad is heard, becomes the venue for instilling unity amongst people. Bharat Nagar in Shanghai is where most of the action happens. Protests and rallies form a huge chunk of the film. Every location takes the narrative forward and has a rally or a protest in the background. The Police Chowk of Bharat Nagar, where Dr Ahmadi is run over by truck driver Jaggu, marks the turning point. Pro ruling party sympathizers protest against him and hit everyone with stones and hockey sticks. It appears that the police have come to protect Dr Ahmadi, but in reality, they have come to only clear the way for the truck driver to kill him. The police also don’t allow anything to be recorded on video or photos. Riots instigated by the ruling party allow its people arbitrarily to blacken a local bookseller’s face because he is selling Dr Ahmadi’s book, criticizing the ruling party that ignores poor people in its quest for infrastructure. Riots also become a pretext to plunder property, or even kill Bhaggu. Now Bharat Nagar turns into a ‘bedroom of protestors’, rallies, murder and corrupted moralities. Rallies supporting Dr Ahmadi are just one or two and without any frills which indicate their little reach. There are more scenes of people locking up their house doors and

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‘rehabilitating’ in a village far away than of people staying back, indicating lost interest in their fight. Krishnan’s driver lived in Bharat Nagar but was rehabilitated to a village, and we find him complaining that the village is far away from the city, his work-place. A very interesting spatial metaphor is the room where the inquiry commission is set up. An empty room evokes the suspense of upcoming events. In showcasing an empty room and then filling it up with a table, chairs, cooler and mosquito repellent, Dibakar Banerjee points out the hollowness of infrastructure which has no meaning without values that benefit human society. Krishnan, ambivalent yet diplomatic, lends an aura of honesty to the room, despite hostility from police and other bureaucrats. Another important space is the venue of Deshnayak’s birthday celebrations, where Jogi records on video the faces of all the perpetrators of the strike against Dr Ahmadi during Dr Ahmadi’s visit, and shows them to Krishnan. It is at another rally that Deshnayak audaciously tears the government summons to appear before inquiry commission. The politics of protest Main Azad Hoon has many scenes of protests. The protests in the film can be called such in the classical sense of the word, with people gathering with placards, posters, songs and slogans, and expressing dissent through nonviolent means. An echo of its times – the 1980s in India, protests in the film became instruments of change. Protests and protestors were respected and public gatherings in large numbers

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were feared, both onscreen and in the physical space of the country. People raising voices against injustice were not co-opted, as can be seen in Shanghai. Unlike many other films made in 1980s strangely enough Main Azad Hoon flopped at the box office. As opposed to other films of those times, Azad is shown without any personal or family life. His name is also not his own. Perhaps the lack of a personal story and identity and the rejection of the ‘self’ per se helps the story to dwell effectively on dissent, cities, collective identities, and systems. In lending the much-required dichotomy of distance and familiarity in Azad’s character, a forceful impact is made on the audience. Through the use of medium-wide, long, and close-up shots, Shanghai emphasizes equally on the characters and their surroundings. Mid shots abound as Banerjee connects the characters with the audience at eye level and empowers them to think that they can also resist and protest. In presenting Dr Ahmadi’s murder from all angles, Banerjee asks that the garb of confusion over development and infrastructure be thrown and people shed complicities, understand truth, and fight for equality. Of course, the film is a symbol of a protest against the neo-liberal mores of development. Haider’s Kashmir is different from the Kashmir that India knows. The film shows horrifying narratives of the grieving people and echoes the crying souls of Kashmir ripped into pieces. The beauty of the landscape is lost as Haider exclaims, “Pura Kashmir kaidkhana

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hai mere dost” (“The whole of Kashmir is a prison, my friend”). He understands and experiences the pain and stands in solidarity with many people waiting perpetually for the return of their loved ones at the police station in silent protest. Bharadwaj’s Haider is a far bolder political film that tries to look at the conflict from every possible angle – the Indian army’s as well as the militants and the residents of Kashmir caught in this tussle. When mainstream cinema presents such a dystopia, it articulates the unvoiced and asks its audience to connect with the realities of the people. Cultural expressions as protest In Haider, the graveyard is of great spatial value in the film. This is where Haider meets his father and lover finally, this is also where his mother dies, this is the space where he begins to understand the message from her, “Intekaam se sirf intekaam hi aata hai” (“Revenge begets revenge”), a message that echoes even in Hamlet and in Gandhi’s values of non-violence. The song Aao Na penned by Gulzar, renders a metaphysical quality to the snow-laden surroundings and invites you on your final journey to the grave, almost saying that Kashmir is still far away from peace. Coming from the old, militant gravediggers in an almost ghastly yet comical way, it is also a commentary on the existential crisis which the Kashmiri youth face every day. The song Jhelum cries for everything that Kashmir has lost. The Jhelum is used as a spatial metaphor to explicate turmoil in Kashmir. Bismil in using the Bhand Pather (a

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theatre form of Kashmir), is a Bakhtinian ‘carnivalesque’ registering protest against the political disturbance personified by Khurram and his band of Ikewani-al-Mukhbeers. Along with the ‘Chutzpah’ speech, these three songs, borrowing heavily from and giving voice to Kashmiriyat, are not just creative expressions for and of Kashmiris, but also find a voice and space for dissent in mainstream Indian sensibilities. The biggest contribution of Main Azad Hoon is the song Jitne Baazu, Utne Sar (These many shoulders, those many heads), written by Kaifi Azmi and sung by Amitabh Bachchan. This is the only song in this film, unlike other Hindi films which usually have a proliferation of songs interlacing the narrative. When university students sing the same song ‘Hum Honge Kamyaab’ (We shall overcome), Azad points out to them that they have many slogans, but only one song. He teaches them this new song of protest. The song catches on and becomes the tour de force of the film and is sung at every protest and at every place. In fact, it renews Azad with vigor when he begins to doubt himself. The film ends with the song. It is another story that the song did not capture the imagination of the country. The audiovisual medium establishes a direct connection between Azad and the masses and is looked upon as the harbinger of uninterrupted communication and democratization. A shrine is dedicated to Avinash, a student protestor, who is killed in an encounter with the police. His blood-stained shirt riddled with

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bullets lies on that very spot and acts as a spatial reminder of the injustice, with a stone boundary and his name written with stones. His murder and subsequent student protests are connected with the lived realities of their city life. When the government decides to shift their university campus 20 miles away from the city so that it can be given to a private builder in lieu of more money, the students feel that it would become difficult for them to commute and earn at the same time, as most of their time will be spent on travel and hence their need to protest. Shanghai does not spend time on creating new ways of protesting. Instead, it showcases the same nonviolent methods of protests and slogan-chanting, and insists that change can be brought through those means. The onus of change is put on the moral grit of its characters, as they resolve to bring change. They do this through dialogues (Shalini with Dr Ahmedi, Jogi, and domestic help, diplomatic moves (Krishnan’s dialogues with Principal Secretary Kaul to remove the Chief Minister), or through speeches (Dr Ahmadi’s speech at Bharat Nagar). However, the film does show creativity in Deshnayak’s party activities. The slogan Jai Pragati (Hail Development), the song Imported Kamariya (Foreign Waistline) eulogizing development and modernity, various posters, hoardings, photo-shoots, rallies, riots, Party volunteers – unemployed men in yellow T-shirts, brandishing hockey sticks, ready to clap in support of Deshnayak, shout slogans, heckle or even kill, are juxtaposed with the more traditional methods of protests which lends the film a certain uniqueness. The song

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Bharat Mata ki Jai combines the glorious past along with the horrendous present. This song invited trouble from a certain group in India which felt offended because of the use of certain imagery – “Sone ki Chidiya, Dengue, Malaria, Gud hai, Gobar hai, Bharat Mata Ki Jai” (“The golden bird, dengue, malaria, jaggery exists with cowdung, Hail India”). Characters dance as they sing this song, even if they mourn the death of the imagined country. Protests and identities Azad’s identity is based solely on protest. It might not be an exaggeration to say that Azad is a personification of protest against injustice. In the narrative he does not have a name, a name given to him. In showing him without a history or lineage, except that he is a citizen of this country, the film is asking its countrymen to forget their backgrounds and come together in a bid to struggle, resist and collectively act against subjugation. The title of the film which means, ‘I am free’ is a call to all Indians to be free from all injustice. It also means that anyone, who stands with truth, can be Azad. Azad is also a feeling, a consciousness, a dream where there is no hunger, no illness, no hatred, and every person who has that aspiration is Azad, as he says in his last words. Shanghai has many characters with shades of grey and who display a range of emotions, from indifference to doubt to avenging to standing up for truth and justice. Shalini’s past and ambivalent identities are resolved when she fights for truth. Krishnan is deterred

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in several ways by his extremely powerful adversaries to stop the inquiry, but he is persistent and ensures that justice prevails in the end. Jogi also helps Shalini in getting evidence, even though he is inspired by his Rajput warrior identity and also wants to avenge his brother’s death. Shalini’s domestic help and her husband Jaggu (Dr Ahmadi’s killer) are remorseful and apologize to her. The characters may be fighting for their beloved ones, but it culminates in the fall of certain important individuals in the government. Another set of individuals, headed by Dr Ahmadi’s wife, now take over and clear all obstacles for IBP to move forward. Dr Ahmadi’s killer demolishes the houses of Bharat Nagar in the last scene of the film. The Chief Minister and Deshnayak remain far away from the people. Real protests of the Kashmiri women and children find a place in Haider. Kashmiri women, leading lives as half-widows, have spent years sitting in protests in front of governmental and international spaces. In showing Haider along with protestors, most of them women, in front of the UN office in Srinagar, the film brings their plight to mainstream imagination and memory. Ghazala’s remarriage to her brother-in-law Khurram can also be read as a protest to not be labeled a half-widow and a defiance of waiting in perpetuity. In this search for identity amidst an oppressive regime, the words of Roohdaar are very apt, “Dariya bhi main, darakht bhi main, Jhelum Chenab bhi main, dair hoon haram bhi main, shia bhi main, sunni bhi main.” (I am the river and the tree, I am also Jhelum and the Chenab, I am both temple and mosque, I am both Shia and Sunni),

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as the sense of the self is defined by the preservation of its identity and the symbols representing that identity. Since the film is an adaptation of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, a point of difference needs to be articulated here. Haider, the protagonist unlike Hamlet, is very clear and uncomplicated about what he thinks and feels. He wants to go across the LOC to get training in the movement for demanding a separatist state. He wants to avenge his father’s disappearance and death. Born and raised in the turbulent environment of Kashmir, he is not confused about its need for freedom (more of an expression of self-preservation). However, it does feel that Kashmir valley subsumes the identity of Haider and questions its very existence. Though of course in time, he comes to understand the meaning of life and the emptiness of revenge when he loses his mother. These films draw attention to individual and collective bravery and courage to stand up for truth and liberty. As passive constituents of cultural collective consciousness, these films connect and inspire their audience and the citizens of their country to stand for truth and fight for injustice. Conclusion These three textured, polyphonic films remind us that fiction and fact are symbiotic in nature. Polemical and prescient, these films, in capturing and expressing spatial complexity and diversity with urban

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social dynamism of protests, form a collective memory and mobilize it for an imagining of the community which is both national and local. Haider brings to the fore questions of human rights violations in Kashmir, Main Azad Hoon is a critique of capitalism, and at the same time, a nostalgic remembrance of Gandhian values and the socialist state, while Shanghai condemns development policies of neoliberalism. Protestors reject the victim syndrome and fight against systemic injustice with their limited capacities. Physical violence (murders, bombing, fighting) is used in the films by the state players, but only to say that it cannot bring justice. Creative ways of protests root people’s actions within the space they operate in. Throughout the narratives in these three films, there is a strong sense of hope and power showcased through resistance, organization and fight for a better future. Filmography Tinnu Anand, director.1989. Main Azad Hoon. H.A. Nadiadwala. Dibakar Banerjee, director. 2012. Shanghai. Dibakar Banerjee Productions. Vishal Bharadwaj, director. 2015. Haider. V B Pictures.

SHAHEEN BAGH SAUNTERINGS NAYANIKA CHATTERJEE AND MAMTA MANTRI

This illustration is a point. A point of view… My view… my version… my perspective… my experience at Shaheen Bagh- a space that constantly spoke and told so many stories, of many lives, many women, many men, many children, of the city of Delhi, of the people of this country. I ‘had’ to go to Shaheen Bagh. I wanted to stand with them. I wanted to tell them that I am with you. Them? I? Hindus? Muslims? Jains? Christians? Sikhs? Women? Men? Who is with whom? Where is the ‘them’ coming from? Where is the ‘I’ coming from? Who is who? All I knew was something unjust had happened to the people of the country. And I had to be there! In the city that I was living in at the moment! I figure out the route to reach Shaheen Bagh. I know I have to take the metro to Jasola Vihar. I check on Google to find that the metro station is called Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh on the the magenta metro line. The announcement on the metro reiterates the name. I like that Shaheen Bagh is validated and made a part of government

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infrastructure. Although I do wonder, if the name can be used, then why can the laws not be taken back? It is fairly easy to reach the ‘site’, the temple of democracy. Well, I correct myself! I shouldn’t be using the word ‘temple’- a religious metaphor! Then what should this place be called? Let’s just call it Shaheen Bagh! It is synonymous with democracy! I want to reach the site soon, I want to see the practitioners of democracy, I want to be in the company of those fighting for the values that India stood for. A narrow road takes me to a large road, where I can see the sky and the forest beyond, I can see the birds far away! I already feel free! I look at them. I begin to see each face, I recognize some, I don’t recognize many. I see the valiant smiles after braving two degree temperatures last night. I see them taking care of their children, yet attentive to everything spoken on the stage, ready to chant slogans to make themselves heard. The children look at their mothers, not knowing what is happening, but they have smiles on their faces, because their mothers are smiling. I see the tent. I see banners. I see the library. I hear the music. I see the ‘alternate’ India Gate. I see ‘The Constitution of India’. I feel Ambedkar. I feel Nehru. I feel Gandhi. I feel my country is here. I see people talking. I talk with people. We are all taking about how important it is to stand by and save our Constitution. Not for a moment do India and its ideals disintegrate into religion, sect, gender, Us, Them, Me, You! Shaheen Bagh is full of ‘WE’!

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