ANATOMY OF A PROTEST

AT THE STROKE OF THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, as the world welcomed the arrival of a new decade, Inshah Hussain, 16, stood shivering alongside a group of strangers in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh, holding a placard that read: ‘Fight for the Idea of India: Democracy, Equality and Freedom’. The school student had never attended a public demonstration before. Only a few weeks ago, her friends had been a part of the Amanat rape protests in Delhi, but she had stayed behind. Yet, something about the ongoing movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act or CAA and the National Register of Citizens (NRC) touched a nerve and brought her out onto the streets.

“People have called me a terrorist, a cheat in the past few years. I tolerated that. But when the law starts to discriminate against my religion, then I cannot stay indoors. I do not want that section of India to feel empowered which has no respect is favouring them,” she says.