page_title: Shaheen Bagh Protests
section_title: The protest
hierarchical_section_title: Shaheen Bagh Protests / Background / The protest
caption_attribution_description: English: Shaheen Bagh Protest on 26th of January 2020, the 71st Republic Day of India. A huge crowd over 100,000 people turned out for the celebration of the Republic Day of India on 26th of January 2020. Flag hoisted by "Shaheen bagh dadis" and Rohit Vemula's mother.
context_page_description: The Shaheen Bagh protest was a sit-in peaceful protest, led by women, that began in response to the passage of the Citizenship Act in both houses of Parliament on 11 December 2019 and the ensuing police intervention against students at Jamia Millia Islamia who were opposing the Amendment. Protesters agitated not only against the citizenship issues of the CAA, National Register of Citizens and National Population Register, but also against police brutality, unemployment, poverty and for women's safety. Mainly consisting of Muslim women, the protesters at Shaheen Bagh, since 14 December 2019, blocked a road in New Delhi using non-violent resistance for 101 days as of 24 March 2020. It became the longest protest against CAA-NRC-NPR. As a precautionary measure Delhi Police barricaded the neighbouring major highways around the area. Following the North East Delhi riots, police barricading and presence in the area increased with over ten companies, 1000 personnel, being assigned to Shaheen Bagh. The protests ended on 24 March 2020 as Delhi Police vacated the site due to coronavirus pandemic.
context_section_description: The Shaheen Bagh protest was launched on the afternoon of 14 December 2019, when 10 to 15 local women began to blockade Kalindi Kunj Road (Road 13A), a six-lane highway bordering the Muslim-dominated neighbourhood of Shaheen Bagh in southeast Delhi. More locals joined and it became a continuous sit-in protest. Many of the women are hijab- and burqa-wearing Muslim homemakers. Elderly women have also joined the protest, and children and newborn babies have been present with their parents. The protesters have been supported and coordinated by more than a hundred volunteers, including students and professionals from Delhi. These volunteers organized themselves around different tasks: setting up makeshift stages, shelters and bedding; providing food, water, medicine, and access to toilet facilities; installing CCTV cameras and bringing in outside speakers. Within 10 days, the peaceful protest had grown to cover nearly one kilometre (0.5 mi) of the highway, supported by donations. On 2 January 2020, some prominent volunteers withdrew and urged to stop the protest, fearing that its message could be hijacked by political parties with the approach of the Delhi election, which they felt could "tarnish the image of the movement" and raise the risk of violence. However, the women protesters immediately made it clear through social media that they would continue.
  With crowds reaching as high as 100,000, the protest became one of the longest sit-in protests of this magnitude in modern India.  Its stages became a prominent platform to voice issues, and gained support from Punjab farmers. A number of protestors cited the 2019 Jamia Milia Islamia attack, in which about 200 student protestors were injured by Delhi police at the primarily Muslim JMI university. CNN reported that a woman named Bahro Nisa quit her job to continue full-time protest, saying "They tried to stifle the voices of our children [...] as mothers, we decided to stand up". An article in Business Standard called the protest "A new kind of satyagraha [English: civil protest]", noting how a girl was allowed to express her doubts on stage by explaining her dilemma of supporting the CAA while understanding its dangers.
  On 31 December 2019, thousands of camping protestors sang the Indian national anthem at midnight, on what was reportedly Delhi's second-coldest night in the previous 100 years. The protest had one of its largest crowds on 12 January 2020. On 26 January, the 71st Republic Day of India, over 100,000 people assembled at the protest site. The flag was hoisted by three local elderly women who became known as "Shaheen Bagh dadis" ("grandmother" in Urdu) during the protest and by the mother of Rohith Vemula. That day, Umar Khalid and Jigesh Mevani visited the area and delivered their respective speeches.
  The protesters extended an invitation to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to come and celebrate the Valentine's Day with heart-shaped cardboard banners. 
  A health camp has also been set up beside the camped protesters. Doctors and nurses along with medical students from different medical institutes and hospitals voluntarily joined for the purpose. Sikh farmers have also come and set up a langer (free community kitchen) in the area.
  The barricaded area has been visited by numerous politicians such as Indian National Congress (INC) leaders Mani Shankar Aiyar and Shashi Tharoor, social activist Chandrashekhar Azad and celebrities such as Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub. On 14 February 2020, filmmaker Anurag Kashyap visited Shaheen Bagh and delivered a speech. On the same day, the protestors also paid homage to the 40 martyred Central Reserve Police Force personnel in the 2019 Pulwama attack, a suicide bombing attack by terrorists.
  The Union Home Minister Amit Shah sent an open invitation for talks to the elderly Shaheen Bagh protestors. However, a crowd of protestors who marched towards the Union Minister's residence for talks was stopped by the Delhi Police.
caption: Shaheen Bagh Protest on 26 January 2020, celebrating the 71st Republic Day of India.
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