Bilkis Dadi: Conspirator for the State, Inspiration for Indian Women
What does Bilkis’s place on TIME magazine’s list of 100 most influential people mean for the Shaheen Bagh movement and the future of democratic resistance in India?
“CAA ki ladaai abhi khatm nahi hui hai, lekin pehle hamein Corona se ladna hai” (The fight against CAA is not over yet, but we have to first fight Corona Virus), Bilkis told The Wire.
The 82-year old woman was one of the most venerable faces of the protest movement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and National Register of Citizens. Bilkis and the other elderly women who participated in the iconic sit-down protest became symbols of resistance and hope.
By opening an easier path for refugees to become citizens of India provided they are not Muslim, the CAA violated a key Article of the Indian constitution that guarantees equality before the law to all persons – including refugees and migrants – and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, caste or gender.
Though the CAA by itself does not affect the status of Indian citizens, the insistence that beneficiaries must be non-Muslim marks the first formal endorsement of Muslim marginalisation in India. The informal targeting of Muslims that went on for the past almost six years has now got a legal stamp on it.
The protests against the CAA erupted just days after parliament passed the law. After the police violence against students at Jamia Millia Islamia on December 15, Muslim women from the neighbouring area of Shaheen Bagh came out to peacefully protest. Gradually, their protest attracted others – men and women, Muslims and non-Muslims – united in their common quest for equality and justice.
During those 100 days of protest that was popularly known as Shaheen Bagh movement, India witnessed something completely unprecedented. Muslim women, who until then were being seen as powerless and oppressed and in immediate need of a saviour to liberate them from the clutches of their regressive traditions and oppressive families, were now aspiring to lead a country of 1.3 billion people towards a renaissance.
Six months after the protests ended, the tragic irony is that a movement being recognised and celebrated at the global stage, has been criminalised by the Indian state. To avoid laying the blame for the Delhi riots at the doors of those politicians who willed it, the Delhi Police has advanced the far-fetched theory that Shaheen Bagh and the entire anti-CAA protest was part of a ‘terrorist’ plot to engineer large-scale riots ‘at suitable time’. For the state, the Gandhian-Ambedkarite revolutionaries of Shaheen Bagh were all part of a to overthrow the government.
Given this vicious pushback – which has seen the anti-CAA protesters being jailed – it is tempting to believe the anti-CAA movement eventually achieved nothing. But this is not the case.
To understand the outcome of the movement and what the latest global recognition means for the Shaheen Bagh movement and the future of dissent and resistance in India, we have to take a longer view back.
Narendra Modi’s second tenure as prime minister of India began with the passing of the Muslim Women (Protection of Rights on Marriage) Bill. The enthusiasm and speed with which the Modi government prioritised the Bill set the tone and agenda for his second tenure. Soon came the amendment to Article 370 and the demotion and division of the state of Jammu and Kashmir in to two Union territories. Then, the Supreme Court’s verdict clearing the way for the Ram Temple in Ayodhya and then the passing of the CAA.
With a brute majority in parliament and a defeated and demoralised political opposition, the BJP and RSS were racing to fulfil their century old fantasies of reducing India’s Muslim minority to second class citizens and turning India, a secular-liberal democracy, into an illiberal Hindu Rashtra. But what the BJP and RSS did not bargain for was the resistance to their project, least of all from a community they thought they had throttled. The fact that the protests against the CAA were led by Muslim women – whom the BJP was trying to patronise a few months earlier by projecting Narendra Modi as their ultimate saviour – was a reminder of the limits to which the prime minister’s carefully crafted image could be used to sell anything.
In essence, the protests by Muslim women was like a wall standing between India’s secular democracy and the Hindu Rashtra the Sangh parivar would like to impose. Brick by brick, a non-descript, low-profile Muslim mohallah – Shaheen Bagh – rose from the dust and emerged on the international map to represent the sentiments of millions of people. It gave a voice and platform to the people who had been systemically alienated over a period of six years and saw themselves standing at the verge of total disenfranchisement. In the face of this existential threat, the women found extraordinary courage and determination. Challenging the warped logic of the Hindutva ideologues who equate citizenship with religious identity, they reclaimed the country of their ancestors.
The words of a teary-eyed Yasmeen still ring in my ears when she adamantly said that her ancestors are buried in the soil of India and so will she. A firm believer in the liberal traditions and syncretic culture of the country, she had even named her son Aakash Ahmed. I was moved when I met her during the coverage of Shaheen Bagh where Yasmeen used to come every day from Saket to protest with her two college-going daughters, Husna and Rehnuma.
The CAA is a central part of the Modi government’s Hindu nationalist agenda. The fact is the protest movement could not stop the government from going ahead with the law and as long as polarisation of people on religious lines ensures it remains in power, the Modi government may well continue to oppress and persecute India’s Muslims for the rest of its tenure. The basic principle of resistance is that it takes place not because there is a guarantee of success or assurance of the end of tyranny but because injustices and immoralities have to be resisted.
As India goes down the black hole of authoritarianism, what is remarkable is that this descent is not going unchallenged. Yes, grim projections are being made about the survival of Indian democracy, at least in the form and shape that our nation-builders conceived of it. But when historians write the story of our times, India’s most disempowered and oppressed will go down in history as people who fought and ‘raged against the dying of the light’. Bilkis Bano and the other dadis of Shaheen Bagh will not ‘go gentle into that good night.’ Surely that’s enough for the rest of us to take heart.
(Article courtesy: The Wire.)
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Bilkis: This was Not a Battle I Fought Alone, it was a Shared Struggle, it Continues
Courtesy: Sabrangindia, Wire Staff
Her kohl lined eyes have the light that only those who have seen great changes in their lifetime can have. Her smile cracks through a wizened face, and she may look frail, as many women her age who have seen a tough life do, but she is all power. Bilkis, better known as Bilkis Daadi of Shaheen Bagh, is a global icon of resistance and revolution, since December 2019 she sat braving the frigid Delhi winter, on the roadside near her home, to fight for her rights as a citizen of India, and to secure the futures of generation to come.
Written about in international media for months since then, Bilkis was recently listed among the 100 most influential people of 2020 by Time Magazine. This latest global media recognition is a timely reminder of the revolution she started with her sisters in the common cause, which they eventually suspended in public interest once Covid-19 pandemic set in.
Many of those associated with that anti-CAA-NPR-NRC movement, now face charges, questions, and accusations of having somehow conspired to ignite the anti-Muslim Communal riots that broke out in North East Delhi in February 2020. Most of the women protesting at Shaheen Bagh were Muslim, long time residents of the area, and for many, it was the first time they had ever participated in such a public meeting. The rest is well recorded as a part of the history of Modern India.
It was a women-led movement, with the grandmothers of Shaheen Bagh at its heart, and Bilkis was one of the most popular ones. Because she would talk to everyone, and would not budge, even when the temperatures dropped to single digit readings on the thermometer.
On Tuesday, September 29, eminent women citizens, and various women’s groups came together to felicitate Bilkis, hailing her as a powerful global symbol of peaceful resistance. The women’s groups have also demanded that the Delhi Police stop maliciously targeting all equal citizenship protestors for the Delhi riots. “Even as we proudly acknowledge Bilkis Daadi, we are outraged at Delhi Police’s malicious investigation that has projected our peaceful movement for Equal Citizenship, against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) as some sinister conspiracy to cause the terrible Delhi riots,” stated the groups.
Bilkis was gifted a plant and a poster inspired by her image. It read ‘Shaheen Bagh ki Bilkis Dadi Ko Dilli Ki Auraton Ka Salaam‘ by Dr. Syeda Hameed, former member Planning Commission, Annie Raja of National Federation of Indian Women, Professor Poonam Batra, Journalist Bhasha Singh, filmmaker and women’s rights activist Vani Subramanian and Vertika Mani of the People’s Union for Civil Liberties.
The women representatives opined that Shaheen Bagh was the largest, most peaceful, women-led movement for democratic rights in Independent India. “We are proud that Muslim women led these protests, in the best traditions of our freedom struggle. Something resonated in the soul of India, which is why in over 200 places, women sat on our streets to be heard, and be visible as equal citizens,” they added.
Subramanian said, at the beginning of the press conference, “Bilkis didi for many days has inspired a lot of women, and we are thankful to her for that. We salute her for her courage. In the past few months, coronavirus has taken over but before that [during the anti-CAA protests], there was an environment of hope. Citizens wanted to fulfil their constitutional duties by making the country better. They openly said that they are not okay with inequality. The movement against CAA was a movement towards an equal citizenship.” She also said that internationally, the anti-CAA protests are still considered to be completely non-violent and that in any other country, Bilkis would have been felicitated by the state.
In a conversation with Bilkis, Hameed asked, “I am your neighbour. I live in Tikona Park, and you in Shaheen Bagh. Even though there is little distance between our houses, there is none between our hearts. But tell me, you are an elder, and usually the elderly don’t go out much. But what was it that kept you hooked to the protest site during such cold?”
Bilkis Bano said, “This country is ours. We love our children and respect our elders. For this love for the younger generation, we kept sitting there.” Hameed further asked her, “How do you feel about getting this recognition on the international level?” Bilkis said, “Our fight now first is with coronavirus. Then we will take forward our conversation on NRC and CAA. The students who have been incarcerated should be released. How will they get educated behind bars? My wish is that they study and reach great heights in their lives.” She also talked about the ongoing farmers’ agitation across the country, the cases of starvation and increasing rate of suicides.
Bilkis further asked, “If we don’t raise our voice, if we don’t come out of our houses, how will the government know that we have an issue?”
Hameed then added, “My organisation, Muslim Women’s Forum (MWF) formed in the year 2000, was made with the purpose to tell the world that Muslim women are strong and full of hope and strength, that they can play a big role in the future. You (Bilkis Bano) have carried forward the legacy of women like Bi Amma. You have proven that Muslim women are strong.” She also spoke about the several allegations levelled against anti-CAA protesters and said, “When women protest, people say all sorts of things like they are paid, and that they have hidden things in their burkhas. We as Muslim women will not accept this.”
She then quoted a couplet by Majaz,
Terey maathe pe ye aanchal toh bohot khoob hai lekin
Tu is sey parcham bana leti toh achcha tha…
She added, “We [Muslim women] will hold a flag in one hand, and also cover our heads. Bilkis Bano is an example of this.”
On this, Bano added, “Yes, [some] women want to stay at home, cook food, have kids and educate them.”
Annie Raja said that she would refrain from calling Bilkis Bano “dadi” [paternal grandmother] but instead would call her “comrade”. She said, “We are celebrating this international recognition of our comrade – and along with her, also the other women who participated in the non-violent anti-CAA protests in Shaheen Bagh. The belief that Muslim women don’t know anything is false. They have been part of our national freedom struggle and recently, they stood up to save the constitution when the country needed them. This passion should be celebrated.”
Talking about the recent arrests of anti-CAA protesters, she said, “The protests had been going on peacefully within the constitutional rights of people. But this is a fascist strategy to equate it with Delhi riots. I want to say to the Central government, stop criminalising peaceful protests by these women. We celebrate this recognition of Bilkis Bano but also condemn the Central government and the home ministry, which is using the Delhi Police to criminalise these women’s non-violent protests.”
Bhasha Singh, a journalist, said, “I would like to call her nani (maternal grandmother) instead of dadi. She is dadi, she is nani, she is an Indian woman, beyond the shackles of Hindu and Muslim. She is worried about students, farmers and the country as a whole. She doesn’t just want to save Muslims, but the whole country and its constitution. The country that is being divided by the divider in chief [referring to Narendra Modi] is being sewn together by Bilkis nani.” She also said that the media, including herself, has learnt a lot from Bilkis.
Poonam Batra, professor in the education department of Delhi University, said, “I feel lucky to be sitting next to Bilkis Bano, a symbol of the democracy in this country. Through these protests and Bilkis Bano, I have seen the immense amount of love for their country.” She also said that the real education was the one being imparted to children at the anti-CAA protest sites: about the constitution and their rights.
Bilkis Bano, in the end added, “We are with Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and all others. Keep hatred aside, promote peace and love.”
(This article is a combination of two articles on this press conference, one by Sabrangindia, and the other by The Wire; editing done by us.)
