Abstract
In 2019, the Indian government enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and announced plans to establish a National Register of Citizens (NRC), which made religion a criterion for citizenship and excluded Muslims. The CAA and NRC have the potential to render Indian Muslims stateless and devoid of political relevance, reminiscent to the Anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws of 1935. Thus, over two hundred million Indian Muslim have been reduced to the subject of contested patriotism, identity and belonging.
These segregating and Islamophobic law caused widespread concern among minority communities, leading to a national discourse on citizenship and belonging. In response, Muslim women of Shaheen Bagh in the southeast district of Delhi organised a peaceful sit-in protest, calling for the repeal of the discriminatory law. Led by working-class Muslim women, Shaheen Bagh movement became a symbol of dissent and a testament to secular nationhood and democratic values.
Through my photographic presentation of the leaderless Shaheen Bagh movement, I aim to illustrate how these predominantly Muslim women assert their identity, patriotism and belonging in the public sphere. These images of Shaheen Bagh could be read as the representative of secular nationhood and democratic values which has taken a permanent place in India’s contemporary political landscape, cultural and social memory of dissent.
Despite facing frequent vilification, organized attacks, and a major communal riot in the capital, the hundred-day protest in Shaheen Bagh served as a defense of the constitution and a bridge between secular and liberal democracy in the face of rising majoritarian democracy.
The Shaheen Bagh model inspired similar protests across India and around the world, as Muslim women mobilized for the first time in independent India to reclaim their place in the public sphere and participate in national politics. Through their actions, these women not only cemented their voice in the national politics but also challenged societal and political stereotypes within the patriarchal structure of Indian society.
Bio
Javed Sultan (he/his) is a Photographer and currently a Ph.D. student in Photographic History Research Centre at De Montfort University, Leicester funded by Middlands4Cities, AHRC. His research focuses on the mid-twentieth century news photography, democratisation, and visual culture in independent India. Javed received several photography awards, and his photographic work has been featured and exhibited globally including Victoria & Albert Museum, Sharjah Art Foundation, Goethe-Institute,
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