This story is from January 13, 2020

Collective resistance: How Jamia Millia Islamia became the new Jantar Mantar

There are many faces of resistance outside Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI): a makeshift library along the road, a small cell symbolising detention centres, an art corner where students make posters against the Citizenship Amendment Act, and a stage that hosts different artistes, writers and politicians every day.
Collective resistance: How Jamia Millia Islamia became the new Jantar Mantar
NEW DELHI: There are many faces of resistance outside Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI): a makeshift library along the road, a small cell symbolising detention centres, an art corner where students make posters against the Citizenship Amendment Act, and a stage that hosts different artistes, writers and politicians every day.
Most recently, it was Man Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy. Earlier, actors Zeeshan Ayyub and Swara Bhasker, activist Harsh Mander, lyricist Hussain Haidry and academic Zoya Hasan have taken to the same stage to express solidarity with the students.
The students’ protest at JMI began on December 12, the day CAA was passed in the Rajya Sabha.
But it was only on December 15 that the university began to be identified as the centrestage against the new law. Delhi Police forcibly entered JMI, its library and washrooms, catapulting the university to national limelight. Several students were injured, including one who lost vision in one of his eyes.
“Jamia is the new Jantar Mantar,” said a girl who was sitting on a hunger strike outside Gate No. 3 of the university. Kumail Fatima, a second-year law student, was one of the five people who have been on “relay hunger” strike for the past nine days. The students fast for seven hours and, then, someone else takes their place.
“We have derived our idea of non-violence from Mahatma Gandhi. This is a civil disobedience movement against divisive forces. It’s a fight for the Constitution, which ensures equal treatment for everyone notwithstanding their religion, caste or class,” she said. Fatima added that CAA would be an “assault on the secular values enshrined in the Constitution”.
JMI, which does not have a students’ union, has, however, formed a
Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC) to organise the protests. JCC now has several departments, including crowd, traffic, media and stage management. “The students felt the need to organise themselves to make sure everything functions smoothly. We have nearly 100 members right now who serve as decision makers, but it will only grow. We also have a steady inflow of volunteers who work round the clock,” said Arbaz Mevati, a polytechnic student.
The university, which reopened on January 6, is also trying to return to normalcy. “A lot of our exams were postponed. Some students even boycotted their papers. But our appeal to the students is to ensure that we continue the protests without jeopardising our futures. This may be a long fight, but we are prepared. We won’t back down until CAA is repealed,” said Mevati.
Even as students try to return to their daily lives, reminders of police brutality still haunt the campus. The walls of the university speak the language of resistance. They have been covered in graffiti by students to represent the right to dissent and the rise of “authoritarianism”. A open photo-exhibition called “Hum Dekhenge” and curated by Md Maharban, depicts scenes from December 15 — smoke from teargas shells, broken glasses and injured students. “This is a small effort to showcase how the events unfolded in reality,” reads the description of the exhibition.
“Pictures don’t lie. What happened at the university that day was an intimidation tactic. But we won’t back down,” said Maharban, a student of the Mass Communication Research Centre at the university, who is also one of the contributing photographers.
One of the most striking features of the Jamia protest installation is a prison made of wood. It’s meant to remind people of the fate of those in Assam, who were declared foreigners and, then, shifted to detention centres. Another quiet revolution outside Gate No. 7 is a street library, called “Read for Revolution”. JCC has put up a poster announcing its purpose. “Dear reader, On December 15, 2019, Zakir Hussain Library was vandalised. However, this could not deter the spirits of students for education...” it reads.
Gaurab Roy Dasgupta, a reader who comes to the library every day, told TOI that he was there because “protest and dissent are the state of my mind right now”. He added: “We are told that students should only study. But the purpose of education is awareness. We are not here only for Jamia. We are fighting for the country, we are raising our voice so that this does not happen to any other university,” he said.
The residents of Jamia Nagar have also lent their support to the student movement. Several locals reach the university early in the morning to distribute free water, tea and snacks to the agitating students. Shiraz, who owns a business in Batla House, told TOI that he and his friends came to Jamia Millia Islamia to show their support after the students shook the “nation’s conscience”.
The determination of the students has baffled many and inspired some, who turn up at Okhla to lend their support. But one thing has emerged strongly. As Fatima put it, Jamia truly has become an alternate Jantar Mantar, a voice of dissent, and an example non-violent struggle.
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