Reasoning Women's Protest against CAA

Taking a cue from Shaheen Bagh, a large number of nationwide protests have cropped up with women leading the anti-government stir. However, the claims of it being a spontaneous movement by the participants raises a few pertinent questions. The reasons behind the women’s anti-CAA push might be emotional, or a larger political engineering against the ruling BJP, opines Dr Anshuman Behera, an Associate Professor at NIAS, Bengaluru.

Hyderabad:The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), passed by the Parliament of India on December 11, 2019, has attracted discontent among some sections of the population. The discontent among the people has led to several protests in the country. The CAA fast tracks the process of granting citizenship to the religious minorities belonging to the Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians of three neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh migrated to India before December 31, 2014.

While the CAA makes it easier for non-Muslim immigrants from these three countries to acquire citizenship; it has maintained silence on granting citizenship to the Muslim immigrants. As the Muslim immigrants don’t find a place within the CAA, many are protesting the Act questioning the constitutional legitimacy and the intention of the ruling regime in passing the Act. The protests against the Act is mostly based on the fear factor that the CAA along with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) would eventually disenfranchise the Muslim community from their citizenship. The Government’s clarification on the no role of CAA on the Indian citizens has not been able to reduce the tension. For more than one month, since the Act was passed by the Parliament, protests in various forms and intensities have been going on against the Act. While the end objectives of the protests vary from Assam to New Delhi and from students to some social sections, the protest by the women in Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh has caught everyone’s attention.

Termed as a new kind of ‘Satyagraha’ with a fresh grammar of protest, the Shaheen Bagh protest has been going on against the CAA for more than one month now. Mostly participated by the women, the Shaheen Bagh protest has been a reference point of strong opposition to the Act. The popularity of the protest has attracted the Congress Party leaders like Shashi Tharoor, leaders from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the student communities, a social activist like Medha Patkar among others to address the gatherings.

Reports suggest that the attempts by the Delhi police to pacify the protesters have failed as the women have refused to move from the scene. While the opposition shows its solidarity with the protesters, the ruling BJP terms it like an organised move by the political opponents and alleges the protesters being paid. Claimed as a spontaneous movement by the participants, the incredible coordination among the women to the extent of a more than one-month protracted struggle raises few pertinent questions. These questions range from whether it is spontaneous or organised to the reason for large scale women’s participation in the protest. The answer to the first question lies in reasoning women’s participation against the CAA.

Read: Shashi Tharoor visits Jamia, Shaheen Bagh protest sites

The first reason for the women’s participation against the CAA could be emotional. As the optics play, women, children along others are seen to be protesting for more than a month. This sends out an emotional message linking a good deal of social legitimacy to the nature of the protest. In the past, the world has also witnessed protests led by women on several issues. The protests like the ‘The Equal Rights Amendment Marches’ in the 1970s-80s were organised by the women demanding equal rights across the United States. Similarly, the ‘Million Mom March’ led by the mothers in Washington in 2000 demanded stricter gun control rules so that their children can have better security. Back in India, the protests by the Manipuri women have had a critical impact on the state and society. As the women are at the forefront of the protest at Shaheen Bagh, it has been difficult for law enforcement agencies to resort to coercive measures to disperse the protestors.

A second important reason behind the women's participation in the protest at Shaheen Bagh could be larger political engineering against the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). As per the popular perception, BJP and the Muslims of India are ideologically opposed to each other. In a scenario where politics is being reduced to the electoral gains and losses, the support of the Muslims is important for the BJP. The introduction of the much-debated Triple Talaq Bill in 2017 in the Parliament and its subsequent enactment on July 30, 2019, is believed to have enabled the BJP in penetrating the Muslim community in terms of garnering support from the Muslim women.

The BJP, through the Triple Talaq Act, has been successful in portraying itself as pro-Muslim women. By putting mostly Muslim women on the front of the Shaheen Bagh protest, the opposition might be trying to dilute the brownie points that the BJP has been able to score through the Triple Talaq Act. As Shaheen Bagh led by Muslim women, we are also witnessing women movements replicating and showing solidarity with the former in places like Prayagraj. To this extent, the protest appears an organised one against the claim to be spontaneous.

However, organised or otherwise, the large-scale participation of women sends out important messages to the policymakers and the society as well. It necessarily highlights the critical role of women in actively participating in the process of decision making which they feel critical to their lives. More importantly, as the government of the day goes ahead with the Act, the Shaheen Bagh women’s protest will have critical implications on resistance to policies and on the social interactions as well.

Read: Lucknow's Shaheen Bagh: Protesters refuse to budge as police imposes Sec 144