The protests versus the Modi govt’s citizenship rules are throwing up illustrations or photos through which stereotypes are now being shattered. Maulanas and clerics will not be leaders in this article; in its place, youth and residential-makers are. These are not “Muslim” mobilisations as previously witnessed from Salman Rushdie, triple talaq or Taslima Nasrin. As a substitute, this new inclusive movement is one in which Bhim Army’s Chandrashekhar Azad — and never the Shahi Imam — has resolved crowds at Jama Masjid. Learners and citizens from all communities have joined in elevating the non-denominational slogan — azaadi.

Protesters make a vital argument: given the foundational constitutional principle of all religions getting equivalent before the legislation, India’s Parliament can not, in the 21st century, insert religious discrimination into any laws.

It’s a protest armed with nothing at all but the Preamble. Clothes usually do not subject; jeans, muslim fashion jackets and hijab co-exist. Importantly, the Women of all ages of Shaheen Bagh or program specialists in Bangalore or pupils of Jamia, have minor truck with old-type victimhood. Alternatively, theirs is actually a forceful declaration of equal citizenship by patriotic Indians.

At protest websites kids are lining up to possess their faces painted Along with the Tricolour, a little something Typically found through cricket matches or Independence Day. At Shaheen Bagh, there’s an installation of India Gate and huge India maps. Posters of flexibility heroes Gandhi, Bhagat Singh, Ambedkar and Maulana Azad are depicted standing with each other. Declaring all of them alongside one another — some thing common politicians don’t — is what makes the protest ideologically one of a kind.