On a freezing December evening in Delhi, I followed my friends towards the Shaheen Bagh neighbourhood with little idea of what I was getting into. A sit-down protest in the area had been going on for 10 days. We were descending the steps of Jasola bridge, exchanging remarks about the murky Yamuna canal, when I caught sight below of a large blue tent flapping in the wind.
As we got closer, I saw hundreds of women under the tarpaulins: young mothers holding babies wrapped in dupattas (shawls), sitting cross-legged on the ground; frail grandmothers under piles of colourful duvets. Other women were handing out cups of hot chai and making space for newcomers. The men, presumably husbands and sons, stood on the periphery, creating a barricade with their bodies. As I sat down, huddled between women I had never met before, I felt engulfed by a warmth even the winter chill couldn’t penetrate.
The protest in south Delhi began on December 15 2019 after parliament passed two bills, introduced by prime minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, that critics argued would have a disproportionately negative impact on India’s Muslim population.