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Students unite, stand by Delhi’s Jamia
Unprecedented violent clashes at two Muslim-majority campuses, JMI and Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), on Sunday evening galvanised the student community from premier institutions – including top state and central universities, national law schools, IITs, IIMs and the Indian Institute of Science.
A wave of protests swept college and university campuses across India on Monday as thousands of students from Mumbai to Guwahati and Chandigarh to Kerala, came together against alleged police violence in Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) the previous day.
Unprecedented violent clashes at two Muslim-majority campuses, JMI and Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), on Sunday evening galvanised the student community from premier institutions – including top state and central universities, national law schools, IITs, IIMs and the Indian Institute of Science.
They shouted slogans against the government, held placards, issued statements of support and organised rallies to oppose the recently enacted Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA, which favours non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on the grounds that they are “persecuted minorities” in those countries.
“We have held the protest to condemn the brutal attack on students inside the JMI campus. We are also opposed to the CAA and NRC (National Register of Citizens) as it is unconstitutional and discriminatory,” said Nitin Anand, a student of Loyola College in Chennai.
“It is not a one-off protest but a continuous battle against the barbaric attack and violence by the police and the government,” said Jadupati Nag, a student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
As student anger simmered, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for calm and said no Indian citizen would be affected by the CAA.”This is the time to maintain peace, unity and brotherhood. It is my appeal to everyone to stay away from any sort of rumour mongering and falsehoods,” he added.
The alleged police brutality on Sunday evening left many students at JMI and AMU injured or hospitalised. The campuses resembled a war zone with police fighting pitched battles with protesters and firing tear gas shells. A midnight gathering at the Delhi Police headquarters in the heart of the Capital only dispersed around 5am on Monday after all students were released from police custody.
JMI chief proctor Waseem Ahmed Khan has said the police entered the university by force and thrashed staff members and students.
Students also said that police barged into the library beat up pupils, dragging them out. Students could be seen coming out of the university campus with their hands raised even as mobs set fire to buses and vandalised public property.
Police have denied all reports of assault and claimed that they did not enter the library buildings and assault students. Delhi Police spokesperson Mandeep Singh Randhawa said, “Our personnel entered the campus while chasing the violent protestors who were pelting stones, tube lights, bulbs, bottles on them, to push them back and contain the situation. No police personnel went inside the library or vandalised it. Tear gas shells may have gone inside the library since it was close to the places from where they were being fired.”
At JMI, a group of students demonstrated shirtless on a cold winter morning to protest the police action. Hundreds more gathered on the streets with some students forming a human chain to manage traffic. Many others returned to the spot of violence to protest for over eight hours — all the while ensuring that the protests did not spiral into violence. All through the day, the police kept a distance.
“I could not even eat my food sitting at home thinking about Sunday’s violence. At least three of my friends suffered head injuries,” said Areeba Ziya, an undergraduate student who was a part of Monday’s protests. “How can I sit back and do nothing?”
This was the latest round in a series of clashes that have roiled India, especially the north-eastern states, over CAA, which grants citizenship to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis and Jains who entered the country before December 31, 2014. The protesters say the law is unconstitutional because it links faith to citizenship and discriminatory because it omits Islam.
“CAA and NRC are aimed at dividing the country on religious lines, as they discriminate against Muslims. They are against the principles of Indian Constitution,” says Shaik Umar Faruq Quadri, students’ union president of the Hyderabad-based Maulana Azad National Urdu University.
In the evening, students from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi University and JMI organised a massive demonstration at India Gate in Delhi, where the preamble of the Constitution was read out with a pledge to uphold the secular traditions of the country. Similar rallies were organised at other cities and campuses in different parts of the country.
The protests forced authorities to postpone some semester examinations in Maulana Azad National University, Hyderabad, Delhi University, Allahabad University and Banaras Hindu University.
At the Darul-uloom Nadwatul Ulema, also called Nadwa College, in Lucknow, students allegedly pelted stones at the police when they were denied permission to protest outside the college campus. “Some students of the Nadwatul Ulama here tried to protest and hurled stones from inside. They were prevented and no one is allowed to come outside the campus,” said Uttar Pradesh director general of police O P Singh.
Many other institutions, including Nadwa College and Lucknow’s Integral University, authorities announced winter vacations early.
AMU decided to close the university till the end of winter vacation on January 5 after Sunday’s protest where at least 60 students were injured, said AMU public relations officer Shafey Kidwai Singh said that directions had been issued to vacate the AMU campus as a precautionary measure.
Several Delhi University students boycotted semester examination and held a protest outside the Arts Faculty in north Delhi. “Whatever happened in Jamia on Sunday is highly condemnable. We decided to boycott the exam on Monday and requested other students join us. Many students joined us in our peaceful protest,” said Vikas, a first year MA Political Science student.
Protests were also reported from Banaras Hindu University (BHU) in Varanasi, Jadavpur University and Calcutta University in Kolkata, Mumbai University with demands that the government take action against police “hooliganism”.
“There is a lot of discontent among students. Student organisations from across all institutes are coming together to express our dissent,” said Sachin Bansode, a student of Mumbai University.
Students from three IITs in Kanpur, Madras and Bombay joined in too as did their counterparts from the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bengaluru. Students from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Mumbai also protested on the streets. Protests were organised outside IIM Ahmedabad and a statement was issued by IIM Bangalore students.
“We call upon you to not trample the democratic rights of citizens to peacefully protest an unjust law,” said the statement issued on behalf of 170 faculty members and students.
Students boycotted classes at Central University of Kerala, Kasargod, Maulana Azad Urdu University, Hyderabad, Pondicherry University and BHU leading to cancellation of all examinations on Monday.
Students in educational institutions in Tamil Nadu and Puducherry also raised the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils being excluded from the ambit of CAA and held rallies to at various places including Puducherry, Madras University, Loyola College and IIT Madras. Demonstrations were taken out in Coimbatore and Madurai. “We reject the Islamophobic NRC unconditionally and call upon all students, youth and people living in this country to take to the streets and democratically protest,” said a statement by some students at IIT-Madras.
