Examining Anti-CAA Protests at Shaheen Bagh: Muslim Women and Politics of the Hindu India

Authors

  • Kiran Vinod Bhatia University of Wisconsin-Madison
  • Radhika Gajjala Bowling Green State University

Keywords:

Hindu body politic, anti-CAA protests, feminist methodology, fear and surveillance, Muslim women, Shaheen Bagh

Abstract

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by the parliament of India on December 11, 2019. Muslim women and many other people in India are contesting this act on the grounds that it provides citizenship status on a religious basis. Key enactments of dissent in relation to anti-CAA protests have become visible globally through the media. One is the very visible presence of a local community of Muslim and other women in the physical space of protests in Shaheen Bagh, Delhi. We draw from on-site interviews with Muslim women protestors at Shaheen Bagh to examine how Muslim women are using their physical bodies in protest sites to show dissent and to challenge the hypermasculine Hindu body politic of India. Based in our grounded analysis, we explore four main themes in this study: visibility of Muslim women in protest sites, using social media for international visibility, pushing against fear, and using care as a protest strategy.

Author Biographies

Kiran Vinod Bhatia, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Kiran Vinod Bhatia is a PhD candidate at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison. A critical-digital ethnographer by training, her scholarship largely explores the links between Social Networking Sites (SNS), digital affordances, and the enactment of politico-religious identities among young people in India.  With a regional research focus on South Asia, her published papers strive to unpack the rise of exclusive politics, disinformation, and ethnic nationalism in India.

Radhika Gajjala, Bowling Green State University

Radhika Gajjala (PhD, University of Pittsburgh, 1998) is a Professor of Media and Communication and of American Culture Studies at Bowling Green State University, USA.She has researched non-profit organizations and also engaged in community partnerships with biracial communities in the U.S. She has been Faculty Senate chair, interim Director of Women’s Studies and Director of American Culture studies programs in her years at BGSU. Her published work engages themes related to globalization, digital labor, feminism and social justice.

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Published

2020-11-28

Issue

Vol. 14 (2020)

Section

Articles

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