In February 2020, when Muslim women were protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) on Morland Road in Nagpada, Nafisa Shabbir Moosa was a regular visitor at the protest site. Then 22 and a new graduate, she had believed in the power of protests. However, in the intervening years since, she is not so confident that protests deliver the expected results. With a high-paying job and a focused approach to a career, she says it is unlikely that she may ever be a part of the CAA-NRC protests again.
According to her, many of the younger ones who had been part of the protests back then will give it a very hard thought if such a situation arises again.
“No one supports anyone. So many of the women bore the brunt of that protest. Though the women had received a lot of support from the residents of Nagpada, Madanpura, and other places here, they will not come back again,” says Nafisa. She does not ascribe any reasons for this but the uncomfortable shifting of her eyes speaks volumes of the after-effects of participating in that protest.
Back then, the half-a-kilometre under-construction stretch of Morland Road had been occupied by women protestors, who had sat in support of those who were protesting at Shaheen Baug in Delhi. This stretch of Morland Road had been symbolically referred to as ‘Mumbai’s Shaheen Baug’. On January 26, 2020, at 10 pm, 15 women had stretched out a bedsheet on Morland Road and sat on it, signalling the start of the protest and went on to ignite a fire that saw hundreds of women occupying the road day and night focused on pressurising the Narendra Modi government to do away with CAA and stop the implementation of NRC.
The over 2,000 women who had protested back then did it in shifts according to the needs of their families. Back then, the protestors had themselves planned the timetable ensuring that the site always had at least 400-500 women at any point in time. The timetable had been worked around the water schedules in the area, the school hours of the children, cooking, and household responsibilities. Unlike the younger women who confess to being uncomfortable participating in future protests owning to their jobs, the older women have no such gumption. Those like Kamrunissa, who are bent with age, say they will be active participants.
“I participated in the protest in 2020, I will do so again. The government is after the Muslims and we have to be united,” says Kamarunissa.
Many residents of Nagpada, Agripada, Madanpura, and the other areas surrounding Morland Road say that they will participate in the protest again if such an eventuality took place. Then both sides of Morland Road were lined with shops selling a variety of goods. They continue to do so, but the then-under-construction Morland Road is now a bustling traffic square.
Since there is no threat of any protest in the present-day Morland Road area, there is no police presence too unlike in 2020 when the area was teeming with police personnel. The apartment blocks in the area which had a protestor from every house continue to stand as witness to the happenings back then — the difference being the indifference of the residents.
“We will think a hundred times now if there is a protest here. The police harassed us a lot back then. My son has not been able to get a passport as there is a complaint registered against him. There has been no gain from that protest,” says a resident of one of the buildings located at Morland Road.
Meher Ansari, a designer who had been a fixture at the protest site, has now relocated to another place. She has since married and now works with a known textile design house.
“I will have to choose between my job and a protest if there is any. I have a good job and am not willing to lose it. There are others who will participate but I will not,” says Mehar.
Then a medical student but now a junior doctor, Juberiya Shaikh says she will definitely be a willing participant. Juberiya says she will support any future protest as it is for the implementation of that article in the Constitution which grants equality to all.
“Wo todenge, hum jodenge (they will divide, but we will unite),” she says.
