Hundreds of students at Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) marched within the campus on Monday, December 16, commemorating the fifth anniversary of the state’s attack on students at one of India’s premier universities in New Delhi.
Anticipating protests on Sunday, the actual anniversary of the attack, the university administration preemptively announced the closure of all eateries, libraries, and even the main entry gates under the pretext of “maintenance work,” according to student organizations. They alleged that the decision came after they applied for permission to hold the march.
The administration deployed hundreds of security personnel and riot control vehicles inside the campus, creating an atmosphere of intimidation and evoking memories of the brutal repression five years ago. In response, some students organized an impromptu sit-in.
The following day, students defied the administration’s attempts to suppress them and continued with their march. They raised slogans against the central government’s policies discriminating against religious minorities and demanded accountability for the attacks on the campus on December 15, 2019.
Five years ago, dozens of students were injured, and university infrastructure, including libraries, was destroyed during the attack by security forces. Students faced brutal baton charges and were chased around the campus for peacefully opposing a discriminatory law pushed by the extreme-right Hindu supremacist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Some students also claimed at the time that they heard gunfire and saw others being forced out of the campus by the police, their hands raised.
The students were protesting the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC) when security forces attacked their march outside the campus. These attacks were carried out by forces directly controlled by the central government.
The two codes sparked widespread protests across India in 2019-20, including at major national universities, as many anticipated they would bring assaults on secularism and a threat to minority rights. The state responded with mass repression, leading to scores of deaths and hundreds of arrests during and after the protests.
The CAA, implemented earlier this year despite the protests, grants Indian citizenship to residents of Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan—except Muslims—who claim religious persecution. Protesters argued that the law violates India’s secular constitution. The government had planned to implement the CCA back-to-back with the NRC, which could jeopardize the citizenship of hundreds of thousands of religious minorities, particularly Muslims. However, the government has been unable to implement the NRC yet.
Oppression of religious minorities and democratic spaces
Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, Sanam Husain, unit secretary of the left-wing Student Federation of India (SFI), claimed the JMI administration was suppressing democratic spaces at the university, acting under the directives of the right-wing central government, which has curtailed all democratic spaces.
Sanam expressed concern that punitive actions would be taken against students who participated in Monday’s march, as has happened in the past, considering the intimidation against SFI leadership, including threats of suspensions and fines.
She questioned how such draconian measures against peaceful dissent are permitted in a democratic country. What kind of citizens and scholars will these students become, she asks, if they are constantly threatened and brutalized in the name of religion and community, only for exercising their critical thinking and right to dissent.
JMI is one of the universities in India with a majority of students from religious minority backgrounds. According to Sanam, this demographic profile makes the university a target under the BJP’s policies toward religious minorities and pushes the university to shut down its democratic spaces. She further notes that the treatment of JMI reflects the broader situation faced by Muslims in India under BJP rule and highlights the growing suppression of dissenting voices across the country.
