As protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act continue at Lucknow's iconic Clock Tower in Hussainabad, a newer, smaller protest site has emerged in a village in the capital of Uttar Pradesh.
The protest at Ujariyaon village started five days after women assembled at the Hussainabad Clock Tower.
On Tuesday night, a group of some 50 women and children linger over a raised platform on which stands the mausoleum of Hazrat Rukman Shaheed. “This is a place one visits before setting off on hajj. What better place than this to start the fight for our rights,” asks one young woman who is at the site with her two children.
The protest at Ujariyaon first started on late Monday afternoon with just four women. Within a couple of hours, many more had joined in.
“At 1.30 in the night, the police came and took away our tent. They doused our bonfires. We tried to explain to them that this was not a fight for Muslims, but a fight for every Indian. We are fighting, so that your children don't have to stand in the same line that we will have to when asked to prove our citizenship,” says a protester.
Another protester says the police took photos of their covered faces and threatened that they would be identified from their eyes. Yet another says that the police pulled away mats on which 18 women, who had mounted a vigil on Monday night, were seated.
None of the protesters are willing to be named. No one is willing to share a phone number.
As the women gather around me, a man joins the group. After listening for a while, he says that he is an inspector of the local intelligence unit. He asks whether the women have any petition they would like to give the government. He asks for names and phone numbers. A chorus of “no” goes up.
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There are four female police constables at the site. One of them says that she had just returned from leave when she was asked to report here. “We were initially told it was a four-hour duty. Now, we have to be here all night. Protest is their right. But why must they protest here where no one can see them?” the constable asks.
An elderly woman who has been at the site since Monday says, “We do not want to create any disturbance. We don’t want to be in the way of traffic. We just want to save what is rightfully ours.”
On a parting note, another says that the group is looking with hope at the Supreme Court, which will listen to petitions against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act on Wednesday. “We still have faith,” she says.
