#caa protests

The supreme court blinked; Prashant Bhushan does not have to apologise, go to jail, or lose his license for tweets critical of the Modi govt and calling out an SC judge for riding a BJP member’s Harley Davidson. He has to pay a token Re. 1 fine

The Allahabad high court ordered the release of Dr. Kafeel Khan, a hero who saved many lives in the 2017 UP tragedy when oxygen supply to the BRD Medical College was cut. UP Police arrested him for a speech he gave to students of Aligarh Muslim University for supposedly inciting violence when he was really talking about the communal nature of the NRC exercise and how Indian muslims should band together and resist attempts that pit them against their Hindu brethren. He has been detained for 9 months, missing more than half of his new baby boy’s life in jail 

Another victim of enthusiastic Home ministry crackdowns during this pandemic (when better to arrest civil rights activists than a time where social distancing prevents protesting!!!), Devangana Kalita, member of the feminist student organisation Pinjra Tod, was finally granted bail. She, along with fellow Pinjra Tod activist and student Natasha Narwhal, have been holed up in Tihar jail for the past 90 days on the flimsiest of charges. When questioned by the court, the police literally couldn’t produce the evidence that was the basis for the arrest. This is a continuation of the attempts to paint aggression on JNU campus as having been masterminded by left wing student outfits instead of the right wing student outfit ABVP, and erase the enormous trauma and literal physical harm suffered by these students, absolutely perverse and sick 

The Assamese Language/ অসমীয়া ভাষা

(Part 1)

Endonym: অসমীয়া (ôxomiyā)

Language family: Indo-European>Indo-Aryan>Eastern>Bengali-Assamese>Kamarupi>Assamese

Writing script: Assamese-Bengali script (Eastern Nagari)

Sister languages: Angika, Bengali, Bishnupriya Manipuri, Chakma, Hajong, Maithili, Sylheti*

*language, not the Sylheti-Bengali dialect, it's time we recognize it.

Total number of speakers: 15 million (approx.)

Why we Bengali speakers or Bengali culture enthusiasts should bother to know about this language?

Because Assamese and Bengali are closely related languages. They use the same writing script with some differences in the pronunciation and letter. Assam lies to the north-east of the Bengal region and hence there has been a lot of cultural exchange between the ethnic groups of the two regions over the centuries. Thus knowing more about Assamese/Axomiya culture can tell us a lot about Bengali culture as well. Knowing related languages can help us get a better understanding of our target language. And it's fun too!!

Some things I want to address...

(WARNING: Please do not continue reading if you can't digest views n opinions :) )

Also, owing to the current problem with Bangladeshi refugees, there's been some ongoing strife between the two communities. My wish is to end any form of resentment that the Assamese community might have against the Bengali speakers or vice versa. I, as a Bengali, am sorry for any kind of discomfort that my community might have caused. But some misconceptions must be cleared too, without getting political about it.

It is important to understand that Assam being a multiethnic state for quite a lot time, has many communities native to it. Some Bengalis too are native to Assam, particularly from Barak Valley and thus it would be wrong to consider all Bengalis as 'foreign'. I personally have had many Assamese Bengali acquaintances. They consider themselves as Bengalis and speak the language too, and at same time they are proud of their state, Assam and love to identify with it.

Secondly, not all Bengalis are Bangladeshi immigrants and not all Bangladeshi immigrants are Bengali. Also, not all Bengalis from Bangladesh or from other Indian states are illegal immigrants. Many of them are legal Indian citizens with their native lands maybe in West Bengal or Tripura who might have come to Assam due to work related reasons. They have no wish to take over the land of the natives.

The protest are against the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and the fear is that if these people are given citizenship they might grab the lands of the natives and form a majority. It is a fair concern and support the Assamese community in their wish to prevent such disaster from happening. But the rage and effort must be put in the right direction. Please do not target the all Bengalis, most of them have nothing to do with it.

I am a native of West Bengal and a lot of us too do not want immigrants settling in our already overpopulated state. Our native youngsters will lose jobs and the native West Bengali culture too will be affected by this influx of refugees. I also understand the GoI's wish to accommodate the persecuted minorities but... surely this isn't the best way, is it?

I believe that knowing more about each other's language and culture and reinforcing the mutual respect that we had can help bring peace and cultural prosperity.

And another reason to love each other's culture... We all loved Bhupen da didn't we?

জয় আই অসম! জয় বাংলা! জয় হিন্দ!

Jôy āi Axom! Jôy Bāṅglā! Jôy Hind!🇮🇳

okay, i want to talk about something important. let me start off with the fact that i'm not an American and i live in India. so basically, i am asian, brown and also a Muslim.

this in no means is saying that i do not support BLM, i do, i support the protesters and their cause. yes, i signed all the petitions.

i want to use this as a platform to talk about a similar thing that happened in India during November, 2019 - March, 2020, when lakhs of people took to the streets of India (all over the country) to protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) being passed by the government. according to which, the government will be discriminating us based on our religion and strip people off their citizenship. yes, you heard that right. so we took to the streets to protest and the police brutality was through the roof. not only did they beat up civilians on the roads but also raided national level universities to beat up the students for protesting against the government. we live in a democracy, it is well within our democratic rights to raise questions and protest. the government is directly responsible to us, the prime minister's office. (its in our constitution, the president is not answerable to the people but the PM is.)

i study law at Aligarh Muslim University (AMU). on the night of 15th December, 2019, police forcefully entered our main gates (they've no jurisdiction inside the gate btw) and beat up students protesting peacefully on the road. 24 consecutive expired poisonous tear gas shells which maimed a student, lathicharge (beating with the police batons), shot with rubber bullets, you name it we went through it. they raided the hostels, and beat up the kids who weren't even part of the protest. they kept hurling abuses at the students and also kept saying "jo log kashmiri hai, un madarchodo ko maro pehle" (the people who look like kashmiri, beat up those mfs first). yes, that's verbatim btw, i'm not exaggerating.

i can go on and on about that night really, so instead you can read what happened in AMU here. i also have the original investigation report by the committee that is mentioned on that site. 

other universities faced similar and worse atrocities. you can read how brutally Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) students were beaten up, here and how local goons who feel that Hinduism is threatened but the presence of Muslims in the country entered another national university, Jawaharlal Nehru University and beat the students up with metal rods, you can read about it here.

and yes, none of the perpetrators of these attacks are arrested. even if they were, they are out on bail now.

we boycotted classes for months but got ZERO justice, instead, now under the guise of lockdown, the government has been arresting the leaders of the protests. lmao, you know the first the government did when lockdown started? they cleaned the graffiti off the walls of the universities which the protesters had made. they cleaned off fucking graffiti which were just quotes by historical figures in the spirits of dissent while the doctors kept begging them for PPE. the government clearly have their priorities set straight. 

the women of the country took to shaheen bagh (Delhi) when the students were attacked and sat there in protest for 101 days. even in cold temperatures of below 1°C. mums with their one month old babies sat there, old ladies as old as 80+ sat there too. literate, illiterate both the groups of people sat there and they meant to sit there indefinitely but because of lockdown that wasn't possible and they had to vacate the place. oh, even they were attacked (more than once) by a guy carrying a gun who was ready to shoot at the protesters while the police WATCHED. they fucking stood there and watched. a guy advanced towards the attacker with his hands raised saying “let’s talk calmly” and that fucking privileged jackass shot the protester in the hand. all the while, the police just watched. you can read about it here. (he said "only Hindus will have their way in this country.")

a 4 months pregnant PhD student of Jawaharlal National University has been jailed without any justification. her case is still not being heard before the court and she's being denied basic human rights, living in a prison during a fucking pandemic. an excerpt from the Print, "Zargar, a 27-year-old M.Phil. student from Jamia, is over three months pregnant, and was arrested by the Delhi Police’s special cell on 10 April. She was later denied bail and, on 21 April, charged under the stringent Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA). She was associated with the Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), and was part of the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests organised by university students in December and January. She was arrested for allegedly leading the anti-CAA protest at Jaffrabad metro station in February."

this is nothing, most of the Muslim people arrested during this protest haven't been released or are simply forgotten. lawyers were not allowed in the police station to bail them or being allowed to talk to them. most lawyers in the country signed up their numbers and other contacting details on the Internet with their locations so that if someone was arrested, they could call them up and the lawyers would bail them out (free of cost).

this discriminating and draconian bill not only affects the muslims but also the people on the lower rungs of the social ladder. i don't believe in caste. i do not agree with the system but it existed widely at a time when i wasn't even born, so there's not much i can do about that. but right now the government is bringing up the caste again, people who are Vaishyas and Shudras will also be stripped off their citizenship while being sent to detention camps. yes, India is already stocked up with their detention centers. so yes, i wasn't there at that time but i am here right now and i refuse to be okay with the government discriminating against us based on caste and religion.

lmao i totally forgot to mention the riot that broke out in February, 2020 which resulted in a recorded deaths (murder) of 53 civilians (mostly Muslims). that's the recorded death count but according to various people who were present in Delhi at the time and witnessed the riots happening, they claim the missing persons report (unreported) is in thousands. and over hundreds were killed. you can read more about the February 2020 Delhi Riots here.

there's so many more incidents that happened, and all the government has done is: NOTHING.

our current PM is the prime suspect of the Gujrat Riots 2002, which was a pogram led by him and it killed over thousands of muslims who lived in gujrat.  

i didn't write this here to ask you for help, no, instead i want you guys to read this and remember this. don't forget our voices, because we're all together in this fight and the others to come. forgive but please don't forget.

Liberty of thought, freedom of expression and dissent are all bring quashed in India. University campuses are being turned into war zones and educated masses of the country are silent spectators as the RSS fundamentalists wreak havoc. Please talk about this.

Please talk about state sponsored violence in Uttar Pradesh, the rape and torture of orphan Muslim kids at the hands of the police, of destruction of private property by the same force that exists to maintain law and order.

If you live in Berlin, have friends in Berlin, or know someone who knows someone who lives in Berlin, please share this.

There is a demonstration against the CAA happening this coming Saturday (Dec 21, 2019).

At least three separate investigations into the 2020 Delhi Riots seek to establish exactly what transpired at the Jafrabad metro station in the last few days of February.

These investigations are the reason that political activist Umar Khalid and university students such as Safoora Zargar of Jamia Millia Islamia, Devangana Kalita and Natasha Narwal of Jawaharlal Nehru University, and a recent MBA graduate Gulfisha Fatima are in prison.

This metro station is also a short walk from the spot where Kapil Mishra of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) gave his now infamous speech on 23 February at Maujpur Metro Station, hours before the violence started, giving the Delhi Police three days to disperse protestors opposed to his government. “After that we will not listen to you,” he said in the presence of a senior policeman.

The video evidence was deemed so important that activists moved the Delhi High Court as early as 25 February 25, when the riots were still in progress, to request all surveillance footage and electronic evidence be preserved.

Five months later, on 26 July, an additional sessions judge of a district court at a bail hearing was pushed to harshly criticise the police’s “inscrutable indolence” in gathering the CCTV footage.

Defence lawyers argued that the footage was essential to exonerate their clients.

Yet a reading of the chargesheet in Khalid’s case shows the Delhi Police, inexplicably, waited for five months before writing to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation on 30 July 2020 to preserve the video footage captured by the surveillance cameras installed at the Jafrabad Metro Station and the Maujpur Metro station, 1.5 kilometers apart from each other.