Anti CAA protests: Strangers bear witness to acts of kindness

Visitors to protest sites in Delhi and Mumbai share their experiences of love, food and solidarity

NEW DELHI,26/01/2020: Protest against CAB,CAA and NRC during Republic Day at Shaheen Bagh , in New Delhi on Sunday . Photo:Sushil Kumar Verma / The Hindu

Food, in fact, as we all realise can either unite or divide societies; the choice is ours. At the anti CAA protest sites, perhaps for the first time in the history of a country ridden with deep faultlines of language, class, caste, religion, gender and more, food is emerging as a symbol bridging these.

In spontaneous gestures of hospitality, which perhaps come instinctively to most Indians, food is pressed upon any one even casually visiting epicentres of political protest like Shaheen Bagh. “You must eat and go,” is a common refrain that is generously handed out even by the poor, with much to lose. When the protests first started, reports cited chaiwallas or cab drivers in Delhi offering free tea or parantha-subzi rolls packed from their homes as succour to protesters against the bitter cold.

In Mumbai, those who had gathered in solidarity reported juice, ice cream or snacks being passed around to random strangers. “One day, we were just standing around, and someone got out of their car and started distributing biscuits and sandwiches to everyone, without saying a word. These were similar to other spontaneous gestures of help — one day, as it started raining heavily, people came forward to fix a tarpaulin, and then found ways to drain the water off it, to shelter the protesting women,” points out photographer Tehreem Fatima, whose work took her to different protest sites. While it is the big gestures that have grabbed eye balls—biryani being cooked and distributed en masse or Sikh farmers cooking langar at Shaheen Bagh, there have been hundreds of smaller gestures made almost as a routine, those visiting the protest sites say.

Pranav Sawhney, a marketing executive who has been to several protests, analyses: “It is a very Indian thing to show concern through food — when people distribute home-cooked food or donate milk, sugar and tea, it is functional and practical. It is not as if people are consciously sitting down to share a community meal, these are instinctive gestures of kindness and hospitality which point to a spirit of solidarity which has emerged at these protests.” When Abhilasha Ojha, art curator and writer, decided to spend New Year’s eve at Shaheen Bagh along with her husband, the couple took, biscuits and candy to distribute. “Ab khali haath kya jaayen (why go empty handed) we thought,” she says, adding, “Every one who came to the area brought something to shar e.”

Foodis being cooked in makeshift community kitchens too, run on donations. But this is shared with everyone regardless of religion, caste or creed. It is also a mistake to stereotype the kind of food available at the protest sites. While Moradabadi biryani hawkers may have set up stalls to cater their spicy fare to what seems to be emerging as “protest tourism” — visitors, including travellers from other cities coming to get a dekko of what exactly is happening — biryani is hardly the only eat available.

“One day, I was with friends and we were all tired and hungry, it had got dark,” says Fatima, “The women of the area urged us to eat and go. They made us sit on a takht (wooden bed/bench) and served us piping hot puris, aloo (potatoes) and kadduki sabzi (pumpkin) in thalis,” she recalls. In fact, this is the syncretic street food of Delhi, prepared by halwais, and eaten as much by guests at weddings as the common man on the street looking for an inexpensive satiating meal, made with common and “humble” ingredients.