Hum Dekhenge: From CAA Protests to Riots, Photo Essay Recalls A Delhi in Turmoil

Powerful photographs tell the story of three months that shook the capital, from December 2019 to February 2020.

In December 2019, the passing of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act sparked off massive protests across the country, with the fountainhead of the agitation being a women-led sit-in protest at Shaheen Bagh, in the heart of the national capital.

Over the three months that followed, Delhi was in deep and almost constant turmoil. From violence at universities like Jamia Millia Islamia and JNU, to the state's efforts to clamp down on the burgeoning protests, from Hindutva extremists opening fire outside protest sites, to the riots that scourged northeast Delhi in February 2020, those were three months that shook the capital.

'Hum Dekhenge', a recently published photobook by research scholar Aasif Mujtaba and photojournalist Md Meharban, documents that troubled period in graphic detail. The following is a selection of pictures from the book, accompanied by excerpts written by Md Meharban.

The Truth - Through Our Lens

Born in December 2019 in the corridors of a vilified university and sustained by the streets of an infamous ghetto in Delhi, the anti-CAA movement was the strongest opposition faced by Narendra Modi and his government since coming to power in May 2014.

Photographs, Attacks and Nightmares

I have personally endured violence during the protests. My camera was confiscated and stomped at by the Delhi Police, who wished to get rid of the footage proving their indiscriminate use of force against unarmed children behind the parked cars in Daryaganj, Delhi.

I've been violently charged at and manhandled, leaving me with nightmares for months to come. What I went through pales in comparison with the ordeal of the people of northeast Delhi during and in the aftermath of the Delhi Pogrom of 2020.

The Power of Pictures

I've always believed that photos are powerful. They capture and express the emotions and have the power to move us. That's why in mid-February 2020, I put up an exhibition of the photos I had taken of the CAA protests at Gate No. 11 of Jamia Millia Islamia.

People would come to the exhibition each day and make videos of my exhibition. One morning, while I was sitting under the metro pillar at the university. I saw three burqa-clad women standing in front of my exhibition. Suddenly, they crossed the rope I had placed in front of it, fell on their knees and started sobbing. I got up and rushed to them. I heard one of the woman saying, "Humein pata nahi tha itni berehmi se baccho ko maara tha (I didn't know our children were beaten this mercilessly)."

At that moment, I realised the impact my photos from that time could have on people's understanding of that powerful movement. That's the story of the conception of this photo book.

We Will Remember, We Must Remember

Hum Dekhenge is an attempt to dig beneath the lies and propaganda to present key events from the anti-CAA movement and the Delhi pogrom. The idea was to preserve the memory of pain, suffering, resistance, hopelessness, solidarity, joy, anger and other emotions people went through from 12 December 2019 to 23 March 2020.

Hum Dekhenge is a manifestation of the promise made by every oppressed to the oppressor - a promise to not forget. It is a testament to the enduring power of truth and a hope for the deliverance of that timeless justice assured to all people in all ages.