History of Shaheen Bagh, Delhi

Shaheen Bagh area in Delhi is now becoming synonymous with Muslims’ unhappiness in India and opposition political parties are putting up a show of strength there not seen in the recent past.  But what is the deal about Shaheen Bagh? Well, for starters, this area is nearly 100% occupied by Muslims. How did that happen? Let us go a bit about its history (based on Hindustan Times article).  

History of Shaheen Bagh

Shariq Ansarullah, now 61 years old, had come to Delhi from Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur to study at Jamia Millia Islamia in 1979. After completing his graduation, he joined MA in Arabic at the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) in 1982. After completing his studies in 1984, he started a real estate business. In the same year, with the help of his family, he bought a large plot of land (80 bigha) in Jasola village and developed this colony on the land.

Today, Ansarullah runs two schools known as Shaheen Public Schools — one for girls and another for boys - in the same neighbourhood.

Before Shariq Ansarullah there was another family that was developing residential neighbourhoods in this area. They named the colony developed on their plot as Nishat Bagh. And later Ansarullah named his colony as Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen Bagh and Nishat Bagh both have come up on agricultural land.

In May 1992, the RWA (Resident welfare association) decided to register the neighbourhood as a society with the DDA. They passed a resolution to name it after Abul Fazl Enclave that was already there. But keeping in mind the popularity of the name Shaheen Bagh, they mentioned it as ‘Abul Fazl Enclave Part -2 (Shaheen Bagh)’ in the papers. The name Shaheen Bagh had become so popular that even after registering as Abul Fazl Enclave Part-2, no one called the colony with that name.

Shaheen is a Common Muslim Name of Persian Origin

Shaheen is a very common name among Muslims. The word "Shaheen" or "Shahin" is of Persian origin, meaning "royal white falcon" or simply "worthy of a king", "majestic" or "kingly". This name is widespread in Iran and throughout the Indian subcontinent among Muslims.

Key takeaways:

·        Since the person buying large plot of land in this area was a Muslim, he would have sold small plots of land to fellow Muslims. As normally happens, people from other religions leave the Muslim dominated areas after selling out their houses. And hence this whole area grew up as a 100% Muslim occupied area.

·        Even though media is showing the ongoing Shaheen Bagh protests as some kind of “civil unrest”, this picture is totally wrong. 100% of protesters are Muslims and most are women (since men have to go to work, they can’t protest for weeks/months at stretch).

·        The Shaheen Bagh protesters are mostly uneducated and illiterate. When television news channels ask them what is wrong in CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), they are seen speaking miscellaneous things in gibberish and it is clear that they do not understand a thing about CAA.

·        The protesters are not allowing even school buses and ambulances to pass through the area; thereby forcing them to take much longer routes. The Shaheen Bagh protests are the ugly side of what happens when uneducated people following outdated leaders gather forces against a government.

Why Support Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA)

CAA was passed by India’s Parliament to protect the minority population from neighboring Muslim countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan), after many years of human rights violations, abductions, rapes, forced marriages and forced religious conversions against those minorities. Naturally, minorities in Muslim countries would mean Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains or Christians. Thereby Indian government specifically allowed only non-Islamic people to be protected and given Indian citizenship under this act (while Muslims can still apply for Indian citizenship through normal existing route). Opposition parties which are on the backfoot for long time have misguided Indian Muslims into believing as if this new law is some kind of unfair treatment to them. While the truth is that CAA is not even applicable to any Indian, be it Muslims or others. CAA applies only to those foreign nationals from listed countries who are putting application for citizenship of India because of religious persecution in their respective countries. 

CAA is a totally humanitarian act which shows India’s commitment to global peace and it is founded on compassion and goodwill. Let us hope that the Muslim protesters would wake up to this truth and allow road traffic to operate by giving up their protests in Shaheen Bagh. 

- Rahul Tiwary