The young men and women were students, lawyers, farm hands, doctors, engineers — the largest group of anti-government demonstrators to come anywhere close to a protest site in New Delhi under lockdown on Saturday.
The group of protesters, which would ultimately grow to about 300 people, had gathered the previous night at a Sikh temple, known as a gurdwara, and was hoping that the police would not take action against them in that sacred space.
With India in turmoil over what critics have called a politically motivated revision of the nation’s voter rolls, I watched the protesters early on Saturday as they looked for a way to cover the approximately 1,000 yards between the temple and the protest site.
Their goal: to reach the site, known as Jantar Mantar, without clashing with thousands of security forces who were showing zero tolerance for the protests.
Many of the protesters, supporters of the Gen Z movement known as the Cockroach Janta Party, had traveled for hours on trains and buses from far away villages in states like Bihar and Punjab, before finally reaching the marbled courtyard inside the Sri Bangla Sahib gurdwara. Others who lived in New Delhi walked several miles.
Simran, a 26-year-old lawyer from the outskirts of Delhi who goes by only one name, said she was stopped twice by the police on her way to the gurdwara, though she was allowed to continue.
“I felt like a criminal in my own country,” she said.
On Saturday morning, male police officers walked into the temple but then walked out because of the sensitivity of the place, after doing little more than glaring at a group of protesters, while a couple of female police officers paced inside.
Eventually, a compromise was reached. Gurdwara officials promised the police that they would not allow any form of protest inside the premises. But they also would not permit anyone to be detained.
“Do whatever you want outside,” one official at the temple told the protesters. “Maintain complete decorum inside.”
As the clock ticked, protesters waited patiently with pieces of cloth tied around their heads, as is the rule inside this place of worship. They lacked formal leaders, but some young activists took on a coordinating role to determine when and how the protesters should move out.
Many appeared to be calling other protesters to track the whereabouts of Abhijeet Dipke, the leader of the Cockroach Janata Party, who had called for the large protest.
After two students carried out a reconnaissance mission on motorcycles, the protesters agreed that gate No. 3 of the gurdwara was most promising. The police presence was lighter in that direction.
“We want to wait for more protesters to join us here before we move,” said Bushra Rehman, 32, a Ph.D. student who had endured tear gas during the 2019 protests against a contentious citizenship law. “I know we will be detained. But we must show resistance in the face of an autocratic government.”
Some protesters sat in a circle to huddle over the carefully thought out move.
“We will just squat wherever the police stop us,” Abdullah Khan, 23, a German studies student from Jamia Millia Islamia, a university in the capital, told the group. “And no violence at all.”
At about 10:30 a.m., the crowd, full of gusto, started making its way out and spilled into the main street, chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Gyanesh Kumar, India’s chief election commissioner. Some captured the protests with cameras and selfie sticks attached to mobile phones.
“Your time is done,” they shouted. “Pack your bags.”
Then, they mocked the election commissioner by a nickname. “Gyanu, it’s done bro,” said one poster.
Just a few hundred yards into the protesters’ march, the police presence increased at the road leading to Connaught Place, a major shopping district in the city center that is on the way to Jantar Mantar.
Slowly, the police circle tightened. After being caught off guard, officers called for reinforcements and stopped the marchers in their tracks.
The protesters chanted louder. Officers started dragging men, one by one, into a bus waiting to take them to a detention center. Some of the protesters made a run for it, and the police gave chase, with limited success.
About 30 protesters were sent away in one bus, and 30 more in another. A group of female police officers expressed satisfaction over dragging a woman onto one of the buses. Some protesters managed to get away.
In the end, no one made it to Jantar Mantar: It’s a fortress. This did not come as a surprise to the protesters, who knew from the start that the odds were not in their favor. They were prepared to be stopped, dragged and detained — which is exactly what happened to many of them.
Still, some saw success in at least demonstrating their willingness to resist the government. They said they would keep trying to regroup.
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