On February 1, 2020, a group of queer activists paid a visit to Mumbai Bagh, a sit-in protest by Muslim women against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act inspired by the landmark Shaheen Bagh sit-in that began in Delhi in December 2019. Many of us were dressed in the same clothes we had worn to Mumbai Pride, which had taken place earlier that day as a “protest gathering” at Azad Maidan after being denied permission to march. There was a heady feeling of optimism in the air—after all, this was the largest and most widespread outpouring of dissent against the government since the Bharatiya Janata Party had come to power six years ago (Hasan).
Flanked by posters of Chhatrapati Shivaji and Savitribai Phule, Maulana Azad and Babasaheb Ambedkar, spaces like Mumbai Bagh had become peculiar sites for the crafting of contested solidarities among a wide variety of marginalized groups...
