Indian grandmother showing the power of non-violent protest

An 82-year grandmother, Bilkis, from a small locality in Delhi, India called Shaheen Bagh made Time magazine's 100 most influential list. One can quibble about the significance of the list, but it is a remarkably inspiring story emerging from an increasingly dystopian India.

Bilkis looks ancient as time. With her toothless grin and wrinkled face, she is the quintessential South Asian grandmother. She is a Muslim woman who would be immediately stereotyped as subjugated and incapable of having an opinion of her own, let alone be socially active. Her story shatters many stereotypes.

India is currently governed by an ideologically driven right-wing Hindu party, the BJP, led by its charismatic leader Narendra Modi. Modi also made the Time's list, but for his negative influence on that nation. His BJP administration is determined to turn India into a Hindu state. Taking full advantage of an unassailable majority in the national legislature the ruling party has been successful in pushing through its agenda legally and without opposition.

BJP members are annoyed with India's inclusive and secular constitution. They have no use for Gandhi's tolerance. They are furious with Nehru's secularism, which they call pseudo-secularism and antithetical to the Hindu ethos. In BJPs version of Hinduism, if you are not a Hindu, then either you should leave India or live as a second-class citizen or a noncitizen.

This attempt to deny and take away the fundamental right of citizenship is what Dadi (Urdu/Hindi word for grandmother) Bilkis and other women were protesting. The protest started out as a small nonviolent sit-in by local women, but soon attracted thousands of all faiths. Often Shaheen Bagh saw side-by-side religious ceremonies of many traditions. It sprouted similar sit-ins by women in many other cities in India.

There was disbelief that these Hijab-wearing Muslim women would even understand the complexities of the laws that were being crafted by diabolically clever politicians in Delhi. Or that they even knew the constitution. To the pleasant surprise of secular-minded Indians and shock of the BJP, these women showed a deep understanding of the constitution, the protection it affords minorities and the dangers of the laws attacking citizenship that the BJP was pushing through. These women would start their meetings by reciting the preamble to India's constitution, sang patriotic songs and the national anthem and recited poetry. They celebrated not just Gandhi and Nehru but also the Dalit (untouchable) icon Dr. Ambedkar and the Muslim leader, Maulana Azad, who was a staunch champion of pluralism.

Grandma Bilkis lives in the Shaheen Bagh area with her children and grandchildren. "I have only read the Quran and never went to school," she said recently. She shows no rancor toward Modi, whom she wished a long and happy life. Showing great awareness of the pandemic she commented "our fight (now) is with Corona; the disease must be eliminated from the world and then something can be thought of the world after that."

There was a media campaign to label the protesters as traitors, and the protest itself as a conspiracy but the Modi regime could not shut it down. The COVID 19 came to BJP's rescue. Now this street protest is gone.

Sometimes the righteous anger of a protest becomes violent, which is counterproductive to the cause. A nonviolent protest has a steady moral compass. Martin Luther King and Gandhi understood the magic of nonviolent protest. The nonviolent protesters gain the moral high ground and those who oppose them become villains in the eyes of the outside observer.

The actions and intent of the Modi regime are no longer hidden. Amnesty International, which has recently been hounded out of India, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom and the U.S. State Department have taken note but have done nothing other than spotlighting the issue. It is this nonviolent protest led by women that is having an impact and has forced the Modi regime to back pedal a bit.

The nonviolent tactics used by MLK would be more relevant to the U.S. than the sit in by Dadi Bilkis, but she has shown us that protest that is uncompromisingly nonviolent is morally superior and can be effective.

• Javeed Akhter is a physician and freelance writer from Oak Brook.