The ongoing protests across the country are powered by a commitment to humanitarian values and constitutional morality to redefine the meanings of inclusive nationalism in the future.

The unabated tide of nationwide agitation against the recently legislated Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and, the National Population Register (NPR) has become a historic turning point in India’s civic movements.

While the country is getting mobilised to march for reclaiming the constitutional morality and values, the Hindutva and RSS brigade is busy spreading communal hatred to suppress this mass movement. They have been working hard to paint this citizens’ movement as ‘communal issue’ whereby convince the majority population to stay away from the protests.

The government and RSS have been trying their best to tarnish the activists by naming them ‘Deshdrohi’ (anti-nationals), ‘Pakistani-agents’, and ‘Jihadi’. But the ‘minority-majority’ conflict-ridden binary that the RSS sought to create is not going to work anymore. People have already rejected the government’s attempts to portray this civil movement with communal colour.

In this article, I aim to bring some unique ways how Indians, regardless of religious, linguistic, and creed differences, have been joining hand in hand to resist the divisive agenda of the RSS.

Within a few days after passing of the bill, university students of prominent campuses like Jamia Millia, and Aligarh took out peaceful protests. Inspired from the spirit of the youth, more people across the country, including the middle and upper-middle classes joined the protests.

People began to organise more and more protests in all the major cities, shouting slogans and holding placards that spoke of nothing but communal amity and constitutional values. One of my friends from Delhi told me that nowadays when two individuals meet, the first thing they ask is “Where is the next protest?”.

No matter, who is organising the protest and in which city it is held, the most echoing sound across all these mass gatherings is nothing but – Hum (Hindi/Urdu equivalent of the word ‘us’) – to indicate it is about we the people! The slogan of Azaadi (freedom) resonates everywhere.

One of the most popular slogans is ‘Jab Hindu Muslim raazi, to kya karega Nazi?’ (the Nazi can do nothing when Hindus and Muslims unite). Another one, which is as old as India’s independent movement, is: ‘Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas mein hai bhai bhai’ (Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, we are one fraternity). Another one is, ‘Hum kaagaz nahi dikhayenge; hum samvidhan bachayenge’ (We will not show/submit our papers; we will save the Constitution).

People are quoting excerpts from the Articles 14, 15 and 21 of the Indian Constitution. Social media pages of the prominent academics, economists, former civil servants, film stars, writers, artists are filled with the messages such as ‘Do not divide our peaceful country on the grounds of religion’.

The national symbols such as the anthem, the tri-colour flag, and the Constitution have been adopted as the symbols of protest. The photographs of Savitribai Phule, MK Gandhi, BR Ambedkar, Abul Kalam Azad, Tagore, Bhagat Singh, and Ashfaqulla Khan are placed side by side throughout the protests.

20th December 2019 is a remarkable date in the history of Indian Muslims. On this day, they for once opted to ‘dethrone’ and boycott self-serving clerics. Two days earlier, Imam of Delhi’s landmark Jama Masjid – Ahmad Bukhari – spoke in favour of the central government and took a deceiving stand against the millions of citizens protesting. On the following Friday, thousands gathered to voice against the government’s religious discriminatory acts unanimously.

Once the prayers were over, the Muslims boycotted Bukhari and rallied behind the Dalit leader Chandrashekhar Ravan. The youth icon and leader of the marginalised – Ravan – addressed the faithful Muslims from the steps of the mosque by waving nothing but a copy of the Constitution of India.

The crowd of over a thousand people solidly and enthusiastically raised their voice and said: Ravan is our Imam! Meantime, Imam Bukhari, as a forlorn figure watched this phenomenal gathering from the ramparts of the mosque with only a handful of his henchmen (Frontline report).

Similar was the fate of other pro-government self-made leaders like Kalbe Jawwad of Shi’a community, the Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind’s Mahmood Madani, and the Ajmer Dargah Dewan Sayed Zainul Hussain Chishti.

The phenomenal gathering at the Jama Masjid and the appearance of Ravan as the leader of the mass reminded the historical address of Swami Shradhhanand, who spoke on Hindu-Muslim unity from the mosque in 1919 during the freedom struggle.

Chandrashekhar Ravan’s close aide said that Ravan wanted to remind the country of the historic speech Maulana Abul Kalam Azad delivered from the steps of Jama Masjid on October 23, 1947 – a few months after India’s Partition. Ravan’s appearance at the Jama Masjid was a wind of change that just sweep the old order away!

On 28 December 2019, thousands of people from all faiths were marching in protest against the CAA and NRC in a city near Cochin, Kerala. The Muslim protesters needed a space to offer their prayers when the march ended.

The St. Thomas Church opened its doors to the Muslims for them to perform their Maghrib (sunset) prayers. The priest of the church stepped ahead to offered water for them to perform ablution. While Sayyid Munavvar Ali Thangal led the Maghrib prayer in congregation outdoor, Elias Mar Yulios and Father Jose Paruthiveli led the evening prayers inside the church.

On 29 December 2019, when the Muslims were praying at Jamia Millia University, Hindus and Sikhs came collectively shielding Muslims. Activists tweeted saying ‘India is secular not because of the constitution but because of its people’, and ‘This is what makes me proud of India’. In a display of religious harmony and fraternity, a group of Hindus in Uttar Pradesh's Kanpur city decided to create a human chain around a Muslim man's ‘Baraat’ (groom's wedding procession) and safely escorted them to their destination.

As the city was engulfed in flames of violence over the anti-citizenship law and the subsequent curfew, the Muslim family had decided to postpone the wedding. When the groom's Hindu neighbour – Vimal – came to know about this, he quickly got all their friends together and formed a human chain around the groom and family members to escort them to the bride’s destination. Vimal said: “I have seen the bride, Zeenat, grow up. She is like my younger sister. How could I let her heart be broken? We are neighbours, and I had to stand with the family in times of distress” (NDTV report).

In December 2019, the citizens of Tamil Nadu created a unique method of protest by drawing Kolams on the streets, which read: No to CAA, No to NRC. Kolam is a Hindu traditional geometrical patterns drawn using rice flour, chalk or naturally or synthetically coloured powders. Hindus in Tamil Nadu draw Kolams outside their homes on an everyday basis as a symbol of prosperity and positivity. Kolam protests against CAA, NRC quickly gained significant momentum in Tamil Nadu, and thousands of people joined in by making one in front of their homes.

On 10 January 2020, a 102-year-old freedom fighter – HS Doreswamy, sat on the hunger strike to join the Anti-CAA protesters demanding the repealing of the CAA. While humming Raghupathi Raghav (Gandhi’s favourite hymn), hundreds of Hindus and Muslims together broke their fast along with Doreswamy.

The feeble voice of Doreswamy elicited thunderous applause. To the crowd of over 50,000 assembled at an Eidgah maidan, he said: “You are not Muslims, I am not Hindu, we are Indians”. A youth leader Bhavya Narasimhamurthy said: “All of you have come here after Namaz. I came here after doing Satyanarayana puja at home. This is India!”

On 12 January 2019, people of different faiths came together to participate in a 'Sarva Dharma Sambhava' ceremony held at Delhi's Shaheen Bagh, where anti-citizenship law protestors have been demonstrating for over a month.

The inter-faith ceremony resonated the Hindu sacred verses, chants of Sikh Kirtan, the Bible as well as the Qur’an recitation. Alongside, the protesters read out the Preamble of the Constitution and took an oath to preserve India’s socialist, secular values. This particular event was nothing but a remaking of Gandhi’s prayer gathering held to proclaim the message ‘equal respect for all religions or peaceful co-existence of all religions’!

These are some of the very few peaceful ways that the Indians are fighting to reclaim their constitutional values and citizenry dignities. I must say that I was selective in talking about these events. I only narrated on the events that echo religious syncretism and communal harmony. It is because all I wanted to show you is how people of India reject the government’s divisive agenda and RSS’s discourse of communal hatred.

The remarkable presence of communal harmony throughout the protests across the nation validates how powerful, symbolic, and strategic is the idea of ‘inclusive India’ in countering aggressive Hindutva. This creative re-articulating of inclusive nationalism and religious tolerance takes us beyond the given imaginations of reduced political identity.

Jasbeer Musthafa is a PhD candidate in media studies and sociology of religion at Western Sydney University.