“Mera Jamia, Mera Ghar”: The corporeal collective willfulness of young Muslim women at Jamia Milia Islamia University

Abstract

Passed in December 2019, the Citizenship Amendment Act intensified Hindu majoritarian rule, emerging as another legal measure to systematically deny citizenship to Muslims and other minoritized populations. These legislations were met by protests which were responded to by police violence. Young Muslim women at Jamia Milia Islamia University followed the lead of elders in Shaheen Bagh, crafting an intergenerational feminist‐led protest which emerged at the forefront of resistance efforts. This article attends to young women's spatiotemporal claims of recognition and belonging. Dwelling on the collective and corporeal nature of their engagement, I highlight the theoretical significance of this unwavering collective still presence that characterizes their participation. In an India that increasingly questions their belonging, these student protesters craft home as an expanded political site. They make embodied claims to the university, public space, and by extension, the nation, as home.