Child at the Site of Protest

The body of the child at the site of protest has always been a point of contestation. It is used by the State to dilute protest movements. This could be seen during the farmers’ movement and also the Shaheen Bagh protest. The latter was an important context to examine this tension, when the State attacked the parents concerned, holding them careless and irresponsible, and simultaneously blaming the protest. It is important to understand the language of the State and its discourse to be able to identify the nature of power that is being used to delegitimise dissent in our democracy. The present paper goes back to the Shaheen Bagh movement to examine this contentious issue and what it reflects about the State. The movement with its issues was suppressed with the coming of the Covid pandemic. It is important to turn back to this movement to examine the discourse of the State.