인도 농민 시위 현장의 도서관--항의와 저항과 주장의 도서관

protest site libraries

Walls and streets of Jamia Millia Islamia and Shaheen Bagh protest site exploded with creativity as students and artists camped their and experimented with ideas.

One of the most distinctive contributions of the Shaheen Bagh movement was the introduction of a ‘protest site library’. The idea of a ‘protest library’ came up during the Occupy Wall street protest, one of the largest popular demonstrations in the United States. Occupy protesters erected a tent and established a ‘People’s Library’ in Manhattan's Zuccotti Park in November 2011.

Since then, the concept of a ‘People’s Library’ captured the imagination of protesters all across the world. It travelled to Gezi Park in Istanbul in 2013 when people resisted the commercialisation of public spaces. Make-shift libraries cropped up in different parts of Spain during the anti-austerity 15-M movement (2011-15) and then it travelled to Hong Kong during the pro-democracy movement there.

the protest-site libraries stand as proof that these people are not ‘uneducated folks’ or are suffering from ‘sheep-like mentality’. Rather, they are mature enough to develop a concrete socio-economic-political understanding and act upon it.

These libraries are also a critique of the creeping anti-intellectualism in Indian society after the rise of Hindutva forces. In an age of (dis)information, when people become experts on different subjects by just scrolling through smartphones, these libraries containing books on varied subjects reclaim the importance of serious pursuit of knowledge. They are symbols of assertion against the attack on social science and humanities by the right-wing forces who always like to distort history as well as the present, to suit their diabolical agenda. The more people read serious works, the more they are shielded against the propaganda of the ruling party.

Protest-site libraries also democratize the very idea of learning, which is limited to elite space of university campuses, academia and think-tanks. The increasing price of books and arduous academic language keeps away a very big section of population away from a deeper knowledge of history, philosophy, political science etc. Protests site libraries have an important role in bringing books close to people. It helps in broader dissemination of ideas and information in a more conducive environment, where people can actually relate with the thoughts and struggles of Bhagat Singh, Che Guevara, Ambedkar and other revolutionary activists and thinkers.

https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/india/books-vs-batons-after-shaheen-bagh-protest-site-libraries-recreated-by-farmers-at-delhis-borders