SHAHEEN, meaning falcon, and BAGH, the garden of diversity, represent the true spirit of Indian heritage— asserts Mujeeb Jaihoon in a gathering at Calicut.
It would be great injustice if I don’t attend this protest which fights for the soul of India. We need to ponder about this beautiful phrase called Shaheen Bagh. Shaheen stands for falcon, a huge magnificent bird which soars in the skies. As our beloved poet Allama Iqbal wrote,
Tu Shaheen hai,
Parwaaz hai kaam Tera
You are a falcon and your task is to fly higher
India is a magnificent and powerful country which has a heritage and civilizations worth thousands of years.
Bagh means garden where different flowers bloom; not just one. It stands for different faiths, different belief systems and political opinions. We have historically addressed India as Gulistan, which is the same as Bagh.
Shaheen bagh is the very spirit of an Indian citizen. Surely, we are becoming part of history as we join the Shaheen Bagh square in Calicut. Shaheen Bagh is all that India stands for.
The Coronavirus, which originated from the powerful China, is eating up the entire world. Until recently, everybody wanted to do business with the most competitive economy in the world. But this very small virus has created havoc in China and its economy is shivering. So never judge anything by its size. ‘Shaheen Bagh’, which may seem to be a harmless minority protest, is the Corona virus that is going to eat up the Sangh Parivar brigade in India. The Shaheen Bagh protest will destroy its goons and murders who are very killing the very spirit of India.
We, as the Indian Muslims, perhaps have a bigger claim on our heritage than others. The very name India is the contribution of the Arab world, from the word ‘al Hind’. A few days back, the most powerful man in the world, the president of the United States, had visited our great country. He chose the Taj Mahal to take selfie with his wife. Likewise, the Israeli PM chose the same Mughals-built monument to take a selfie.
The Taj and many other monuments such as the Red Fort, where India celebrates the Republic Day, prove that we are the locals of this country and those who accuse us as foreigners are the ones who have to prove their belonging to this land. These are contributions of the Muslim civilization which make us Indians first and we shall always remain Indians.
(Shaheen Bagh Square (Indefinite Protest – Feb 01 2020 onwards), organized by Muslim Youth League, on Feb 29 2020)
One comment
So elated & proud to hear you… Got goosebumps… Your energy & enthusiasm is reverberating through the crowd Hats off to you, Sir