AT first look, it struck one as a politically conjured Woodstock, its unhurried gait like a cloud walk along a gurgling brook of piercing humour, cackling laughter and tuneful parodies, with Faiz and Fahmida Riaz making their mandatory appearance as they often do in youthful Indian protests. The event kindled muzzled memories of what the idea of India was conceived as. In a word, the event was magical, too good to be true. An Urdu verse comes to mind that nicely captures the disbelief of joy with a habit of apprehension. Yet, it was the news one had been aching to hear for more than 12 years, probably more. “Wo ghareeb dil ko sabaq miley ki khushi ke naam se dar gaya/ Kabhi tumne hans ke jo baat ki, to hamara chehra utar gaya” (‘parched by a drought of joyous tidings the heart is scared of happiness/ If you smile at me perchance, I feel a creeping wariness’).

The songs and memes from the Jantar Mantar protest rang across the country’s myriad regions. A lasting image lingers in the form of a hijab-wrapped woman who could have come from an Iranian street march to challenge imperialism’s colluders in India. She held a placard that spelt the Indian prime minister’s name with an acid slant. ‘MODI — Murderer of Democratic India.’ A similar poster replaced ‘qazi’ with ‘Nazi’. Qazis unite Muslim couples in matrimony, but they can’t do much for a Hindu and a Muslim duo who want to be together without reference to religion or ritual. There’s a secular law for those marriages in India, and they have become a bane for Hindutva. The thought of........

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