Tea and biryani: Inside an Indian citizenship sit-in
In Shaheen Bagh, a working-class corner of Delhi, a roughly half-mile stretch a six-lane highway has blockaded for over a week.
The neighborhood's been taken over by a crowd of several hundred -- all in protest of the controversial citizenship law that's brought hundreds of thousands more people onto the streets across the country.
Men and women, children, multiple religions, spending their entire day and often nights here, eating, sleeping, praying, singing.
Lots of tea on cold winter days. Sharjeel is an organizer:
(SOUNDBITE) (English) RESEARCH SCHOLAR AND KEY ORGANIZER OF PROTESTS IN SHAHEEN BAGH AREA OF NEW DELHI, SHARJEEL, SAYING:
"What we intend to achieve is to inspire communities across India, who are against this act, that they block their own cities, so that India comes to a halt."
India has been rocked by demonstrations since mid-December, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government enacted the Citizenship Amendment Act that provides non-Muslim minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who arrived there before 2015 an expedited pathway to Indian citizenship.
They say it's discriminatory and goes against India's secular constitution.
The intention of the Shaheen Bagh occupation has been to remain entirely non-violent. However, some of the protests have escalated. At least 21 people have been killed in clashes with police.
Over a hundred volunteers run the site, providing everything from crowd-control and food to bedding and medicines.
Siddharth Saxena, an accountant from a Hindu family, is one of the handful handling the movement's funds.
(SOUNDBITE) (Hindi and English) KEY ORGANIZER AND PERSON HANDLING FINANCES OF PROTESTS HAPPENING IN SHAHEEN BAGH AREA OF NEW DELHI, SIDDHARTH SAXENA, SAYING:
"Food is being served here for thousands of people and no one knows who is providing it. They also want to be in the dark, they don't want to show their faces. So, you can see that this is the beauty of this protest."
As the occupation draws on, organizers are aware of the risks they face, not least the possibility of legal action and even their careers getting derailed.
