“Let's do a peace walk,” came a suggestion from someone in our Why Loiter group in Mumbai, that works to reclaim public spaces for women. No one found anything strange about the suggestion, made during a time of extreme tensions between Pakistan and India, and in usual loitering spirit, it was met with a “yes”.

We started the Why Loiter women’s rights campaign in Mumbai, 2014, inspired by the book Why Loiter?: Women And Risk On Mumbai Streets (Penguin India, 2011) co-authored by Shilpa Phadke, Sameera Khan and Shilpa Ranade.

We organise, mobilise and encourage women and queer folk to reclaim public spaces by ‘loitering’ in them.

CAPTION > Video: TEDx talk by sociologist Shilpa Phadke, a co-author of Why Loiter. dissecting the intertwining of gender in urban spaces.

When the peace walk idea came up, some of us put our heads together. Soon, Shakti had produced a gentle, friendly poster that just said “Walk for Peace – for people who want peace, not war” was ready, with a photo of some women walking from one of our previous loiters.

Our poster also mentioned that the event was open for all genders, that we would walk in white and it also mentioned the route for the walk along with details for time. We uploaded it to the Why Loiter Campaign instagram page on Thursday morning, 8 May, oblivious of what the next three days would bring.

Noise talks, progress walks

Our post was barraged with hate comments, open threats of rape, assault and murder directed at anyone who wanted peace. Comments called us “Anti national”, “Pakistanis”, “Terrorists loving”, “anti Indian soldiers” along with every imaginable abuse involving mother-sister.

The trolls tagged Mumbai Police, Mumbai Police Commissioner, the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and various groups that are known to create violence. Some told us to move to Pakistan or to ‘Pakistan-occupied Kashmir’, while others called us dumb elites.

Direct messages started arriving with similar hate comments and threats. Meanwhile the post was being reshared at an unprecedented rate — we had 2,250 shares by Friday. While dealing with the trolls, we started receiving phone calls from the Mumbai Police, asking us, gently at first and then with a scary firmness, to cancel the walk. This continued until the evening of the event.

When I asked why, they said that although there is nothing illegal about it, the general sentiment could lead to a law and order situation. To avoid that, we must cancel the walk.

Our little organising group had included members from Bangalore and Goa, who wanted to hold similar events in those cities under the Why Loiter Campaign banner. The woman from Goa dropped out after someone she knew complained to the police about her and the event, announcing on a mutual Whatsapp group that she had done so.

After we shared the Bangalore walk poster on the Why Loiter Campaign page, it started receiving as much hate as the Mumbai poster, with Bangalore Police and ministers being tagged on it by various trolls. Thankfully, there were no calls from the Bangalore police yet. The poster did not mention the route and the organiser called up each interested person individually to check if they were genuine peace lovers.

On Saturday morning we discussed options to keep ourselves safe -- postponing the walk, turning it online, doing it in smaller groups of four-to-five- across Mumbai, and so on.

Finally, we decided to remove the two posters from the instagram page, and change the start and end points of the walk to Central Mumbai from the suburbs. We divided ourselves into smaller groups of eight each with one group leader and walked in a staggered way, until we reached the end point. We also asked registrants not to share any new details with anyone, to carry colourful dupattas in case we became too “visibly white” and to be alert about police following or questioning us.

We managed to carry out this entire “peace operation” quite successfully, with close to 40 brave and willing participants, mostly women and queer folk. We spent close to three hours walking, talking, and sharing our common grief, confusion and anxiety about what was happening in the country, in our city, in our families and most importantly, in our own hearts.

We were careful to take photos and videos that did not reveal faces, and to postpone uploading images.

Standing up for peace

In Bangalore, “no sooner than we gathered, the police showed up,” said a walker. The police surrounded the participants, and picked up several of those present, and took them into “preventive custody,” holding them at the police station for over three hours.

The walk was meant to be a gesture of solidarity, a call for de-escalation, and as a quiet remembrance of the civilians caught in the crossfire and the soldiers lost to a war of depletion and political theatre. This spirit remains undeterred.

If anything, the attempt to silence us only reaffirmed our belief that standing up for peace — calmly, clearly, courageously — is not just our right, but our responsibility. “We may have been stopped that night, but the conversation has begun — and we are confident that it will continue,” said Nupur, one of the Bangalore walk organizers. “It will only get louder, and it will only ingrain deeper in the psyche of the country, slowly, surely.”

When peace becomes a radical idea, rallying for it becomes responsibility.

“Why Loiter has always used the simple act of walking as political action and it only seemed obvious to claim city streets once again for peace and solidarity,” said Natasha, a participant in Mumbai.

“As citizens and women, many of us were unhappy with the state's use of conflict and violence as a means of problem solving. This time, explicitly in the name of women whose grief was exploited rather than responded to,” she added.

The amount of trolling and the clampdown we received for proposing peace, especially from men who shamed, abused and threatened us for our gender, despite it being an "open for all" event has only motivated her more.

“That so many of us came out only shows how important it was to do so – and walk we did, in love, care, solidarity and peace,” she asserted.

“Despite all the negative outrage on social media and police trouble, there was no greater joy than being able to hold a space for peace,” said Shakti, another peace walker in Mumbai.

The walkers felt proud of themselves for being able to gather and talk about harmony, and stay positive no matter the situation. “Even those who couldn't make it were fulfilled with hope that there are still people who care for others,” commented Shakti.

“Democracy is not a state, it is an act, and each generation must do its part to help build what we called the Beloved Community, a nation and world society at peace with itself,” said U.S. civil rights leader and a champion of democracy John Lewis in his final essay in the New York Times, July 2020.

It was in this spirit that we had initiated the peace walk, believing in the right of citizens of a democracy to voice their support for diplomacy, peace and immediate de-escalation.

“This is even more important in times of conflict and heightened tension,” said Amie, a Mumbai peace walker. “Each of us carried out our patriotic duty towards our country -- in an environment where questions and doubts were being shushed and met with intimidatory threats online and offline, by strangers and loved ones alike, we created a space for dialogue and alternative possibilities and I personally couldn't be more proud of what we did that day.”

“Our society has long promoted an attitude of blind deference to authority within our homes, educational institutions, workplaces and in the political arena. It's time we embrace active participation and critical thinking instead,” she added.

The fear of the police and trolls makes our hearts beat faster each time there is a phone call from an unknown number. What will it be -- a First Information Report? Lock up? Or some other horrible punishment for what we believe is the right and the only way for human beings to live with each other -- in peace, with love, harmony and unity. No amount of trolls or state repression can change our minds.

(The author is a Mumbai-based theatre maker and women’s rights activist. She founded the Why Loiter Campaign in 2014. She’s written twenty books, several short stories, poems for children and young adults in English and Hindi with themes of gender and equality. Views expressed are personal. By special arrangement with Sapan)