“Arey hum kya chahte, Azadi… Palestine ki Azadi… arey chheen ke lenge, Azadi… Hai haq hamara, Azadi… (what do we want…freedom… Palestine’s freedom…. we will snatch this freedom which is our right….),” chanted a woman protester, standing at the centre of a group of students.
The video of ‘azadi’ sloganeering isn’t from India, but from Columbia University in New York and comes as the fire of pro-Palestinian protests engulfs top American universities.
The fire has actually spread across five states and a dozen top American universities where students pitched tents and set up “liberated zones” on campuses.
These pro-Palestine students are protesting against the war on Gaza by Israel after the Hamas carnage on October 7.
The protests started at Columbia University and spread to other campuses as students started protesting in solidarity after the university called in cops.
The New York Police Department cracked down on student protesters on April 18 and arrested over 100 students.
On April 22, Yale University too called in the police and around 40 people were arrested.
With tensions and security concerns mounting, Columbia University was forced to shift classes online.
HOW STUDENTS’ PROTEST GRIPPED MIT, HARVARD
Following the NYPD action at Columbia and Barnard College and the arrests at Connecticut’s Yale University, several campuses, including Ivy League colleges, saw protests.
Tensions mounted due to incidents of violence and anti-semitic remarks at the protest sites on several campuses along the East Coast.
The protestors held US President Joe Biden responsible for the war in Gaza, which has killed around 33,000 Palestinians so far. The US government has backed Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, which saw a huge civilian toll.
Around 108 demonstrators were arrested at Columbia University, including Isra Hirsi, the daughter of Democrat Congresswoman, Ilhan Omar.
Universities in New York, California, Connecticut, Michigan and Massachusetts are seeing pro-Palestine and anti-Israel protests by students on campuses.
The dozen top universities where protests are raging include NYU, Stanford, Yale, Tufts, MIT and Harvard.
Massachusetts’s Harvard University saw protests led by the Harvard Undergraduate Palestine Solidarity Committee, which was later suspended by the university administration for “violating school policy”.
“Harvard has shown us time and again that Palestine remains the exception to free speech,” said a protester.
The university administration closed down the Harvard Yard to the public to discourage the protestors camping on the lawns, much like the ‘liberation zone at Columbia’.
The prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) also saw the setting up of tent encampments on the school’s Cambridge, Massachusetts, campus on Sunday evening, in solidarity with Palestine.
The protesters called for a ceasefire and criticised what they described as MIT’s “complicity in the ongoing genocide in Gaza”.
“MIT has not even called for a cease-fire, and that’s a demand we have for sure,” Prahlad Iyengar, an MIT electrical engineering student, told the Associated Press.
Yale University, too, witnessed similar demonstrations, with students calling for an end to university investments in American defence contractors that do business with Israel.
Following warnings and requests to vacate the occupied area, Yale officials authorised the arrest of nearly 50 protesters on trespassing charges, according to CNN.
Hundreds of students assembled at New York University (NYU), demanding the university divest from companies supporting the Israeli occupation and disclose its financial ties to the Israeli military.
After warnings to disperse were disregarded, police moved in to make arrests as the situation worsened, after reports of antisemitic slogans came to light.
Similar protests and heated sloganeering relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and free speech have spread to other institutions, including UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, Emerson College, and Tufts University.
JNU-LIKE AZADI SLOGANS IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
Even as the protests spread to a dozen top universities across five states in the US, an undated video of ‘azadi’ sloganeering was shared by the handle ‘Documenting Jew Hatred on Campus’ on X.
The video shows a woman raising slogans in Hindi in favour of a “free Palestine” as her fellow protesters chant “azadi” in chorus.
IndiaToday.In could not verify the date and authenticity of the video but Columbia University’s Low Memorial Library could be seen in the backdrop of the sloganeering students.
“Hum kya chahte, azadi” slogan became popular in India after then students’ leader Kanhaiya Kumar and his followers raised them on the Jawaharlal Nehru University campus in 2016.
The students were protesting against the capital punishment for Afzal Guru, the mastermind of the 2001 Parliament attack.
The “Hum kya chahte, azadi” slogan, ringing out from JNU echoed on several other campuses, including at Jadavpore University.
What started off as a slogan for the feminist movement, “Hum kya chahte, azadi” has been appropriated by Left-wing outfits.
It is interesting that the slogan is being chanted at Columbia University by pro-Palestinian students even as campus protesters spread to a dozen top American universities.
