Why are Shabana Azmi’s critics forgetting her four decades of activism?
Shabana Azmi joins students during CJP’s Chalo Sansad march in Delhi on July 20. His appearance attracted attention because it reflected a decades-long record of public activism.
On July 20, in the midst of a crowd marching toward Parliament, a 75-year-old woman took out her phone, shook hands with strangers, and ran away. No bodyguards, no cordon off the security of her Mumbai home, no carefully scripted Instagram posts. Just Shabana Azmi, marching towards Parliament in the humidity and chaos of Delhi, standing with students demanding accountability over NEET irregularities let’s go to parliament Rally at Jantar Mantar.
She got caught in the tear gas attack. He had an asthma attack. She kept walking. But why?
Questions have been raised, as it always happens when a celebrity enters politics. It was immediately asked on social media – What will they gain from this? Is this a publicity stunt? Is she doing this to get attention? While some questioned her intentions, others wondered if her presence was distracting from the real cause.
when he spoke India TodayAfter this, Rajdeep Sardesai became emotional while remembering the events of that day. Despite those feelings, the fire continued to burn within him. As the next day approached, she was back to work: standing with students, releasing videos from the protest site, and doing everything she could to voice dissent. Azmi did not watch these moments from a distance, she moved into them.
At 75, she has been doing just that for four decades.
This would have happened with one tweet
Let’s be honest about what most Bollywood celebrities do when something is uncomfortable. They post. A story, a reel, a carefully written statement that’s enough to show they care but not enough to make someone nervous. Then they move ahead.
Azmi flew from Mumbai to Delhi – right out of the comfort of her luxurious home.
This is not the woman who discovered activism last week. This is a man who has been doing this since before most of the students at Jantar Mantar were born. Azmi has once again emerged as one of the few voices in Bollywood who is willing to step into uncomfortable conversations. It is a role he has embraced for nearly four decades.
When he left Cannes to fight for slum dwellers’ rights
For Azmi, daughter of Indian Urdu poet, political and social activist Kaifi Azmi, activism has never been separate from her identity as an artist. Long before celebrities regularly spoke out about social issues on social media, she was protesting on the streets, running campaigns and, sometimes, even putting her career on hold.
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One of the defining moments came in 1986. The actor was to leave for Cannes with filmmaker Mrinal Sen. Produce. Instead, she canceled the trip and sat on a five-day indefinite hunger strike with filmmaker Anand Patwardhan and members of housing rights group Nivara Haq after families were evicted from Mumbai’s Sanjay Gandhi Nagar slum.
The protests eventually forced the Maharashtra government to provide alternative land to the displaced residents. Years later, Azmi recalled how actor Shashi Kapoor had intervened by talking to then Chief Minister SB Chavan, which helped end the standoff. He has often described that campaign as one of the most meaningful experiences of his life.
Housing rights were only the beginning.
speaking truth to power
At the International Film Festival of India, New Delhi in January 1989. Shabana Azmi was called on stage at the opening ceremony to speak about the filmmakers who influenced her. Sitting in the front row was HKL Bhagat, a Congress leader accused of being linked to the attack that had killed street theater activist Safdar Hashmi just days earlier.
Hashmi and his theater group, Jan Natya Manch, were performing a play called shout out On January 1, during the Municipal Corporation elections in Sahibabad, a mob attacked him. He died from his injuries the next day.
With Bhagat seated in the front row, Azmi took the microphone and condemned the system that was “complicit in the murder of a cultural worker.” He didn’t soften it. He didn’t save it for a safe moment. He said it there, in that room, to that audience.
Fourteen years later, in 2003, ten people were convicted of Hashmi’s murder.
The same year, he, along with social activists Asghar Ali Engineer and Swami Agnivesh, led a march for communal harmony from Delhi to Meerut demanding justice for the victims of the Malliana and Hashimpura massacres. When the policemen accused of the Hashimpura murders were finally convicted years later, Azmi welcomed the verdict, recalling the campaign for justice that had begun decades earlier.
Causes she has been vocal about
Over the years, Azmi has worked extensively on issues ranging from women’s reproductive health and HIV/AIDS awareness to communal harmony and freedom of expression. She worked as a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and SAARC, and used her public profile to campaign for reproductive rights and against the stigma associated with HIV.
His willingness to speak his mind often places him at the center of political debate.
He has also spoken in favor of criminalizing instant triple talaq, saying that the practice is used to commit atrocities against Muslim women and is against the spirit of the Constitution.
His activism has continued with various governments and on various issues, often inviting criticism from one side or the other. Yet, unlike many public figures who weigh every statement against the potential backlash, Azmi has rarely seemed concerned about political convenience.
Perhaps this explains why his presence at the recent student protests resonated with many.
Following the march, a young woman shared an emotional note on Instagram, calling the actor the person she always wanted to be when she grew up. He wrote about watching Azmi leave behind the comfort and distance that often comes with celebrity, walking through crowds, holding hands with strangers, feeding students on hunger strike and standing shoulder to shoulder with protesters.
The post quickly found an audience online because it reflected what many people present at the protest saw. Azmi was not present symbolically as a star. She was present there as a participant.
That image sticks in the minds of many because it matches the Shabana Azmi they have known for years.
Be it skipping an appearance at Cannes for a hunger strike, speaking out after the murder of Safdar Hashmi, campaigning for housing rights, advocating for women and marginalized communities or joining students on the streets at the age of 75, Azmi has time and again chosen to demonstrate rather than simply speak.
In an industry where silence is often seen as the safe option, Shabana Azmi has built a reputation for doing the opposite. For over four decades, she has remained one of the most steadfast voices of dissent in Bollywood, using not just her words but her presence to stand up for the issues she believes in.