Do you remember the last time, when you gaze into the open sky, it is beautiful. Full of stars, dust and cosmic galaxy. We are in one corner of this vast universe.

When the cold war began, one thing that started with the weapons race was the space race. The humans in a way to outdo each other wanted to dominate the cosmic space. On October 4, 1957, the world watched in awe and fear as the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first man-made satellite, this small metal ball, smaller than 2 feet in diameter, launched an 18-year space race between the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. Ironically U.S.S.R was not the first one rather was V2 rocket used by Germany in the last years of World War II in missile assaults on allied towns.

At the end of this entire space race, it was just a huge waste of moment that two main super-powers were attempting to outdo each other by creating symbolic initiatives that were both hazardous and costly, using funds that could have been better invested elsewhere, quite sure, but the greatest advantages of the space program had nothing to do with one nation defeating another in space.

The space, when accessible has opened a whole new domain of the warfare after the Space Race in the Cold War.

The Space Warfighting domain involves fighting that takes place in outer space, that is, outside the atmosphere. It therefore involves ground-to-space warfare, such as attacking satellites from Earth, and space-to-space warfare, such as satellites attacking satellites. In one view, it does not include the use of satellites for espionage, surveillance or military communications, although some writers prefer to include these military resources in the “space” aspect. Only a few occurrences of space warfare have happened in world history, and all of them have been coaching tasks, as compared to action against true opposing powers. In the mid-1980s, the P78-1, a communicating satellite in a 555 km orbit, was effectively shot down by anF-15 pilot. In 2007, China used a rocket scheme to kill one of its outdated satellites, and in 2008, its malfunctioning US-193 satellite likewise was destructed. To date, no human deaths have been recognized as a result of space war or a surface destination has been neutralized from the orbit. International space limits treaties or space disputes are regulated and arms, and particularly nuclear arms are limited to their assembly.

But for how long, we can control ourselves from not using the technologies that we possess?

A Project Excalibur, intended to detonate a nuclear weapon in Space, was developed in the 1970s by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Calibur. Lasers would then concentrate the ensuing x-rays on as many as 50 incoming rockets at a moment to ruin them as they did through space toward the US and its allies. However, the project crashed due to absence of advancement and financing. At present, the main use of lasers is to dazzle spy satellites and prevent them from collecting their data.

It is noted that China and Iran have accomplished so in exchange for US satellites and the West is probable to do so. This is likely to be the first strike in a space war. The satellites could also be the same. Hackers can even now work on inside spacecraft control structures artificially to position smart software routines.

This can be triggered by receiving a certain message or by fulfilling an onboard situation. The European Space Agency aims at protecting its satellites by creating quantum encoding methods for potential tasks. Consider this strategy as the brute force. This can also harm the attacker, so an advanced variant is a spaceship fitted with mechanical weapons, which grab the aim and remove solar panels or tools.

With all the developing technologies, it’s not a hard fact that we might witness a full-scale space war. Joan Johnson-Freese, in his book, Space Warfare in the 21st Century: Arming the Heavens warns us, especially in the context of USA. Americans have spectacularly failed to hamper the spread of space technology and must therefore build a confident approach, primarily with China. It is excluded from civil and scientific mission collaboration, while the majority of other space-faring countries are involved. However, such a convincing strategy prescription is sheltered by a major problem reasoning that looks at spatial stabilization and safety isolated from Earth stabilization and safety. Deterrence is a fancy term, but we need a more decentered approach. Maybe, for now, the best is to protect yourself.

Department of English, Jamia Millia Islamia

Space Combat in the 21st Century

A silent spectator that houses multitude continually envisioned to protect knowledge and progress through the shelter and nurture that it offers has served millions since it’s inception; but the same couldn’t withstand the harbingers of ignorance that attacked it ruthlessly on a cold winter night. Dr. Zakir Hussain Library retells the account the night and the horrors it withstood through one of its readers.

When the library of Alexandria started to lose its significance, its when rulers saw its knowledge as a peril rather than pride. Libraries are often seen as silent hosts for the people who seem to rote entire academic manuscripts into their brains.

, where silence is peaceful and the wanderers of text often come home to a place which has books and knowledge to cater to. 

Where else do you go when the world is too noisy?

I have been one of those people who will be seen, sitting in one corner of the library. The one who likes to know anything till deep, with a heavy bag of books, the library card reserved and is always sipping 

 while browsing through books The library is no less than a home to me, much like my university.

 was established in 1920, and is named after the third 

former Vice-Chancellor of Jamia Millia Islamia

, His Excellency The Honorable Dr Zakir Hussain. As one of the founders of Jamia Millia Islamia, he was one of the profound thinkers who worked relentlessly for the cause of education and development of this country.

The library, whose name itself is the metaphor for inclusive thoughts is built on ideal foundations, was attacked mercilessly by the very same state machinery which was supposed to protect it.

, following the protests against the Central forces, the 

 allegedly barged inside the premises of Jamia Millia Islamia and started shellacking the students present inside the campus. As they entered through the University gates pushing the guards aside, they stepped inside the Ibn Sina (Old) Reading Hall, the textbooks and research centre adjacent to Premchand Archives section and went further towards the New Reading Hall & Central Library to perform what they seemed to be there for, giving sleepless nights for the beholders and many else to those who need it.

The worst part, however, remains that the students present in the reading halls and library weren’t even a part of the protest and were actually just studying there, while they were locked, thrashed, handled and abused for a crime that they seem to be skeptical about! 

 from the same place which through the years had nurtured and given to the society some of its most influential and intellectual workers.

Tear gas smokes circulated inside the library and reading halls while they were inhabited by hundreds of students.

The smoke is still there, as the closed gates for inquiry and broken glasses store memories that has traumatised students, who have not just sustained physical injuries but also grave mental ones.

I was not there, I was inside my home, safe and sound, but I could hear the gunshots and explosions late till 9 pm. I still remember the panic-stricken voice of my friends and the frantic messages on university groups that I am a part of. There was only one appeal, it was to escape. And then the media did its deed, the photos and videos started circulating, and the destroyed structure of my library and reading rooms came to surface. 

I saw the Old Library broken where I have dozed off while studying “

”. The stairs where I cried were all laid by the glasses that adorned Zakir Hussain Library.

The place where I soaked the sun in the winters of Delhi, the places where I studied. They attacked the places where I sat with my friends. They attacked the places where I read and cried and smiled through the books. They attacked the places where I slept through the exhausting routine. They attacked my memories. They attacked my home.

The testimonies of victims, who were my friends, beloved seniors and acquaintances very well stated the intention of the police that night. It wanted to kill them. It wanted to silence them permanently for speaking against their masters. No permission, no process and unending brutality.

 for Jamia Millia Islamia and Dr Zakir Hussain Library, which does not only has books and artefacts but the aspirations of the young, what they “

They might state officially that they did not enter the library, but the cost of lies is always heavy. The technology does not discriminate, because the evidence and testimonies speak otherwise.
As I write this, I feel heavy with the burden to pass on the trauma that I did not experience forehand but my friends did. All I was nothing but the witness to sounds that made their way to me, from one home to another.

. I was in constant fear, they might attack again and this time, to my own home. They have destroyed my library, now they will destroy this one too.

But, our broken glasses and harrowing screams has reached every corner of the world.
From some local dailies to the international ones, everyone reported the brutality of police around the world. The entire capital and the Nation and world stood with us, every other institution stood with us because our library was a symbol of state-sanctioned violence and students felt the same insecurity as the victims.

The images are horrifying, the campus is empty and yet you can still see the remnants of the glasses and stones from the outside.

The state that fears its wise young voices is doomed to fall

, the citizens are not subject, you are not a king. The government is not a nation, it’s the nation that has built this government.
You may give roses to the one that broke my home, but it has lost my trust, as I feel unsafe yet secure in this paradoxical politics, ironical leaders and the great Union of India, those who are striving hard for justice are the true heroes that the world shall remember.

Articles by Mantasha Sayed

Space Combat in the 21st Century

Once a Kingdom of Books, now abodes Screams and Horrors

Space Combat in the 21st Century

Once a Kingdom of Books, now abodes Screams and Horrors