In December 2019, India passed an extremely controversial law that has led to widespread outrage and protests across the country.

The bill, known as the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), made amendments to the government’s 64-year-old Indian Citizenship law, which prevented undocumented persons from obtaining Indian citizenship. The CAB provides a path to citizenship for religious minorities—including those of the Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian faiths—from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan who can prove they arrived in India before 31 December 2014. The CAB, however, excludes those belonging to the Muslim faith.

When Britain left an independent India in 1947, it left behind two separate states in reality: Pakistan, a country that declared itself an Islamic state, and India, which despite being a Hindu-majority country declared itself a secular state.

Why has this bill come about, and why are people so infuriated by it? India is currently under the government of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)—a right-wing, Hindu nationalist party led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. To many people, a Hindu nationalist party amending a citizenship law to exclude Muslims seemed like brazen religious pandering and even goad for sectarian violence.

INDIA’S GOVERNMENT DEFENDS THE BILL

Many fear that the BJP intends to use the CAB to enforce Hindu nationalism in India by restricting the migration of Muslims. Many also understand that the bill will soon classify scores of Muslims currently living in India as unlawful residents and potentially leave them stateless. The government justifies the bill, stating that the purpose of the CAB is to protect those who come under threat for their religious beliefs, and since Muslims constitute the majority in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, they do not face the religious persecution the bill is meant to fight. Prime Minister Modi tweeted that the CAB “illustrates India’s centuries old culture of acceptance, harmony, compassion and brotherhood”.

Rahul Gandhi, the leader of India’s opposition party to the current government, has said the law and the National Registers of Citizens (NRC) are “weapons of mass polarisation unleashed by fascists”. The NRC provides an accounting of Indian residents who can prove that they came to the state prior to March 1971.

VIOLENT PROTESTS ERUPT IN RESPONSE

Protests started in the northeastern state of Assam where recent reports estimate that, prior to the CAB, 1.9 million people in the region were undocumented. Given Assam state’s proximity to Bangladesh, many of its residents belong to the Muslim faith. After the implementation of the CAB, many of those previously-undocumented could be newly-classified as citizens of India—but not Muslims.

These protests have been growing around the country and have become more violent as well. In Assam, protesters have torched buildings and train stations. In New Delhi, India’s capital, a weekend march resulted in buses on fire and roads blocked with the police responding with tear gas.

University students are leading many of the protests. Students from the Muslim-majority Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi led a large protest that resulted in a clash with the authorities. At least five people died, and over 100 were injured. Three students said the police shot them, but the police have denied shooting stating that students’ wounds were instead caused by tear gas.

Prime Minister Modi has called for peace in response, claiming that the bill is only intended to aid those who have no place else to go besides India.

Enakshi is currently a second year law student at the University of Liverpool and is pursuing a career as a solicitor. She is involved in the Liverpool Law Clinic where she helps clients in family court and is committed to advocating for human rights.

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