by Samik Roy Chowdhury and Gorky Chakraborty The divisive reception received by the Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) has allowed for polarised debates on several concepts central to our political life. In this context it is only fair to ask: How do we understand the state of citizenship in India today? Most debates that developed around this amendment have primarily been[Read More…]

Contrary to popular opinion, that theory and practice are two irreconcilable extremes, the fact is the two are sequential steps, where theory must precede practice and not the vice versa. While in theory rests the intellectual part, the practice covers the operational aspects of any revolution. Any effort to switch the process would result in catastrophe. To elaborate further, every[Read More…]

After its passing on the 11 December 2019, the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), providing pathway to Indian citizenship for refugees from the neighbouring countries on the basis of the religion they belong to, had caused large-scale protests all over India. The news in the initial few month’s period of 2020 was rife with citizens on the street voicing their[Read More…]

Ever since the passage of the draconian & unconstitutional laws, namely, the CAA, NRC & the NPR, peaceful protests spontaneously arose across the country. These protests were organised in the best traditions of the Gandhian principles of non-violence and dissent. The movement that arose committed themselves to defend the Constitution of India and the fundamental values espoused in our preamble,[Read More…]

San Francisco Wednesday became the sixth US city to pass a resolution against India’s anti-Muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC). The resolution, reaffirming San Francisco as a “welcoming city,” comes in the wake of five other cities (Seattle WA, Albany NY, St. Paul MN, Hamtramck MI, Cambridge MA) having passed similar resolutions denouncing the[Read More…]

Brutish Colombian city passed a motion on Monday, July 13 against the highly discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) adopted by the Indian government. Moved on March 9 by City Councillor Chuck Puchmyar, a well known human rights defender, the motion was finally passed with 5-1 votes in favour, with one city councillor absent. The Mayor Jonathan Cote voted in favour[Read More…]

  Just a few days ago the NHRC (National Human Right Commission) has released its report on ‘Jamia Violence’ which took place on 15th December 2019 night.  The Commission in its report has largely blamed students and said that they indulged in violent protests without permission from concerned authority.  The report while giving some ‘soft criticism’ to the Delhi police,[Read More…]

Much has been said about the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 while protestors all over India demanded to withdraw the law claiming that it is discriminatory. The matter is pending before the Supreme Court but in this piece, it is added that the amendments made over the years, in the citizenship law, have changed the very notion and discourse of[Read More…]

In the wake of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) UN High Commissioner, Michele Bachelet, has filed an intervention in the Supreme Court petition challenging the constitutionality of the Citizenship Amendment Act, as she is critical of CAA. Responding to her, India’s Foreign Minister S. Jai Shanker strongly rebutted her criticism, saying that the body (UNHCR) has been wrong and is blind[Read More…]

Following in the footsteps of Seattle City council, which unanimously passed a motion against the discriminatory citizenship law adopted by India, a councillor in New Westminster made a similar move on Monday, March 9. Chuck Puchmayr, who is vocal on social justice and human rights, tabled a motion calling for the scrapping of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) amidst a[Read More…]

Dear Mr. Shringla: I write this open letter to question you most respectfully why you told a seminar in Dhaka on 2nd March that the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by Indian parliament last year was misunderstood by many, also in Bangladesh. Although I can’t disagree with you more that: “This is a proactive legislation that has been undertaken on[Read More…]

At a time when Delhi was burning in the fire of communal riots sparked by the provocative speeches of leaders of his own party as evident from video reports, it was ironical that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have invited President Trump to visit, of all places, Sabarmati, the ashram where Gandhi prayed for peace and non-violence – the very[Read More…]

Globally, indigenous peoples’ land and cultural identity has been subjected to increasingly violent pressure in the last fifteen years, either for resources or due to demographic tensions over land.Indigenous land defenders attempting to protect fragile homelands from dispossession for mining, food, and logging projects are being subjected totargeted killings at twice the rate of previous decades. Between 2002 and 2017,[Read More…]

The blatantly communal remarks of a taxi driver at Byculla was an acrid reminder of just how far the politics of hate have gone, with the nation’s top leaders making it perfectly legitimate for others to say the most obnoxious things. Choosing to stop and get out of the taxi, I opted for a bus that crawled along Nagpada until[Read More…]

On January 26, Republic Day, 2020, while protests simmered against Citizenship Amendment Act and National Regiser of citizens throughout India, a dozen North American cities also witnessed historic protests. Indian Embassies have been witness to protests in the past. But this time it was different. In Washington D.C., 800 Indian Americans, many of whom had driven hours from neighbouring states,[Read More…]

Those supporting the CAA have the following questions against anti-CAA protestors? · We do not understand why they are protesting? CAA only talks of giving citizenship and not taking away citizenship. Then why the protests? The issue is not whether it takes away citizenship through CAA alone. True it does not talk of the same. But the potential that it[Read More…]

In December of 2019, India’s ruling party in the state of Assam, the BJP, passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), easing citizenship requirements for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians and Sikhs from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Notably excluded from this list are Muslims, including Rohingya refugees. And this is where the CAA comes in; non-Muslim residents of Assam who are not[Read More…]

Police brutally beat up Jamia Millia Islamia students today. The police resorted to a lathi-charge on the protesters near Holy Family hospital which is within walking distance of Jamia Millia Islamia university. The students were holding an anti-CAA march from Jamia Millia Islamia to Parliament. The police had earlier denied permission to the protesters for the march. Height of brutality[Read More…]

 Before engaging with Professor Partha Chatterjee’s essay published in the Wire, 18th January on the anti-CAA protests going on at nation-wide, let me briefly give his academic background and kind of works produced by him. He is one of India’s leading scholars who have produced large volume of the literature on themes like Nationalism as derivative discourse, Secularism, debates around[Read More…]

The link between the NRC and the CAA is through amendment to Rules under Foreigners’ Order. The Rule 3A (6) added by Amendment to Foreigners Order 1964 in 2019 says: The district magistrate may also refer to the Tribunal for its opinion the question as to whether the appellant is a foreigner or not within the meaning of the Foreigners[Read More…]

In the 70-year Republic, the public of India are burdened to prove their citizenship under NRC rules, prove place and birth of their parents under NPR, or face the CAA 2019. With CAA, the citizens might end up in Detention Centres. The 2015 and 2016 notifications under the Foreigners Act and Passport (Entry into India) Rules 1950 regularised the stay[Read More…]

Co-Written by AurobindoGhose and Gurjeet Kaur Picture of two Elderly Women at ShaheenBagh, is worth thousand words: Divided by Class and privilege but United by Compassion and Patriotism The moment we saw on Facebook on 25 January, 2020 the happy photograph of two elederly women together at the iconic site of women protest against the new Citizenship law, Shaheen Bagh,in[Read More…]

A few days ago, the Seattle City Council approved a resolution condemning the CAA and NRC, both creations of the ruling BJP government in India.  People involved in the creation and support of the resolution speak clearly of the splenetic reaction of many Indian-Americans to the resolution and of their searing rhetoric offered in defense of the CAA and NRC. [Read More…]

Yesterday for nearly four hours I was cycling in various working class localities of Bangalore, covered around 30 kms . I noticed that after nearly 7 weeks since the draconian law of CAA was enacted, people in general are aware of things that are happening. Undoubtedly the “walls” between various communities have come down. As Karl Marx once said “conditions[Read More…]

‘Death ends all enmity’ (Marnanti Vairani) goes a maxim in Hinduism. The story also goes that when Ravana was on death bed, Ram had even asked Laxman to go to him and learn something which no other person except a great scholar like him could teach him, declaring that though he has been forced to punish him for his terrible crime, ‘you are[Read More…]

A large number of Indians – most of them Dalits, Adivasis and the poor – will lose their citizenship under CAA only for a few thousand refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan to be accommodated, writes Vivek Sakpal Many of the long-serving and soon-to-retire government employees have their birthdays in June. Most of these, in Maharashtra, have a common date of[Read More…]

Statement by National Coalition for Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanisation (NCU) The National Coalition for Inclusive and Sustainable Urbanisation (NCU) unequivocally condemns the unconstitutional and anti-constitutional CAA-NPR-NRC being unilaterally imposed by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. The NCU is a network of activists, researchers, urban practitioners, lawyers, informal sector workers, collectives and individuals who, for the past two years have[Read More…]

The outbreak of dissent voices against the newly enacted Constitutional Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 which grants citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, appeared as several forms of condemnation for the last two months in India insisting for repeal of the act. For the first time, the post independent India happened to be an eyewitness for the religious[Read More…]

Opinions are divided over the constitutionality and morality of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). The extent of this dyad is difficult to comprehend, however, the ambit of anti-CAA stir steadily swelled across India. Soon after President Kovind gave his nod, protests against the contentious law gripped different cities and smaller towns. A sit-in protest was organized in Shaheen Bagh – a[Read More…]

Bhubaneswar, 30.01.20:The State Capital of Odisha witnessed today an unprecedented March against CAA, NPR and NRC in response to a unitedcall given by progressive political organizations, social groups, academics, media persons, artists and students in the State under the banner of ‘We The People Of India’. A peaceful gathering of about 30 thousand people solemnly reaffirmed their faith in the[Read More…]

1. The government’s decisions on the Kashmir-problem, the temple-mosque dispute, the Assam-problem (National Register of Citizens) and the Citizenship Amendment Act highlight four things: (1) That the decisions are motivated with an intention of communal polarization. (2) That the role of democratic institutions and processes has been merely perfunctory in these decisions. (3) These decisions are not characteristic of a[Read More…]

While celebrating the Republic Day, a public lecture on the topic of ‘Citizenship’ (which now has become a contentious issue after the passing of the CAA, and which has also triggered massive protests at the nation-wide,) was organized by a group of students and activists, teachers (mainly associated with JNU, DU and Jamia) under the aegis of Shaheen Ki Taleem[Read More…]

West Bengal became the fourth opposition-ruled state to pass a resolution against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in its assembly, after Kerala, Punjab and Rajasthan. The resolution, moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee was passed unanimously by the House, with Congress and Left members, along with those of the ruling Trinamool Congress (TMC), supporting it. The BJP opposed it.[Read More…]

A 620 km long human chain from the northern part of Kerala to the south was formed on Republic Day by the CPI(M) led Left Democratic Front, to register the protest against the ‘unconstitutional: Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). People from all walks of life including newly weds participated in the human chain. The organizers claimed that around 60 to 70[Read More…]

In a scathing denouncement of CAA, the lawmakers have drafted a formal five-page resolution to be tabled during the plenary session of the European Parliament starting in Brussels next week India’s Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) could trigger the “largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause widespread human suffering”, a powerful group of 154 European Parliament members have warned. In[Read More…]

Co-Written by Dr. P. S. Sahni & Shobha Aggarwal   The time for patriarchy to gracefully let women be is ripe in India right now. Last few months have seen hundreds and thousands of girls and women on the streets protesting for their political rights. Even the corporate press has been forced to report – whatever is apparent to any[Read More…]

Co-Written by Badre  Alam Khan & Sanjay Kumar   “I measure the progress of a community by the degree of progress which women have achieved.”  (BR Ambedkar)   Since the BJP government has passed the anti-constitutional CAA in Parliament on 12th December 2019; massive protests triggered and as a result currently, India is witnessing unprecedented protests in the history of Independent[Read More…]

 There are ten great claims, which can easily be proved baseless. There are ten great claims, which can easily be proved baseless. By the time the reader verifies the claim, the untruth travels long and their IT or social media managers, print and electronic media agents and PR teams will make it viral. Some claims made by Constitutional office holders[Read More…]

The Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 of India is discriminatory on several grounds. It does not promote equality but violates it. It destroys the secular character and Article 14, as ‘religion’ is made basis of discrimination. India did not include all neighbouring countries to fast track citizenship grant to immigrants. Sri Lanka is a significant exclusion, because of which Hindus and[Read More…]

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) has become the most controversial legislation since the promulgation of Constitution of India on 26 January 1950. Different arguments for and against CAA have been discussed in the Parliament, in media and even on streets, yet common people are highly confused regarding its short term and long term impact on them. The only big[Read More…]

Introduction : The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the BJP government has been challenged by uprisings nationwide. The questions raised by the masses are met with denial, deflection and deceptive statements. The government defends the Act, citing there are no plans to implement the National Register of Citizens (NRC) nationwide and that the National Population Register (NPR) and CAA[Read More…]

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s attempt to further his deeply-sectarian and divisive agenda at Belur Math, global headquarters of the Ramakrishna Mission founded by Swami Vivekananda, has backfired. His controversial defence of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 at the historic math in which he invoked Vivekananda himself has enraged a broad spectrum of people and formations. The CAA is, of[Read More…]

The Punjab Assembly on Friday passed a resolution by voice vote against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act, the second state in the country to do so.  The resolution moved by Parliamentary Affairs Minister Brahm Mohindra was passed after over three hours of discussion. While the ruling Congress and main opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) supported the resolution, the BJP opposed[Read More…]

The Citizenship (Amendment)Act, 2019 (CAA) is being vaguely labelled as Anti-Muslims. Though it is certainly designed to exclude and disparage Muslims to become lesser rights holder in India, the Act’s design reflects to a larger nefarious social agenda. In 2014, Hindus, Sikhs, Christians and Buddhists from Pakistan were given Long Term Visas (LTVs)for stay in India. In 2015, the notification[Read More…]

The sale of national flag is gone manifold. The reading on Constitution is growing and perhaps for the first time in history of independent India, the faith in our constitution has grown tremendously. It was never so much. In fact, those who are supposed to uphold the constitutional values are actually protecting Manusmirit and people have realized now that it[Read More…]

The National Register for Citizens (NRC), that created havoc among the lives of 19 lakh people in Assam, if extended to entire India, what will happen to 130 crore people? How many of them could prove their citizenship? In the 70th year of Indian Republic, the people are burdened to prove that they are citizens of India. Top constitutional authorities[Read More…]

         On 10th January 2020, the Citizenship Amendment Act  came into effect all over India. Debating about the CAA is a pointless exercise, since it is only a problem if there is a register to tie it to, and until the NPR starts, we really have nothing to go on regarding the legality, or morality of the[Read More…]

In the beginning of January 2020 two very disturbing events were reported from Pakistan. One was the attack on Nankana Sahib, the holy shrine where Sant Guru Nanak was born. While one report said that the place has been desecrated, the other stated that it was a fight between two Muslim groups. Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan condemned the[Read More…]

Co-Written by Debmalya Nandy and NIlakshi Bhattacharyya The doldrums of the current political scenario is also witnessing a changing face of the society. Not just our citizenships, our sense of reasoning and rational thinking are under threat as well.. Amidst the NRC( National Register for citizens) and CAA( Citizenship Amendment Act) row and the turbulence brought about by the introduction[Read More…]

Kudos to students of St. Stephen’s College, Delhi University, Delhi for protesting in the campus against fascism on 8 January, 2020. Almost the entire college walked out in protest and marched towards other colleges where more students joined. It was the collective decision of students of this college. This was an unprecedented political outrage by the students. They raised the[Read More…]

Co-Written by Sandeep Pandey and Anandi Pandey At New Delhi’s Jamia Millia University if one visits the library it may appear as if a pitched battle was fought here. Almost all glasses have been broken by tear gas shells or stun grenades and furniture has been vandalised. And this was in response to some peaceful protests outside the library. Although[Read More…]

Remember Faiz Ahmed Faiz writing about Allah? He was a communist. But many communists in Kerala believe that when the Muslims in this country are hit from head to toe for their culture, identity and faith, they should not even utter the word Allah’ in their protests on streets. In the ballroom dance of electoral politics, these communists forgot to[Read More…]

The first thing to understand is that this CAA+NRC is the best thing that could have happened to India at this stage. We had become a rapidly polarized, fascist, extremist society with the voices of the ‘silent’ majority conspicuous by their silence while the strident and raucous screech of hate speech was echoing off the walls of our collective conscience.[Read More…]

With the enactment of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (‘CAA’) and the initiation of processes for creation of a National Register of Indian Citizens ( ‘NRIC’), a citizenship vesting apparatus based on religion, has now been operationalized. In a pre-NRIC exercise, the ‘residents’ of India will be identified by updating the National Population Register (‘NPR’), which will then be worked[Read More…]

Introduction “I want to live and work with humans, so I need to express the emotions to understand humans and build trust with people,” said ‘Sophia’[i], the World’s First Robot citizen, in an exchange with moderator Andrew Ross Sorkin nearly two years ago. When countries started thinking of granting citizenship to robots and robot citizen(s) can speak of building trust[Read More…]

  The ongoing and widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India, has rightly inspired the hopes of decent and freedom loving peoples in India. In this context, the ruling Modi regime’s spin machine has sprung into action, to try and “contain” the fallout and seek control of the narrative around the[Read More…]

Since 1947, never had post-independent India experienced such a public anti-government outrage and dissent voices. Peaceful protests and brutal state crackdown is happening across India after Parliament passed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The law has been contemplated even by United Nations and International Media as blatantly Islamophobic in nature. The National Register of Citizens (NRC) along with CAA raises a[Read More…]

If the record of December 2019 is anything to go by 2020 promises to be one of great hope for all Indians interested in preserving their country’s traditions of secularism, democracy and tolerance of diversity. The New Year may well be a turning point in the dismal record of hate and hubris that has prevailed over the last several years[Read More…]

The Citizenship amendment act of 2019 is another vicious attempt to change the demographics of India. The Act, along with upcoming National Register of citizens will successfully polarize the electorate and It is aimed to further consolidate the “Us” versus “Them” narrative. The 2014 General Election was contested on the pro-development, Anti-Congress plank. Narendra Modi (then CM of Gujarat) was[Read More…]

Indian-Australians in Sydney held a huge protest against the unconstitutional, bigoted and divisive Citizenship Amendment Act and the National Register of Citizens. Speakers called for the repeal of the CAA and NRC; for an end to police violence; and for the Morrison government to speak out about the human rights abuses occurring under the Modi government. A number of speakers[Read More…]

The niggardly standard of Indian diplomacy with respect to three of its neighbouring countries : Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, is getting exposed. First, the CAB wrongly accused these countries of having persecuted its non-Muslim minorities and assumed that they were thus forced to illegally migrate to India. Second, the NRC imperfectly identified the ‘foreigner’ mainly on account of lack of[Read More…]

When Winter Came, the Power of the People Blazed On The brave protesters at Shaheen Bagh in Delhi have been on protest since Dec 15 after the brutal attack on Jamia students. They have been sitting in solidarity with the protest of the students and against the various steps that the central government threatens against citizenship criteria, like the Citizenship[Read More…]

As 25,000 to 50,000 people descended on Azad Maidan over a 5 hour period to protest against the CAA-NRC-NPR [Citizenship (Amendment) Act – National Register of Citizens – National Population Register] on December 27, 2019, the portion allowed for protest swelled over and the outside gates were opened by the police. This despite the authorities refusing to allow the originally[Read More…]

Uttar Pradesh is dealing with CAA as it dealt with crime: encounters. Seventy-six year old advocate Mohammad Shoaib fought to have innocents branded as terrorists under repressive laws released, and risked multiple assaults by right-wing lawyers as he took these cases through various courts in Uttar Pradesh. His contemporary, former police officer SR Darapuri became a human rights activist and writer after he retired.[Read More…]

If one considers the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) alone, it appears that the Centre is providing some concessions to ‘immigrants’ coming from three neighbouring Islamic nations into India, classifying them as religious minorities persecuted in those nations, to secure citizenship in India. The concession offered is that if they reside six years in India, it will be enough to get[Read More…]

Stop reign of terror in Uttar Pradesh: ‘Ham Bharat ke Log’ asks for immediate end to brutal suppression of dissent and independent probe into police atrocities For the last one week, Uttar Pradesh is under a reign of terror. Uttar Pradesh government is employing unlawful and lethal tactics to harass and intimidate the citizens that are protesting against Citizenship Amendment[Read More…]

A fact-finding report, published by a team comprising activist Yogendra Yadav, CPI (ML)’s Kavita Krishnan, and Riad Azam, says that Uttar Pradesh is under a “reign of terror” following the state government’s “unlawful and lethal tactics” to harass citizens protesting peacefully against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC). The report, which cites district-wise statistics and[Read More…]

We stand in complete solidarity with the students of IIT Kanpur who marched on 17th December against the police violence inflicted upon protesting students of AMU, JMI and other universities against CAA and NRC. According to the student organisers, they took admin permission for the march on the previous day itself but when they reached the assembly point, they were[Read More…]

Co-Written by Karen Gabriel and Prem Kumar Vijayan The following is a message that has been doing the rounds on WhatsApp and other social media forums. It is apparently a summary of the arguments made by ‘Harish Salve, well known Lawyer, who successfully argued India’s case, in International Court of Justice’, in defence of the CAB (now CAA), in the[Read More…]

The unrest triggered by the passing of the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) is broiling across the country. Thousands of people, including students and intellectuals, are on the streets fighting to save the Constitution of India. It is time that an iron-willed leadership rise and sustain this movement. CAA is regressive and discriminatory, undoubtedly. It violates the fundamental rights guaranteed[Read More…]

Co- written by, Wakeel Ahmed, Badre Alam Khan and Wasim Ahsan   After the passing the unconstitutional CAA by the Indian Parliament on 12th December, 2019;  it has created a massive unrest at the nation-wide and as a result, students, Left and secular forces have started opposing the said Act on the grounds of violating the basic tenants of our[Read More…]

Fear of losing the job; fear of statelessness; fear of ending the agronomy; fear of being selling off the country. There is a very uncertain future ahead of the millions of working-class in India. Did you ever think about increasing of working shift in factories from 8 hours to 9 hours? Did you ever think that contractual labour has to[Read More…]

To the attention of Prof. Fernand de Varennes Special Rapporteur on minority issues Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10 Switzerland CC: Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief   Re: India: Citizenship Bill Discriminates Against Muslims Dear Prof.Fernand de Varennes:  I am William Nicholas Gomes, a British Human Rights Activist and[Read More…]

On December 20, 2019, the Press Information Bureau (the “PIB”), the nodal agency of the Indian government that disseminates information about the government policies, published a list of Frequently Asked Questions (“FAQs”) on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (the “CAA”), via Twitter. Although the government, through these FAQs, has made an obvious attempt to justify and establish the legitimacy of[Read More…]

Scores of people came together to denounce the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by the right wing Hindu nationalist Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP), at a rally organized in Surrey on Sunday, December 22. CAA is a divisive law that welcomes only non-Muslim refugees from the Muslim-dominated countries neighbouring India. Aimed at polarizing the Hindu majority against Muslims by excluding[Read More…]

The voices rising from all the corners of Assam against the Citizenship Amendment Act (Bill) has divided Assam into two sects- one, which is pro-bill or honors the stand of the government in implementing it, and the other, those who are with the populist voice fighting the establishment. But, is it so? I tend to disagree. For me, both the[Read More…]

On December 19th, I left Batla House, Jamia Nagar to Lal Quila to see my city swell up in anger. The BJP-led government had passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) and turned it into the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). When the students of Jamia Milia Islamia had protested against it, fearing for their own existence, the Police Force did the[Read More…]

The mediadarbar.com published a story[1] to explain CAA and NRIC. the story goes like this: A pilot reaches a village with a big aircraft and offers a free ride to its villagers. The villagers had never seen a plane like this, in such a proximity. So many fall prey to the pilot’s ploy and took the seat. The full plane,[Read More…]

Yesterday, the 20th of December, marked the anniversary of Adolf Hitler’s release from prison after a failed attempt to seize power. While he was behind bars, he wrote his manifesto. After he was released, Hitler published Mein Kampf in 1925. In the same year, the RSS — a fascist paramilitary — was founded in India with the goal of establishing[Read More…]

As the country offers stiff resistance to the government’s agenda of polarizing the society, the factors at play are not confined to persecution of religious minorities alone. It is a multipronged attack aimed at dividing the country and its people at several levels, each one more destructive than the other. With more than ten protesters dead in the process, the[Read More…]

The waters of fascism have risen in the country where I was born and the country where I have citizenship. Both countries need sustained, non-violent, mass protest to demand the removal of fascist regimes. As morose as it sounds, I sometimes think about where I would be sent if I were deported. I’m a naturalized U.S. citizen, with no guarantee[Read More…]

Jo aag laga rahe hain, TV pe unke jo drishya aa rahe hain, yeh aag lagaane vaale kaun hain, woh unke kapdon se hi pata chal jaata hai (From the visuals on TV, those setting the fire can be identified by their clothes) – Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an election rally recently. By alluding to the clothes/dresses of certain protesters,[Read More…]

In solidarity with the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 “India cannot cease to be one nation, because people belonging to different religions live in it. … In no part of the world are one nationality and one religion synonymous terms; nor has it ever been so in India.” Mahatma Gandhi in Hind Swaraj (1908); Quoted in S.R. Bommai[Read More…]

We, the Indian recipients of the Magsaysay Award, would like to express our deep sense of concern and anguish at the passing into Law, of the Citizenship Amendment Bill – and the linkage of the same with the National Register of Citizens. Both of these are clearly discriminatory and violative of all the guarantees of right to equality before law[Read More…]

Co-Written by Bikash Sarma and Shofiul A. Pathan Meghalaya Governor Tathagata Roy recently tweeted,“A democracy is necessarily divisive. If you do not want it, go to North Korea”, even before the protestors against Citizenship Amendment Bill (Now an Act), 2019 in Shillong reached his official residence. His tweet is a small but significant statement that constitutes the supposedly majoritarian discourse[Read More…]

Citizenship Amendment Bill, while passed in both houses of Parliament has elicited diverse and negative responses all over India. On one hand we see massive protests in North East leading to death of four people. On the other there is a sever discomfort among those upholding Indian Constitution and among the Muslim community all over the country. This Bill in[Read More…]

The nation wide protests against #CAA and #NRC has reflected the mood of the nation and categorically rejected the attempt to divide this country and create a brahmanical theocratic state even when the rulers will pretend everything and bow to the constitution, we know they had in mind, was to polarise the nation and enjoy the fruits of ‘division’. If[Read More…]

  As we stand in the third decade of astructural economic reform, we must question every side of the coin about their intentions before taking any particular side. The same should be done to the populist leaders of Assam who have sparked protests across the state on the issue of Citizenship Amendment Bill. It’s interesting how history is on the[Read More…]

People’s Alliance for Democracy and Secularism strongly condemns the Citizenship Amendment Act(CAA) passed by the Parliament on Dec 11,2019. Modi government used its brute majority to force it through the Parliament, without addressing any of the concerns raised against it. The law violates principle of secularism, which is part of the basic structure of the constitution. Parliament has no legal[Read More…]

Solidarity statement by Hyderabad Muslim Women’s Forum against the police action on students of Jamia Milia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University Jamia Milia Islamia University, New Delhi became the centre of students protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act which was passed in the parliament last week. Even Aligarh Muslim University students were protesting against this Act. On 15th December[Read More…]

When Nazi Germany passed the Nuremberg Laws in 1935, they made it illegal for non-Germans to be citizens. Germans to prove that they had Aryan ancestry. India’s Citizenship Amendment Bill mirrors those Nazi laws. Instead of segregating people by genetics, it segregates them by religion. It makes religion the basis for citizenship. CAB is only the latest in a line[Read More…]

Co-Written by Ushosee Pal & Sanchari Basu Chaudhuri  Time and again, students have shown the way to dissent peacefully and demand change. And, Friday, the 13th was no different. Three to four teachers were giving a speech about NRC and CAB inside the campus while a number of students (around fifty) listened. It was peaceful inside the campus on that[Read More…]

The end, hopefully, of Jantar-Mantarisation of people’s resistance   It took the lesser-in-the-news, supposedly less-flashy Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) to change the complexion of resistance in the country. While we had earlier seen some protests regarding hike in hostel fees, whose narrative was broadened to “affordable public education,” we did not see much mobilization for various egregious national issues like[Read More…]

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 was brought as a Citizenship Amendment Bill for the purpose of amending the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make illegal migrants who are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before 31 December 2014, eligible for Indian citizenship. It also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalisation from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants.[Read More…]

There’s a well-known story, often included in children’s story anthologies, about the legendary wisdom of King Solomon. Once a dispute between two women was brought to him to resolve. Both of them were mother’s of two small babies, and they lived in the same house. One morning one of the babies was found dead, smothered in bed. Then each of[Read More…]

Co-Written by Bishaldeep Kakati and Pranjit Das There was a time when the tales of the Assam Agitation were simply a part of history, for all those who were born in the post Assam Agitation era. But as the common quote itself says, “History repeats itself”, hence it seems that even something similar to Assam Agitation is currently lingering in[Read More…]

India is witnessing a set of massive protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). These protests do offer a ray of hope of preserving and protecting the idea of ‘secular’ India. What the parliament sought to undo to the constitution through the majoritarian numbers is sought to be redone by the mass protests. A regime which is bent on bringing[Read More…]

PUCL strongly condemns the motivated, targeted and brutal attack by the CRPF and Delhi Police on students of Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi yesterday, Sunday 15th December, 2019 causing serious injuries to over 150 students including girls, and also arrest of scores of students and youngsters. By all media reports and eye witness accounts, the[Read More…]

Co- written by Badre Alam Khan, Wakeel Ahmed and Wasim Ahsan The Delhi Police have forcefully entered Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) university campus without the any permission of university administration (as the Chief Proctor of Jamia has officially tweeted) and started fired tear gas inside campus and even students studying in the library of JMI. Some students were severely injured.[Read More…]

“Where do we go from here?” asked a US-based Indian Muslim friend the morning after India lurched further to the right with the smooth passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill. Yet another ostensibly wild and crazy idea on the Parivar’s agenda has been ticked off and with such ease. Who would have thought that it would take less than 72[Read More…]

Martin Neimoller’s confessional poem of how he, a Protestant pastor, did not care or ignored the rise of Hitler and Nazism in Germany , and how they arrested or persecuted the Communists, the Socialists, the trade unionists, the Jews and so on, one group after another till “Then they came for me – and there was no one left to[Read More…]

PUCL Call to Citizens to launch Non-Cooperation Movement against CAA & NRC PUCL deplores the promulgation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on 12th December, as a law which renders asunder the basic structure of India’s constitutional scheme founded on the stated goals of secularism, respect for diversity and peaceful coexistence of all communities, without distinction of community, caste, creed[Read More…]

The Kerala government has decided not to implement the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill enacted by the Centre, calling it unconstitutional. Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan told reporters in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday that his government had taken the decision based on the “unconstitutional” nature of the bill. Another opposition-ruled state, Punjab, too, decided to not implement the law. Chief Minister Captain Amarinder[Read More…]

The Left parties – Communist Party of India (Marxist), Communist Party of India, Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist)-Liberation, All India Forward Bloc and Revolutionary Socialist Party – have issued the following statement: Both the Houses of Parliament have passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB). The Left parties consider this Bill as being completely violative of the Indian Constitution and aimed[Read More…]

Both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha have passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB). With this India moves one more step further towards ‘Hindu Rashtra’ an anti-thesis to the idea of India. For citizenship by naturalization, a stay of 11 years was sufficient to acquire citizenship. This did not have a religious dimension to it. The current bill allows non-muslims from[Read More…]

The Constitution of India guarantees the right to citizenship for all Indians; irrespective of their religion, caste, language, culture, gender or profession. This very right is being made void by the Citizenship Amendment Bill. A move to decide citizenship on the basis of religion amounts to a rejection of the Constitution. The is an exercise to divide people on communal[Read More…]

Bringing unity in diversity by harmonizing the opposing forces of centripetal and centrifugal trends in the country for the achievement of common national goals is the purpose of federalism in India. As in all federations, there is a formal division of legislative, administrative and financial powers between the Centre and the constituent units. As provided in the 7th Schedule of[Read More…]

The proposed Citizenship amendment bill is an assault on the Constitution of India which never based our citizenship on our religious or caste identities. On the one side, the government says that it want to welcome people living in Islamic countries but immediately suggest that Muslims are not wanted. It makes a clear assumption as if all the Muslims living[Read More…]

Can you relate to the feeling of being trapped in a world where your identity is in your enemy? Can you relate to anger the accompanies when the language you speak and choice of god you pray to determine whether you’ll be able to put food on the table? Can you relate to the feeling alienation when babus and netas[Read More…]

It was a spectacular rally in the pre-historic city of Guwahati on 23 January last that strongly opposed the Indian Union government’s latest initiative to amend the country’s citizenship act in favour of religious asylum seekers from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Organized by All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) along with 30 indigenous groups at the historic Latashil play ground of[Read More…]