Citizenship Amendment Act Research Articles

The veil of resistance in Shaheen Bagh: Muslim women’s activism and the differential solidarity networks

ABSTRACT This paper seeks to comprehensively examine the complex dynamics surrounding the protests of Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India. It emphasizes the emergence of distinct forms of solidarity among this unassuming group of women and underscores the significance of their collective action in challenging prevailing narratives within South Asian feminist discourse. The paper posits the CAA protests as emblematic of the evolving interplay between digital platforms, grassroots activism, and scholarly dialogue in contemporary South Asia. Furthermore, the paper elucidates how the modalities of resistance in South Asian revolutionary politics diverge from the traditional binary framework of Gandhian Satyagraha and radical leftist revolutionary strategies. The protests which also interweaved Dalit Ambedkarite politics, digital hashtag movements, counter-ableist politics also exemplified the ways in which identity politics in South Asia could be reconfigured in terms of a differential paradigm. The paper explores how the protests at Shaheen Bagh exemplify a nuanced approach to resistance that transcends simplistic categorizations, thereby contributing to a reconfiguration of established paradigms in the region's political discourse. This analysis underscores the complex interplay between diverse ideological currents and grassroots mobilization, illuminating the evolving landscape of resistance within South Asia's socio-political context.

Abstract C133: The missing cancer and palliative care in displaced community in Northeast India

Abstract Introduction: Cancer is a chronic illness needing long treatment. This includes late toxicity management in case of cure and palliative care if cure is a distant possibility. Northeast part of India shares international border with Bangladesh and both sides had witnessed geopolitical uncertainty since India’s independence in 1947. Unrest and military rule in East Pakistan made the citizens to flee to India which continued even after the creation of the new country Bangladesh in 1971. However, the poor migrants are not eligible under the public health scheme due to lack of proof of citizenship. Methods: We have analyzed the public health scheme and issues of migrants in Northeast India after observing discontinuity in care. Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) is a national public health insurance scheme of the Government of India that aims to provide free access to health insurance coverage for low- income earners in the country. The scheme is applicable to Indian citizens. In 2019 Government of India passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to provide Indian citizenship to the illegal migrants who entered India on or before 31st December 2014. However, the exercise to identify migrants as per the Act is a tedious process and not yet over.: Results: Until the exercise of granting citizenship under the Citizenship Amendment Act is done, the poor migrants who have no proof of citizenship cannot take benefit under AB PM-JAY scheme. Unfortunately, some internally displaced Indian citizens are lacking proof of citizenship and many of them are suffering from chronic illnesses and cancer, however neither afford to pay for treatment nor eligible to get free treatment under AB PM-JAY scheme. Conclusions: Northeast India migrant issue is a special situation where poor migrants from other country and some displaced poor Indians are not eligible to get cancer care under public health insurance scheme. The Citizenship Amendment Act provides a solution by granting citizenship. However, the tedious process is taking long time and no solution being offered in the interim period. Citation Format: Suryakanta Acharya. The missing cancer and palliative care in displaced community in Northeast India [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 17th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2024 Sep 21-24; Los Angeles, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2024;33(9 Suppl):Abstract nr C133.

Socio-Political Implications of the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 in India – A Review

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) enacted in India in December 2019 has triggered multifaceted socio-political debates and protests, both domestically and internationally. This research paper seeks to delve into the socio-political implications of the CAA within the Indian context. Through a thorough examination of academic literature, legal analyses, and empirical evidence, this paper aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the ramifications of the CAA on Indian society, politics, and international relations. By exploring themes such as religious identity, communal tensions, democratic values, and diplomatic repercussions, this paper sheds light on the complex dynamics at play and offers insights into the challenges and opportunities presented by the CAA.

The Rule of Law in an Ethnocracy: India's Citizenship Amendment Act and the Will of the Hindu Ethnos

What is the fate of the rule of law in India that is transitioning to an ethnocracy? Drawing on a ‘thin’ conception of the rule of law, this article argues that the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act responds to the emergence of a political ideal that constructs the Hindu ethnos as central to the Indian nation. Drawing on a variety of sources that include pronouncements by leaders of the RSS, the ideological fount of India's ruling BJP, analysis of right-wing periodicals that function as a conveyor belt of social ideas, and the provisions of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), this article highlights the core themes that motivate the will of the Hindu ethnos in respect of the contentious legislation: (i) the persecution of the Hindu minorities in India's Muslim-majority neighbours; (ii) the discrimination faced by Dalits in particular and (iii) the establishment of India as a Hindu Zion. In the first section, I elaborate the concept of ‘ethnocracy’. The second section reflects on the fate of the rule of law in an ethnocratic India by analysing the social justifications for the introduction of the contentious CAA. In the third section, I situate these dynamics within India's broader transition to an ethnocracy, the political ideals that shape this transition, and the shared social norms that emerge from this transition, which feeds back to the rule of law in an ethnocracy.

India’s relations with Saudi Arabia and UAE under the Modi Government

India is home to the third-largest Muslim population, any internal policy changes affect Muslim voters including bilateral relations with neighbours and Gulf countries. Despite, several criticisms, the Modi government gained some objections over the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Population Register (NPR), and National Register of Citizens (NRC) issues at the national level. Nonetheless, the government has regained a second term in India. Modi's foreign policies not only made a new high in the bilateral relationship with Islamic countries in the Gulf, but amicability had changed significantly. Both Saudi Arabia and the UAE in West Asia are rebuilding a new friendship era with India. After the decline of oil demand from the Western Countries, Gulf countries’ expectations have increased to re-draw their approach towards New Delhi. Retrospectively, it also provided several opportunities from both sides (India and Saudi Arabia-UAE) to boost their ties including a joint naval exercise between the UAE and India, an invitation by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation to Sushma Swaraj, the inauguration of a Hindu temple in the UAE by Narendra Modi as well as the Crown prince Mohammed bin Salman visit to New Delhi. These are a few steps from both India and Saudi Arabia-UAE sides to re-energize their relationship. Therefore, this paper discusses how the Modi government despite numerous challenges able to enhance a new era of the bilateral relationship with Saudi Arabia and the UAE. This research extensively covers the aspects of the economic, military, and strategic relationships which include both side visits and MoU.

Media Framing of Human Rights Violations: Unpacking Indian Radical Nationalist Policies

Abstract This systematic review examines the media framing of human rights violations, in the backdrop of radical nationalist movements in India. The study focuses on the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP’s) governance and its association with a radical nationalist (Hindutva) ideology. The study aims to shed light on the International Media’s criticism of the party’s role in perpetuating anti-minority sentiments and provoking violence against them. Using an integrative review approach, this paper meticulously analyzed 34 selected articles, from research journals and newspapers, published between 2010 and 2022. Thematic analysis was used to identify recurring patterns and key themes related to the BJP’s radical nationalist approach and its impact on minorities. Findings from the existing literature and international media’s reporting reveal the BJP’s transformation from a political organization to a stubborn force, promoting radical nationalist principles to consolidate its power base. Furthermore, analysis shows that the enactment of the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) triggered widespread protests whereas amending Articles 370 and 35A stripped Jammu and Kashmir of its autonomy, which resulted in human rights violations. In conclusion, the media content analysis highlights the human rights concerns due to the BJP’s radical nationalist approach and underscores an urgent need to make such policies that promote co-existence, inclusivity, and social cohesion to foster a pluralistic society.

Institutional isomorphism in corporate Twitter discourse on citizenship and immigration in India and the United States

AbstractHigh net‐worth individuals (HNIs) play important roles in influencing policy through their voices. Technology‐mediated means of addressing issues, such as social media activism, have become a central part of such policy advocacy. We examined the Twitter engagement of the 50 wealthiest individuals and their ‘networks’ in India and the United States, specifically their engagement with citizens' movements and policy issues related to citizenship and immigration, with a focus on debates triggered by the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and rescission of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), respectively. We quantified the level of engagement of ‘HNI networks’ with these debates through a textual analysis of their tweets using computational methods combined with manual annotation, followed by qualitative analysis and comparison of subjective meanings attached by actors to key terms. We found that American HNIs leveraged their social media presence to advocate for inclusive immigration and naturalisation policies, their model of advocacy characterised by confrontation, collective action and ownership by key actors, thus exhibiting mimetic isomorphism. Indian HNIs' tweets on CAA were few and far between, with no call for change and no evidence of either collective action or individual ownership, and a hesitation to challenge the central government, thus exhibiting coercive isomorphism.

Of Citizenship, State, Society and Politics: Situating Muslim Immigrants after National Register of Citizenship and Citizenship Amendment Act (2019) in Assam

Citizenship in the Indian state of Assam is a contentious issue and it is generally associated with the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants (popularly known as Aboidha Bangladeshis). The “Aboidha Bangladeshis” are considered responsible for many problems in Assam. They are also considered as a challenge to the democratic politics of the state. It is widely acknowledged that many illegal immigrants have got registered themselves in the electoral roll and participate in the political process. There has been a long and persistent demand for the detection and deportation of these illegal immigrants to Bangladesh. The National Register of Citizenship (NRC) Assam was initiated to meet this demand of identifying the illegal immigrants. However, Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019 has diverged from this demand. This act enables granting citizenship to even the illegal immigrants of Hindus, Sikhs, Jain, Parsis, Christians, and Buddhists communities from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Muslims have been kept outside the provision of this act. Drawing on public document, media reports and social histography of the region, this article argues that the citizenship issue is communalised now. The illegal immigrants are predominantly perceived to be Muslims and are subjected to various forms of stigmatization in Assam. Although, there are several other immigrant groups in the state, Bangladeshi in particular are treated harshly. Therefore, the communal divide emerging out of the process of documentation of citizenship via NRC Assam and amending citizenship law to favour certain groups have rendered Muslim immigrants more vulnerable.

That’s a ‘Sign’!: How Placards Communicated Disapproval of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India

ABSTRACT India witnessed massive rallies and protest marches in response to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a controversial 2019–2020 legislation that grants citizenship to all migrants except Muslims coming illegally from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. As people turned to creative means of voicing their opinions, placards became important tools of questioning the government and the bill. Based on framing and the vernacular rhetoric of social movements, this study examined how placards used in anti-CAA movement in India expressed their disapproval of the discriminatory law. In an era of digital activism, this study attempts to emphasize the relevance of traditional media, especially the media of the protest emanating from the anti-CAA movement.

Dissent Art in the Digital Age: Insights into the Culture of Artivism on Instagram in India

The introduction of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2019 marked a discernible change in the landscape of online protest art. As protests against the act gathered momentum, a surge in the art endorsing the movement dominated Indian social media and increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. This wave was propelled by a cohort of “artivists” with social and cultural influence who were positioned favorably on the digital spectrum. They used platforms such as Instagram to craft and share protest art, leveraging social media to express their dissent. The intensification of the online protests subsequently led to instances of individual and organized abuse directed at the artists, including mob attacks and threats of First Information Reports. This paper explores this phenomenon through extensive interactions with online “artivists” in India in order to understand the cultural shift and emphasize the similarities and differences between virtual dissent art and traditional forms of art activism. Adopting a qualitative methodology that combines digital ethnography and semi-structured interviews, the author—who also found her artistic voice amidst this movement—seeks to capture the artists’ approaches and subjectivity. The paper further delves into the limitations and constraints posed by social media platforms, addressing the issue of online harassment faced by artivists on Instagram. Lastly, it engages in a discourse on how social media commodifies dissent within the landscape of digital capitalism.

Borders, Boundaries and Barricades: Speculative Delhis

In Samit Basu’s SF novel Chosen Spirits (2020), a character offers a cosmology of power within India’s capital city: ‘Delhi has always been a city of seven walls […] You could guess you’d crashed into your wall before, when you couldn’t go further, but now the walls can be mapped and measured, the tools exist.’ Written against the backdrop of India’s discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the protests against it in 2019–20, Chosen Spirits extrapolates a near-future Delhi in which, despite the relative success of the protests, the stark inequalities of caste, class and religion have been reinforced by changes to the city’s geography, and state surveillance increasingly precludes the possibility of working for change. Reading the novel alongside other recent works of speculative fiction set in Delhi, this article analyses Basu’s walled city, and those of other contemporary Indian SF writers, against the shifting borders, boundaries and barricades of the city, exploring their potential as sites of radical activism.

Bagh, Barsati, Bad Character: women and mobility narratives of neoliberal Delhi

The brief but powerful intersectional protest at Shaheen Bagh in 2020 against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) passed by India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government presented a paradox: as the immobile and visibly Muslim Indian women protesters, emblematized by the dadis or grandmothers of Shaheen Bagh, formed a blockade, their images quickly went viral. Inspired by their example, many makeshift ‘Shaheen Baghs’ cropped up across the nation, the name of this neighborhood in South Delhi exceeding its location to become a metonym of dissent in a country hurtling toward fascism. This article argues that the protest performative of Shaheen Bagh marked a significant narrative break in representation of Indian women’s iconized mobility after liberalization. Reading Shaheen Bagh along with Anita Desai’s ‘The Rooftop Dwellers’ and Deepti Kapoor’s A Bad Character, I examine the politics of representing women’s mobility in Delhi, and its gendered constraints as well as strategies to overcome and subvert them within the larger context of both Hindutva and liberalization. I conclude by locating a hopeful feminist counternarrative in Shaheen Bagh against the prevalent discourse of marketized Hindutva that melds the cultural and economic logic of both neoliberalism and Hindu nationalism.

Contesting authoritarianism, redefining democracy: Youth and citizenship in contemporary India

This article attempts to understand how youth in contemporary India perceives, experiences and engages with the contestations around the ideas of citizenship and nation against the backdrop of the new citizenship policies. In December 2019, the majoritarian Hindu nationalist government in India enacted a Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that purported to give citizenship to persecuted religious minorities from India’s neighbouring countries. But the Act crucially did not include Muslims in the list of oppressed minorities and created widespread anxieties about the possible loss of citizenship through the CAA and the National Register of Citizens. Millions of young people across Indian university campuses and neighbourhoods took to the streets to protest against the legislation. Drawing on the narratives of the young people who participated in these protests, this article highlights the youth’s conceptions of and negotiations with their identity and the use of different modes of resistance deployed in the anti-CAA movement. The article concludes by laying out the implications of these youth protests as a mode of ‘public pedagogy’ for citizenship education as an alternative to the statist models of citizenship education.

Citizenship, Religion, and the Politics of Belonging: A Case Study of Shaheen Bagh

Shaheen Bagh is no longer merely the name of a Muslim locality in South Delhi (India). It has, in fact, now become an iconic symbol of resistance in defense of the Constitution. Based on participant observation, as well as semi-structured interviews with the protestors, this article engages with women and men transitioning from a state of silent citizenship to insurgent citizenship by putting up an extraordinary resistance to the political regime in the wake of the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), 2019. It also argues that the routinized public performances at Shaheen Bagh aided to internalize an identity of insurgent citizen—based on a sense of being wronged, and in opposition to the current political dispensation. Furthermore, the performative politics at the site helped women to subvert the scripted narrative of docility and subordination that is usually attached to them.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) in India and the potential for statelessness in situ: a cautionary tale from Assam

ABSTRACT The threat of statelessness has the potential to be realized anew in India with the announcement of the impending National Register of Citizens (NRC). It has propelled this populous democracy once again into controversy. The importance of this announcement in conjunction with the 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) cannot be overstated. We draw on the case of Assam for its potential to predict the implications and consequences of a pan-national register of citizens and the threat of detention, deportation, and large-scale rendering of statelessness for those excluded from the drafts. We stress the need for India to take incremental steps to establish transparent procedures and a clear trajectory for persons rendered stateless in situ by this state project.

Pan-Hindutva and the Discursive Practices of Digital (Counter)Publics around #SupportCAA 1

In December 2019, the Indian parliament implemented the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that gives non-Muslim immigrants from the neighboring countries an easy access to Indian citizenship. Across India, the CAA has garnered support and provoked protests in equal measure. This paper examines how #SupportCAA constantly negotiates between two parallel objectives: first, to achieve a pan-national unification of non-Muslim “Indians” (practically, Hindus); and second, to reconfigure India as a site for the pan-Hindutva communion against the Muslim Other. It seeks to understand: How does #SupportCAA as a platform furnish pan-Hindutva discourses, while rendering agency to an “imagined community” of pan-national CAA supporters? How do the CAA ideologues function as “networked publics,” and then go on to territorialize certain online spaces/fora? What does the CAA bequeath to the “imagined community” in question? What vocabulary of political partisanship does such territorialization furnish? How does it draw on the discourses of religious nationalism and remain nearly impervious to any dissent?

Shaheen Bagh: Making sense of (re)emerging “Subaltern” feminist political subjectivities in hashtag publics through critical, feminist interventions

In this article, we examine protest of India’s passage of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and National Registry of Citizens (NRC) which spurred instances of physical and digital protest. We study the intersections of gender, political subjectivities, and digital activism among anti-CAA-NRC activists, specifically the “Women of Shaheen Bagh.” We discuss our data collection methods, description, and analysis of the protests in the context of larger questions, including how critical, feminist researchers may engage with data tools and how forms of gendered, transnational protest are mediated and represented via individual images, texts, and videos that make up social media data. We illuminate the formation of political subjectivities in the context of transnational, digital protest movements by re-appropriating computational and data tools. This article seeks to demonstrate an interdisciplinary engagement between critical, feminist approaches to knowledge and subject formation and data science approaches to social network analysis and data visualization techniques.

Introduction

Abstract This is a roundtable discussion about the Basic Law: Israel—The Nation State of the Jewish People, 2018. The contributions by Honaida Ghanim and Lana Tatour situate this law in the longer legal and political history of Israeli settler colonialism in Palestine. The third contribution by Rahul Rao offers a comparative account of the Indian Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, which is similarly marked by racism and exclusion and resonates strongly with the politics of Zionism.

Making (Ab)sense of Women’s Agency and Belonging in Citizenship Debates in India: Analysing the Shaheen Bagh Protests as ‘Act(s) of Citizenship’

The developments in citizenship in India that took place in 2019–2020 witnessed intervention from women belonging to minority communities who have emerged as forebears of resistance to the authoritarian-masculine imposition of citizenship as religious exclusion in the form of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019. The article revisits the women protests against the Act through the lens of ‘acts of citizenship’. The Shaheen Bagh protests, as these are called popularly, have been studied mainly as Muslim women exhibiting their defiance against a draconian law adversely affecting them. I argue that these protests can be interpreted as acts of citizenship where women spearheaded demonstrations against the Indian state to withhold their rights of citizenship as ‘activist citizens’, asserting the constitutional value of respecting diversity and democratic citizenship, thereby demonstrating ‘constitutional patriotism’. The article contributes to the ongoing debate on gendered citizenship in India providing an alternative approach, moving away from the popular binaries of ‘cultural diversity’ and ‘cultural nationalism’.

Gauging Opinions About the Citizenship Amendment Act and NRC

Today, the advent of social media has provided a platform for expressing opinions regarding legislation and public schemes. One such burning legislation introduced in India is the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and its impact on the National Citizenship Register (NRC) and, subsequently, on the National Population Register (NPR). This study examines and determines the opinions expressed on social media regarding the act through a Twitter analysis approach that extracts nearly 18,000 tweets during 10 days of introducing the scheme. The analysis revealed that the opinion was neutral but tended to a more negative reaction. Consequently, recommendations on improving public perception about the scheme by suitable for interpreting the Act to the public are provided in the paper.