India The World Factbook 2021. Washington, DC: Central Intelligence Agency, 2021. https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/

India is the world’s largest democracy. It has 1.3 billion people, of whom 80% are Hindu and 14% are Muslim. After centuries of conflict between these two groups, the Indian government, currently led by Hindu nationalists, is violating the constitutional requirement of secularism by systemically discriminating against and threatening the identity of the 138 million Muslims who live in India today.[1]

The Rise of Hindu Nationalism in India

In 1947, India became independent from England and subsequently drafted its constitution. One of the key elements of this constitution was the tenet of secularism. Secularism in India is defined to mean that “the state will not identify itself with or be controlled by any religion” and that the state “guarantees everyone the right to profess whatever religion one chooses to follow without preferential treatment to any of them.”[2] This model of secularism varies from its Western counterpart because India does not separate the church and the state. Specifically, the state can “intervene in religions, to help or hinder them without the impulse to control or destroy them.”[3] Thus, the Indian government may still provide funding for religious schools, finance religious buildings, or apply personal laws regarding marriage, divorce, etc. based on religion.[4]

Since the creation of its constitution, there have been those who have challenged India’s secularism. Particularly since 1947, Hindu nationalists have believed that Hinduism is the core component of Indian identity, and they have sought to enforce this belief through political means.[5] A Hindu nationalist once wrote that India should model its approach to its “Muslim problem” on what the Nazis used to deal with their “Jewish problem.”[6]

In 1951, Hindu nationalists formed the Bharatiya Jana Sangh (BJS) party. The BJS party was a collaboration with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) group, which is a right-wing, pro-Hindu party. The current ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) traces its roots to the BJS and to this far-right collaboration. The BJP promotes Hindutva, an ideology which seeks “to define Indian culture in terms of Hindu values.”[7]

In the 1980s, the BJP became the political voice supporting the demolition of the Muslim Babri Mosque to be replaced with a Hindu temple in a sacred Hindu area called Ayodhya.  After leading the violent destruction of the mosque in 1992, the BJP rose to political prominence.[8]

The BJP targets Muslims as the source of all Hindus’ troubles. They call Muslims termites who should be thrown into the Bay of Bengal, and their party slogan is to “Feed them [Muslims] bullets, not Biryani.”[9]

Currently, the BJP is led by Narendra Modi, the Prime Minister of India. While in speeches Modi has vowed to protect the interests of India’s minorities, his actions have clearly demonstrated an anti-Muslim bias.[10] In 2002 when he was the chief minister of the western Indian state of Gujarat, there were three days of sectarian violence. Further  violence continued on in Ahmedabad, the largest city in Gujarat, for three months, and, throughout the state, there were violent disturbances against the Muslim population for the next year.[11] Modi, along with the rest of the BJP party, was accused of inciting Hindu mobs against Muslims and condoning the horrific violence. Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi http://www.kremlin.ru/

was investigated and ultimately cleared for his role, but he was later denied a visa to enter the US in 2005 due to his likely support of Hindu extremists during these riots.[12]

In 2014, Modi became the face of the BJP and was elected Prime Minister. He promised great economic growth but also played on sentiments of Hindu pride and hyper-nationalism, similar to the nationalist trend that was sweeping many countries around the world at the time.[13]

Since taking office, Modi has failed to follow through on his promises of economic prosperity, with unemployment at a 45-year high and an extremely weak GDP.[14] This economic decline is part of why the BJP had major electoral losses in the 2018 election—although Modi was still reelected.[15] The economic crisis has worsened considerably with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, for which Muslims have also been blamed.

For the six years that Modi has been in power, anti-Muslim sentiments, hate crimes, and discriminatory legislation have been at an all-time high, driven both by citizens and the government itself.[16] Approximately 90% of religious hate crimes between 2009 and 2019 have occurred under Modi’s government.[17] Ultimately, under Modi’s rule, among countless discriminatory actions and statements, there have been three prominent political strategies that have increased religious polarization and directly threatened Muslims’ identity and status in India: the Citizenship Amendment Act, the stripping of citizenship in Assam State, and the violation of autonomy in the Jammu and Kashmir region.

The Citizenship Amendment Act

The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) was passed by the Indian Parliament on December 11, 2019. Prior to the CAA, Indian law stated that, to be eligible for Indian citizenship, individuals must have worked for the federal government or lived in India for at least 11 years. The CAA amends this law for members of certain religions. If refugees arrive in India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, or Christian, they are eligible for citizenship within only six years of residency in India. The language used in this bill explicitly separates Muslims from non-Muslims and is not only non-secular, but it is outright discriminatory.[18] The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said that the law is “fundamentally discriminatory” and “undermines the commitment to equality before the law enshrined in India’s constitution.”[19] Modi and the BJP say the law is necessary because it is a way to help persecuted minorities who are living in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan.[20] However, if the BJP wanted to help persecuted minorities, the party would not have left out the Ahmadi Muslims who are persecuted in Pakistan and the Rohingya Muslims who are persecuted in nearby Myanmar.[21] The creation and passage of this act appears to be an attempt to polarize and target Muslims and to limit their ability to gain citizenship in India relative to citizenship obtained by other religious groups.

Stripping citizenship in Assam State

Assam in red GNU Free Documentation License

Assam is a state in northeast India with a population of 30 million people, one-third of whom are Muslims. In the early 20^th century when the British were ruling over India, the British encouraged Bengali Muslim immigration into Assam for labor. Thus, during this time the size of the Muslim population in Assam expanded greatly.[22]

In 1947, two hundred years of British rule in India ended.  India and Pakistan were partitioned into two separate countries, with Pakistan becoming a largely Muslim-dominated country, and India predominantly Hindu. The state of Assam was given to India and it became controlled by Hindus.[23] However, by 1979 there was a significant jump in registered Muslim voters, with Muslims reaching 38%.  Hindus in Assam began pushing for illegal immigrants, meaning  Muslims, to be purged from voting rolls.[24]  Anti-immigrant tensions grew, and sporadic violence erupted between Muslims and Hindus in Assam into the 2000s. Hindu protestors wanted illegal

foreigners—meaning Bangladeshi Muslims—to be deported, fearing that Hindus’ political rights, culture, language, and land rights were being eroded by the increasing representation of Muslims in Assam.

In 2013, the Indian Supreme Court ordered the state of Assam to complete an update for the National Registry of Citizens (NRC) to clarify who was, and who was not, a legal citizen. The Supreme Court defined an illegal immigrant to be “anyone who cannot prove that they or their ancestors entered the country before midnight of March 24, 1971. [They will] be declared a foreigner and face deportation.”[25] Individuals had to submit evidence and documents proving their relationship to listed individuals. However, 28% of Assam’s population is illiterate; in addition, it is customary that births and marriages often are not even registered. These discrepancies and obstacles resulted in authorities stripping citizenship from many individuals who have never lived outside of India and whose families for past generations have also never lived outside of India.[26]

On August 31, 2019, the final NRC was released, and 1.9 million people were left off the citizenship register. These people had 120 days to prove their citizenship by appealing to the Foreigner Tribunals in Assam. However, Amnesty International claims that these tribunals are arbitrary. Despite promises that alleged foreigners would get notice of their exclusion, many people never received a notice from the court and did not even know that they were being considered for deportation. Additionally, the judges presiding over the trials testify that they are hired on contracts that will not be renewed unless they “brand enough people as foreigners.”[27] Finally, the tribunals appear to discriminate. A survey found that “nearly nine-tenths of cases were against Muslims and almost 90% of those Muslims were declared illegal immigrants.”[28] People who are labeled foreigners by the courts are placed in detention centers in Assam where, until recently, they could be held indefinitely.[29]

It is important to note that a large number of Bengali Hindus were also left off the list and are being placed in detention camps next to Bengali Muslims.[30] These individuals who are losing their citizenship are now in the condition of statelessness, meaning that they have no rights that a nation guarantees to its citizens, including equality, freedom, rights against exploitation, etc.

Just days before the NRC was released, the BJP changed their public statements from supporting the NRC to calling it error-ridden. Many believe this is because of the large number of Bengali Hindus who were rendered stateless and who were, previously, supporters of the BJP. After the release of the NRC, Dilip Kumar Paul, one of the BJP legislative leaders in Assam, said that they can “never accept this NRC where illegal Bangladeshi Muslims have been included” and that “Hindus can never be foreigners in India.”[31]

Revoking autonomy in the Jammu and Kashmir region

Jammu and Kashmir region https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en

After the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan, the region of Jammu and Kashmir retained a unique status of

autonomy.  This region, on the border with Pakistan, is the only state in India with a majority Muslim population.

The region has suddenly been stripped of its autonomy. Its citizens, the majority of whom are Muslim, are now under armed government control.

Over the years there have been three wars between India and Pakistan and several armed skirmishes over this land. India controls 55% of the land and 70% of the population, Pakistan has 30% of the land, and China controls the remaining 15%.[32] The line between the Pakistani and India regions are separated by a heavily militarized cease-fire line called the Line of Control.[33]

The conflict over control of Jammu and Kashmir is not only religious and ideological but is in part due to the Indus River System. Two of the five tributaries of the Indus River run through Jammu and Kashmir. Both India and Pakistan are heavily reliant on the river to sustain their communities for irrigation, agriculture, and hydropower. Pakistan is fearful that since India has the advantageous position in terms of water flow and control, if the Line of Control becomes and official border, India will cut off Pakistan’s water supply. This happened in 1948 before an agreement was reached in the Indus Water Treaty. This limitation of water would deeply disturb Pakistan’s economy and lifeline. India has consistently maintained that they have never tampered with Pakistan’s flow of water aside from some mistakes made at some short period.[34] However, Modi is fast-tracking hydropower projects worth $15 billion on the river despite Pakistan claiming that this activity will disrupt Pakistan’s water supply.[35]

Ever since the BJP, which supports India’s claim over the region, won dominance in the 2014 elections, tensions have been growing and violence has been erupting throughout Kashmir. There have been attacks and accusation from both sides, but on August 5, 2019, Prime Minister Modi revoked a constitutional provision that, since the mid-1900s, gave Kashmir the autonomy to make its own laws.[36] However, just one day earlier, on August 4, Modi sent tens of thousands of Indian troops into the Jammu and Kashmir region. Modi also invoked a region-wide blackout, cutting off phone signals and the internet for the residents.[37] Authorities detained thousands of people, including children, and arrested any dissenters or those of opposing political leadership.[38] Although blackout restrictions were slowly eased in January 2020, Jammu and Kashmir have officially lost their autonomous statehood status and are under the same laws as other Indian territories. Ultimately, this move by the BJP violated the constitution and further evoked tensions in an already unstable region, putting innocent people at further risk.[39]

The reality is that Muslims appear to be under attack in India. The re-emergence of the Hindu nationalist movement through the BJP and Prime Minister Modi have attempted to enforce the idea that to be Indian, one must be Hindu, thereby invalidating and threatening the identity of the hundreds of millions of Muslims who do not fit this categorization.

This attempt to push out and erase the identity of Indian Muslims cannot be looked at without understanding the larger attack on Muslims that is occurring throughout the world, including the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, the Uyghur Muslims in China, or even the attempted ‘Muslim ban’ in the United States. An ethnic cleansing is taking place, and it must be stopped.

World Without Genocide, August 2020

Citations:

[1]https://censusindia.gov.in/census_data_2001/census_data_finder/c_series/population_by_religious_communities.htm

[2] http://www.legalservicesindia.com/article/1964/Secularism-and-Constitution-of-India.html

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://carnegieendowment.org/2019/04/04/fate-of-secularism-in-india-pub-78689

[6] https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/01/21/india-kashmir-modi-eu-hindu-nationalists-rss-the-far-right-is-going-global/

[7] https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bharatiya-Janata-Party

[8] Ibid.

[9]  https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/feb/06/feed-them-bullets-not-biriyani-bjp-uses-delhi-elections-to-stoke-religious-hatred

[10] https://time.com/5617161/india-religious-hate-crimes-modi/

[11] Ibid.

[12] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/jun/02/narendra-modis-us-visa-secure-despite-gujarat-riots-guilty-verdicts

[13]  Britannica, et. al.

[14] https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/01/world/asia/india-modi-hindus.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_200302&campaign_id=2&instance_id=16390&segment_id=21779&user_id=4eee4c3c4aa9271bbf02be99cb8ede0e&regi_id=302767820302

[15] Britannica, et. al.

[16] https://time.com/5617161/india-religious-hate-crimes-modi/

[17] Ibid.

[18] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50670393

[19] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/why-indias-citizenship-law-is-so-contentious/2019/12/17/35d75996-2042-11ea-b034-de7dc2b5199b_story.html

[20] https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/why-indias-citizenship-law-is-so-contentious/2019/12/17/35d75996-2042-11ea-b034-de7dc2b5199b_story.html

[21]  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-50670393

[22] H. Srikanth, Militancy and Identity Politics in Assam, 35 Econ. & Pol. Wkly., Nov. 18-24, 2000, at 4117, 4118.

[23] Myron Weiner, The Political Demography of Assam’s Anti-Immigrant Movement, 9 Population & Dev. Rev., June 1983, at 279, 283-84.

[24] Monirul Hussain, State, Identity Movements and Internal Displacement in the North-East, 35 Econ. & Pol. Wkly., Dec. 16-22, 2000, at 4519, 4519.

[25] https://scroll.in/article/930482/explainer-what-exactly-is-the-national-register-of-citizens.

[26] The Political Demography of Assam, et. al.

[27] The Political Demography of Assam, et. al.

[28] https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/3k33qy/worse-than-a-death-sentence-inside-indias-sham-trials-that-could-strip-millions-of-citizenship.

[29]  Scroll.In, et. al.

[30] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-49520593

[31] https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/nrc-final-list-bjp-worried-over-exclusion-of-hindus-inclusion-of-illegal-bangladeshi-muslims-1593966-2019-08-31

[32] http://m.thedailynewnation.com/news/226662/territorial-conflict

[33] https://www.britannica.com/place/Kashmir-region-Indian-subcontinent/The-Kashmir-problem

[34]https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/spotlight/kashmirtheforgottenconflict/2011/07/20117812154478992.html

[35] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/troubled-waters-india-fast-tracks-hydro-projects-worth-15-billion-in-disputed-kashmir/story-Z2ZNtwemuhAl5JVGyZpndN.html

[36] Ibid.

[37] https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/31/asia/jammu-kashmir-union-territory-intl-hnk/index.html

[38] Ibid.

[39] Ibid.