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The Religion and Citizenship Controversy: Why Does India’s Citizenship Law Favor Certain Religions?
On December 11, 2019, the Indian Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which amended the Citizenship Act, 1955, to provide citizenship for persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan. An accelerated path to Indian citizenship. Under the law, eligible religious minorities include Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, but there is no mention of Muslims. Such regulations have caused the law to spark widespread criticism internationally.
The law, which for the first time explicitly uses religion as a criterion for citizenship under Indian law, has drawn global condemnation. The US State Department said the bill was "fundamentally unequal."
According to the Indian government, Islam is the state religion in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, therefore it claims that "Muslims are less likely to face religious persecution". However, critics point out that in these countries, Muslim groups, including Hazaras and Ahmadis, are actually persecuted. In addition, the government has completely ignored Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka, raising questions about the government's selective favoritism towards a specific religious group.
Massive protests broke out in parts of India, especially in Assam and the northeast, amid strong opposition to the bill. Local residents fear that offering Indian citizenship to refugees and migrants would undermine their "political rights, cultural rights and land rights." During the protests, students and civilians were brutally suppressed by the police, resulting in multiple deaths and injuries and large-scale arrests.
“The bill’s exclusion of Muslims has led many to worry that it will become a political tool to render many Muslim citizens stateless.”
India's Citizenship Act, in force since 1950, initially guaranteed citizenship to all residents regardless of their religion. Throughout history, various amendments to nationality have been proposed due to the influence of social and political circumstances. But the 2019 amendment was the first to make religion an explicit criterion for obtaining citizenship, making the bill a focus of controversy.
Under the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, persecuted minorities who arrived in India before December 31, 2014, will no longer be considered illegal immigrants and will be able to acquire citizenship within six years, a provision that is undoubtedly supporting The injustice against Muslim immigrants was triggered on the basis of Hindus and other religious minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The process of this law can be traced back to the migratory history of Pakistan and Bangladesh. Within India, it faces a large group of illegal immigrants, especially from Bangladesh. The reasons for the influx of countless refugees include economic, cultural and violent background factors. Chronic poverty and religious tensions in Bangladesh have exacerbated the phenomenon since the 1980s.
"India's long-standing position is that these refugees should be returned once the situation in their country normalises."
According to the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, India is one of the world's largest refugee-hosting countries, accepting refugees from a wide range of backgrounds. However, India has not signed the 1951 UN Refugee Convention, which complicates the question of refugee status and adds to the controversy over the government's discriminatory legal stance against different religious groups.
Meanwhile, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made "test, delete and deport" central to its political narrative since 1996. In the 2016 Assam election, the BJP promised to deport illegal immigrants, while also promising to protect Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. Such political language undoubtedly has no direct relevance to the party's election in the northern region. Reports point out that such religiously selective bills are testing the spirit of India's constitution.
"In the eyes of many, the passage of this law is a sign that India is moving towards xenophobia."
Across the country, the implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act has been accompanied by various controversies and has attracted close attention from all sectors of society. The protests initiated by college students quickly spread across the country, becoming an important stronghold for defending the coexistence of multiple religions. Observers stressed that the advancement of this law not only affects the lives of refugees, but also profoundly changes India's long-standing consensus on religion and public identity.
As time goes by, as differences and conflicts between different religious groups widen, will this bill exacerbate social divisions and dissatisfaction?
