Gandhi biographer arrested as protests over law increase
Rowdy protests against a contentious new citizenship law swept India on Thursday, and authorities responded by shutting down the internet, barricading roads and arresting hundreds of protesters, revealing an Indian government increasingly on edge.
In Bangalore, Ramachandra Guha, a preeminent biographer of Mohandas Gandhi and a critic of the citizenship law, was midsentence in speaking to a reporter when helmeted police officers carrying sticks grabbed his arms and dragged him away. It was all captured on video.
“Our protest is totally nonviolent,” Guha said, seconds before he was detained. “See what is happening. You see we are totally peaceful. Did you see any violence?”
Guha was then put into a bus full of other detainees. He was released later in the day.
Indian media reported that three people were killed during protests: two in Mangalore and one in Lucknow.
In New Delhi, the capital, demonstrators flocked to the historic Red Fort, chanting, “We want freedom!” and “The person who will walk the path of Hitler will die the death of Hitler!”
Anger, energy and opposition to the government are growing by the day. More and more Indians are pouring onto the streets of major cities, from Kolkata in the east to Kochi in the south, to express outrage at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government for pushing through a law that favors granting citizenship to South Asians of faiths other than Islam.
The government has responded to this week’s protests with riot officers and internet shutdowns. India tops the world — by far — in the number of digital lockdowns it has imposed, outpacing authoritarian governments such as Syria and Turkey.
Police officials in Delhi said that they had detained hundreds of people and converted a sports stadium into a temporary jail, though Indian media said many of the at least 300 people arrested were later released.
India’s Muslims — a minority in this vast country but, at 200 million, one of the largest Muslim populations in the world — have weathered an increasingly nasty campaign of abuse and discrimination on Modi’s watch.
Although Modi has denied any anti-Muslim bias, his political party is deeply rooted in a worldview that celebrates India as a homeland for Hindus, who make up about 80% of the population.
Many members of his Bharatiya Janata Party, including high- ranking officials, have uttered discriminatory comments about Muslims and even celebrated thugs who have beaten up or killed them. Mob lynchings of Muslims have increased in recent years as Modi’s party has dominated politics.
This week, the resentment in the Muslim community finally erupted. Tens of thousands of Muslims and Indians of other faiths have demonstrated against the new Citizenship Amendment Act, a core piece of Modi’s agenda.
The act creates a special path for citizenship for migrants from some of India’s neighboring countries if they are Hindu, Christian, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsee or Jain — in short, followers of any major religion in South Asia except one: Islam.
Many Muslims and progressive Indians call the law a dangerous step toward marginalizing an already fearful community and a blatant violation of India’s long commitment to secularism and equality, which is enshrined in its constitution.