Violent protests continue in India
Narendra Modi, the Indian prime minister, appealed for calm Monday as violent nationwide student-led protests against “anti-Muslim” citizenship legislation continued for a fifth day.
Students from Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi took to the streets despite police firing tear gas and baton charging protesters, accusing the government of introducing the legislation to suppress Muslims.
Approximately 100 people were sent to hospital and 50 students were arrested overnight.
The chancellor of the university has said she will press charges against the police after videos circulated on social media of officers attacking peaceful protesters. In one, a group of female students stopped a male student from being beaten up by forming a human shield. Large protests also erupted in other major cities, including Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore. Students at Nadwa University in Lucknow reported being locked in by police and claimed stones were thrown at them.
The largest demonstrations took place at Islamic academic institutions, including Aligarh Muslim University in Uttar Pradesh and Maulana Azad Urdu University in Hyderabad.
The Citizenship Amendment Act sets out rules that allow followers of six religions, including Christians, Sikhs and Hindus. who come from neighbouring countries to become Indian citizens. However, Modi has not extended the offer to Muslims.
Critics, including the United Nations, say the act marginalizes the minority of 193 million.
It is the latest in a string of actions the government, led by the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, has taken against India’s Muslim population.
In August, Modi revoked the autonomous status enjoyed by the Muslim-majority state of Jammu and Kashmir, and announced 1.9 million people in Assam — largely Muslims — would be detained and deported as part of a National Register of Citizens.
Assam has been the site of the most violent protests, with six dead since Thursday. The state is now under curfew. More than 1,400 people have been taken into preventive custody and internet services blocked.
Protesters in Assam are concerned the bill could lead to unprecedented migration to the state, diluting its intertribal culture and exacerbating ethnic tensions.
Opposition leaders, including Mamata Banerjee, the chief minister of West Bengal, have said they will not recognize the law. Sonia Gandhi, the leader of the opposition Congress party, accused Modi of having “only a narrow agenda, to make people fight.”