From our indefatigable Schroedinger’s Cat:
Protests have roiled India over the weekend. The Bharatiya Janata Party has become the Bharat Jalao Party (Burn India Party). Last week the Citizenship Amendment Bill become the Citizenship Amendment Act. According to the bill minorities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan will be eligible for refugee status. The bill excludes Muslims. Neither does it cover Tibetan or Sri Lankan refugees.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of the Parliament of India amended the Citizenship Act of 1955 providing a path to Indian citizenship for religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. The intended religious minorities were explicitly listed as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians, raising concerns that Muslims were being marginalised. The beneficiaries had to have entered India on or before 31 December 2014, and should have faced “religious persecution or fear of religious persecution” in their countries of origin. The Act also relaxed residence requirement for naturalization from 11 years to 5 years for these migrants.
This bill along with the BJP’s government’s plan to construct a National Register of Citizens portends doom for India’s 100 million plus Muslim population. BJP had tried to pass it in an earlier session of the Parliament but it died because they didn’t have the numbers to pass it through the upper House, Rajyasabha. But after gaining a imposing majority in the Loksabha in the last elections, this time around many smaller parties decide to go along with the BJP agenda in the Rajyasabha this time and the bill passed both the Houses easily.
The India of my childhood is being dismantled by the BJP. In our textbooks there used to be a Pledge.
India is my country and all Indians are my Brothers and Sisters. I love my country and I am proud of its rich and varied heritage. I shall always strive to be worthy of it.
I shall give respect to my parents, teachers and all the elders and treat everyone with courtesy.
To my country and my people, I pledge my devotion. In their well being and prosperity alone, lies my happiness.Even as a child it seemed hopelessly naïve and idealistic to me. And God knows we did not live up to that ideal always but that was a worthy ideal to strive towards. The agenda of BJP, is the agenda of the RSS (Rashrtriya Swayam Sevak Sangh) or Sangh , the political off shoot of the black hats and brown shorts wearing all male volunteer organization is antithetical to both the pledge and the preamble to the Indian Constitution.
The Sangh’s plan for India has always been clear, to rid India of its religious minorities, especially its Muslims, or relegate them to an inferior or a secondary status. Their ideology asserts that if India becomes a Hindu Rashtra, all its problems will vanish into thin air. When the BJP was able to form a government on their own strength after the general elections last May, I knew that their long awaited ideological project would gather full steam.
It started with Kashmir by taking away the statehood of India’s only Muslim majority state, changing the criteria of which refugees can become citizens is the logical next step. What comes after this is the National Citizenship Register, whereby one has to prove their citizenship. The NRC has been applied to the northeastern state of Assam with disastrous consequences, making over a million Indians stateless. You don’t have to be an expert on Indian politics to know who is the target of these actions.
To this murder of the Indian Constitution, not so fast say the students and ordinary citizens of India. Protests have gathered steam all across India including on college and university campuses and elsewhere…
Continued at the Schroedinger’s Cat blog
Baud
How do you say Stephen Miller in Hindi?
Thanks for writing this, SC.
schrodingers_cat
@Baud:
Sangh Parivar, Savarkar, Golwalkar, Modi, Shah. Miller has nothing on these guys.
schrodingers_cat
I will be around for sometime to answer any questions if you have any.
Duane
@schrodingers_cat: Modi and Trumpov have been together several times recently. Nothing good from that, but what is US policy with India now?
Kent
So how does this play out in India. Do laws like this get judged on their constitutionality similar to the process of judicial review in the US? Is the Indian Supreme Court under control of the ruling party similar to our SCOTUS here?
What happens next? Where does the fight go next?
schrodingers_cat
@Kent: Yes there are several appeals before the Supreme Court. That’s where it is headed next.
Mary G
It’s like a virus has infected the whole world. I sometimes wonder if it’s not people who have denied the climate crisis secretly believing it and wanting to barricade their country from immigrants and climate refugees from others. So glad to see all the robust protests.
Janwaar Bibi
Until the BJP changed the law, Indians from the rest of India could not move to Kashmir or buy property there. In 1990, some 300,000 Hindus and Sikhs were ethnically cleansed from Kashmir by jihadis after a pogrom in which thousands of non-Muslims were killed. However, thousands of Rohingya Muslims were allowed to settle in Kashmir on the grounds that they would be more comfortable living with their fellow Muslims. The left supported this discriminatory law on the grounds that Muslim-majority Kashmir had a right to preserve its demographic identity as a Muslim-majority province, and they ignored the ethnic cleansing of native-born Kashmiri Hindus and Sikhs.
If this is the principle, why do Hindus in India not have the right to ban Muslim *foreigners* from Pakistan or Bangladesh from moving to India and changing the demographics there? Since independence, Muslims have grown from 8% to 16% of the population in India, and areas like West Bengal, which have been flooded by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, are now 33% Muslim. Meanwhile, Hindus and other non-Muslim minorities have all but disappeared in Pakistan. In Bangladesh, Hindus and Buddhists were 33% of the population in 1947. Today, they have been reduced to 7% and a prominent economist there recently warned that at the rate at which non-Muslims were fleeing Bangladesh, there would be none left in a generation.
Perhaps Ms. Cat can tell us why Kashmiri Muslims have the right to ethnically cleanse their native-born non-Muslim minority and ban non-Muslim immigration from other parts of *India* because of demographic fears but Indian Hindus do not have the right to refuse automatic refugee status to Muslim *foreigners*.
Hypocrisy much?
schrodingers_cat
@Mary G: The people who experienced WWII and the partition in India’s case are dying or dead and the world no longer remembers those horrors. So we continue the cycle of violence.
schrodingers_cat
@Duane: Modi endorsed T, BJP likes despots. Birds of a feather, they were promoting BoJo too. I see BJP trolls approvingly retweet and quote white nationalists too.
raven
Your posts on this remind me of Adam and Cheryl’s. I learn a great deal but have zero to contribute.
stinger
Thank you for this post. I’m more insular lately than I want to be, and I appreciate the information and viewpoint you provide.
sdhays
What’s the point of the Citizenship Act for the BJP? The explicit exclusion of Muslims has an obvious point, but how does this practically advance the BJP’s agenda? Is it a cynical ploy to split the non-Muslim minorities from Muslims? That doesn’t seem worth the effort. Or is there a refugee crisis and this is the BJP’s attempt to use the crisis to crap on Muslims and put them in their place? It seems to have inflamed the obvious targets as well as upsetting the general anti-immigrant sentiment in the border states, which seems counter-productive.
The point of the National Citizenship Register, on the other hand, is pretty clear. Scary times.
sdhays
@schrodingers_cat: Just like Netanyahu’s son approvingly retweets neo-Nazi’s.
frosty
Thanks for this, SC. I would never learn about it from reading the news.
Another Scott
Thank you for this, and the pictures at your blog. It’s an important story – I hope the sensible people prevail.
I’m reminded that the US at various times has tried to promote India as a counterpoint to Communist China (but also promoted Pakistan when we didn’t like India’s government). Now we do huge amounts of commerce with China, and are dependent upon her for many raw materials and cheap electronics. And Xi is locking up a million or more Uighur Muslims in camps to force them to give up their culture. And China is throwing its weight around to counteract any external criticism.
But India’s government is still shutting down Kashmir and attempting allow other favored Indians to take over the region. And pushing through various changes to the Constitution to turn India into a Hindu state.
Both countries are going down a horrible and dangerous path. :-( It’s going to be difficult for the US to figure out how to stand up for its professed values while dealing with such huge and hugely important nations in the years and decades ahead…
Thanks again.
Cheers,
Scott.
Kent
@sdhays: Baby steps. Camel nose under the tent. Whatever metaphor you want would be my guess. It’s like Steven Miller and the Trumpers when it comes to immigration. They are like the velociraptors who just keep pushing and pushing at every corner of the cage wherever they find weaknesses. They create a new reality (children in cages) and then keep pushing from there (children in cages without food or blankets) until forced to stop when enough people raise a fuss. Then turn and find some other weak part of the fence to push on.
Jay
@sdhays
Indian Independence didn’t result in Indian citizenship.
So you start with the mess that was British India, and documented Citizenship, add in Partition and millions of refugees, indiginous tribes, aquisition of the Sultanates, decolonization of the Foreign Colonies, ( eg. Goa), more refugees from Tibet, refugees from the Wars, refugees from Bangladesh and the Royhinga,…… all of whom, ( refugees) have put down roots between several and many generations deep, poverty, bureacracy,
But now, as India moves forward in the world, “your papers” are now important to living a day to day life and get the “benefits” of the State.
So the BJP has made the process easier for “some” but not for others, ( Muslims).
schrodingers_cat
@sdhays: They want India to be a Hindu Rashtra. These are just steps towards that goal.
schrodingers_cat
@Janwaar Bibi: I need independent corroboration of your claims before I answer this word salad of whataboutery.
Jay
@schrodingers_cat:
kudos and congratulations for attracting our first “whatabboutist” Russian trained Sangh troll ever. That’s a rarer award than an all caps Email from the Blogfather.
???????
Janwaar Bibi
@Another Scott: <i>But India’s government is still shutting down Kashmir and attempting allow other favored Indians to take over the region. And pushing through various changes to the Constitution to turn India into a Hindu state.</i>
Internet access is limited in Kashmir because it is used by jihadis to coordinate their attacks on Indian security forces. We value the lives of our soldiers even if you don’t. If access to the Internet is some new kind of human right, you should go visit the people living on the streets in SF, LA or most other US cities – they don’t have Internet access either and no one here seems to care.
Schools and shops are shut because the jihadis are killing store owners and teachers who defy their ban.
As for “other favored Indians [aka Hindus] taking over the region [Kashmir],” if this is bad, then why do Hindus in India need to allow Muslims from Pakistan and Bangladesh to take over our border states like West Bengal and Assam?
Finally, can you tell me which changes to the Indian constitution pushed by the BJP have made India into a Hindu state? Let me know – I am genuinely curious.
Janwaar Bibi
@schrodingers_cat: I’d be happy to provide corroboration. Tell me what points in my post you need corroboration for.
“Whataboutery” is another made-up word from the left intended to shut down debate. In this case, the goal is divert attention from the hypocrisy of the left, which is always selective in its outrage. Hindus in India have seen what Muslims have done to all non-Muslim minorities in Muslim-dominated parts of the subcontinent (1/3 of the subcontinent). They don’t want that happening to them in what still remains majority Hindu. That’s not whataboutery – that’s called learning from experience.
Janwaar Bibi
@Jay: our first “whatabboutist” Russian trained Sangh troll ever
If you want to rebut anything I wrote, do it. Ad hominem remarks don’t impress me.
The Pale Scot
@Janwaar Bibi: Hey man, hows the weather in St Pete? Must be a bit nippy
Fair Economist
Dunno, this one may be an Indian troll. The Russians started large-scale mass paid trolling but others are copying, specifically including the BJP according to several reports I’ve read.
Jay
@Fair Economist:
It’s an Indian troll selling BJP Hindu Nationalist Koolaide, but some of them have been Russian trained/Russian influenced, thus enough whattaboutism to choke a pack of rabid wolves in the wilds outside of Ozersk.
Janwaar Bibi
@Jay: Still waiting for you or Cat to rebut anything I wrote. She pleads ignorance, you hide behind ad hominem.
You do realize that by accusing me of “whataboutery,” you have implicitly acknowledged the truth of what I wrote about the grim fate of all non-Muslim minorities in Muslim-dominated areas of the subcontinent? Tell me why the remaining Hindus in the subcontinent should not take action to ensure they do not end up like their brethren in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Kashmir.
Fair Economist
For the peanut gallery: planning to strip citizenship rights from hundreds of millions of Muslims is wrong. Wrongwrongwrongwrong. Claiming that resettling a few thousand Rohinga currently being ethnically cleansed makes it OK is a nonsequitur so absurd it would be hilarious if the BJP weren’t being so evil.
P.S. And geez, is this the best argument the BJP trolls can muster? Sad.
Another Scott
@Fair Economist:
+1
But careful or you’ll wake the sea lion…
Cheers,
Scott.
Betty
Take heart in the fact that people in India and around the world are starting to push back against the authoritarians.
Janwaar Bibi
@Fair Economist: planning to strip citizenship rights from hundreds of millions of Muslims is wrong….Claiming that resettling a few thousand Rohinga currently being ethnically cleansed makes it OK is a nonsequitur so absurd it would be hilarious if the BJP weren’t being so evil
(1) The vast majority of Muslims in India are not illegal immigrants, so they will not be affected by anything the government is proposing. If you have evidence that the government of India is planning to strip all Muslims of citizenship, provide it.
(2) Settling Rohingya from *Myanmar* in Kashmir while prohibiting Hindus and other non-Muslims from *India* from settling in Kashmir is a new low in discrimination. This is on top of the ethnic cleansing of all indigenous Hindus and Sikhs from Kashmir by jihadis. We do not want to see this repeated in what remains of majority-Hindu areas in India, and it’s OK if you don’t like it.
I am still waiting for Cat or Jay to challenge any of the assertions in my first post.
Janwaar Bibi
No word from Cat so I assume she has decided not to challenge the assertions in my first post about the extermination of non-Muslims in Muslim-dominated areas of the Indian subcontinent. For the rest of you, here are some links to statements by Muslim Pakistanis and Bangladeshi on what has been inflicted on non-Muslims there.
1) Pakistan:
Farahnaz Ispahani, a Shi’ite Pakistani author and human rights activist, talking about what has happened to all religious minorities in Pakistan:
Pakistan is experiencing “drip drip genocide”, a noted scholar from the country has said, describing it as the “most dangerous” kind of wiping out of religious minorities in the Islamic nation.
“Right before the partition of India and Pakistan, we had a very healthy balance of religions other than Islam. Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Zoroastrians. (Now) Pakistan goes from 23%, which is almost a quarter of its population, to three per cent today,” noted Pakistani author, journalist and politician Farahnaz Ispahani told PTI. I call it a ‘drip drip genocide’, because it’s the most dangerous kind of wiping out of religious communities,” said Ispahani, whose book ‘Purifying the Land of the Pure’ was launched in the US this month.”
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/religious-minorities-experiencing-genocid…
2) Bangladesh: a prominent Bangladeshi economist warns that no Hindus will be left in Bangladesh in 30 years because they are fleeing religious persecution there.
Source: economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/international/world-news/no-hindus-will-be-left-in-bangladesh-afte…
3) Ethnic cleansing of indigenous Hindus and Sikhs from Kashmir in 1990:
“The Hindus of Kashmir Valley were forced to flee the Kashmir valley as a result of being targeted by JKLF and Islamist insurgents during late 1989 and early 1990. Of the approximately 300,000 to 600,000 Hindus living in the Kashmir Valley in 1990 only 2,000–3,000 remain there in 2016.”
Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exodus_of_Kashmiri_Hindus
*****************
I can provide more links but this should do for a start.
Another Scott
A fairly long BBC News story about the bill and the protests. Another from AlJazeera.com.
Cheers,
Scott.
schrodingers_cat
Janwar Bibi showed up again to derail a thread about the draconian actions of the BJP-Sangh government in power against their own citizens like they did in the thread about Kashmir which I wrote earlier this year with a gish gallop of half truths and out right lies. This is a tried and a tested Sangh debating and derailing technique to lump all the atrocities real and imagined perpetrated by Muslims to justify the anti-Muslim bigotry in general and anti-Muslim actions taken by the BJP-Sangh government in power in New Delhi.
I may do a post in the future about how the Sangh has invaded and weaponized social media and other public spaces to squelch debate and intimidate. Really Russian bots have nothing on these people when it comes to the bile and bigotry that they spew.
. Muslims of India can never be absolved of their collective guilt according to this school of thought that has spawned the Sangh, and its political progeny the BJP.The Sangh wants Indian citizens of Muslim heritage to pay for the actions of the Muslims who voted for a separate homeland for Muslims in 1947. But this idea of the unforgivable collective guilt of the Muslims of the subcontinent precedes the tragic events of 1947. If you read the polemics of Hindu Mahasabha leaders like Vinayak Savarkar, Muslim population of India is to blame for British rule, raids by Afghan rulers more than 1000 years, the list is endless. They are a perennial scapegoat in the Sangh ideology.
This person’s handle translates to Animal Wife (Biwi) which is also used as an honorific for married Muslim women, that adds to my suspicion that they are not here to engage in honest debate but are here to derail any conversation and add fuel to Muslim baiting.
Bill Arnold
@Janwaar Bibi:
Everything you’ve said here is consistent with Tharoor’s controversial statement last year being true: India will become ‘Hindu Pakistan’ if BJP wins in 2019: Shashi Tharoor – Tharoor said that the BJP will write a new Constitution which will pave the way for a nation, much like Pakistan (Jul 12, 2018)
Anyway, I suggest poking at this, which will irritate you greatly. (I did notice a few out of context quotes. But there is a lot of truth about how racial/religious nationalist movements fuel/inspire/validate each other.)
How the White Nationalists Who Love Trump Found Inspiration in the Group That Gave Us Narendra Modi (Mehdi Hasan, September 21 2019)
Janwaar Bibi
@schrodingers_cat: …a gish gallop of half truths and out right lies..
And yet you have not pointed out a single lie in my first post, even though I have asked you thrice now to be specific about this. Instead you hide behind ad hominem (Sanghi troll) and guilt by association (Savarkar, Sangh, whatever).
I will try one last time. Whether I am a Sanghi troll, a Russian bot or a worshipper of Savarkar is irrelevant – I asserted a number of facts in my first post, and you claim they are lies. Well then, you should have no problem pointing out 3of the “outright lies” in my post. Why don’t you do this instead of dancing around making vague allegations of falsehood?
The truth is you cannot.
Moreover in my last post, I gave readers of this blog three links about the horrific condition of non-Muslims in all Muslim-dominated parts of the subcontinet: one from a prominent Muslim Pakistani woman (Farahnaz Ispahani), one from a prominent Muslim Bangladeshi economist, and one describing the ethnic cleaning of Hindus and Sikhs from Kashmir by jihadis. Are they all lying too to make subcontinent Muslims look bad?
Another Scott
@Janwaar Bibi:
1) You’re sealioning.
2) It’s non-sequitur to try to justify what may (or may not) have happened in 1990 with what Modi and the BJP is doing in trying to turn India into a Hindu state now. We have a lot of experience with a certain notorious poster in the past who liked to make non-sequiturs as well – many of us don’t find them persuasive.
Don’t be surprised if SC doesn’t engage with your further.
Cheers,
Scott.
Janwaar Bibi
@Another Scott: Don’t be surprised if SC doesn’t engage with your further.
It does not surprise me at all. When the facts are not on your side, all you have left is ad hominem (Jay), high dudgeon (Scat) or snark (you). Thanks for playing – I always enjoy stirring up useless idiots for Islam, to paraphrase something Lenin said in a different context (I learnt that in my Russian bot lessons).