Anuradha Sen Mookerjee: In India’s Assam, a solidarity network has emerged to help those at risk of becoming stateless

By Dilip -
Volunteers and human rights groups have connected with civil society actors to help residents commute from Lower to Upper Assam for hearings and verification, and on some occasion even raise money, creating a solidarity network. Such a humanitarian network is crucial at a time when marginalised people feel threatened with the changing legal regime which seeks to redefine the basis of Indian citizenship. These networks of solidarity in India’s north-eastern borderlands attempt to draw out the real Indian body politic, reinforcing the plural fabric of the Indian constitution.

The state of Assam in India is currently burning with violent protests against a new citizenship law passed by both houses of the Indian parliament in early December. The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) will ease the Indian citizenship process for undocumented migrants in India who come from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh – but only for those who are not Muslim, undermining the promise of equality by the Indian Constitution. The international community criticised the new law, with the UN High Commissioner of Human Rights calling it “fundamentally discriminatory”.
For headline-manager Amit Shah, JNU violence is a gift that distracts from CAA protests

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Since its parliamentary approval on December 12, the law has triggered massive protests across India including in the capital Delhi. Assam is directly affected by the new law. It significantly undermines the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a listing process that has been underway in Assam since 2015 through which residents have to prove their claim to citizenship based on documentary evidence. The NRC is designed to update a first list conducted as an all-India exercise in 1951 to combat illegal immigration flows, primarily from neighbouring Bangladesh.... read more:
https://theconversation.com/in-indias-assam-a-solidarity-network-has-emerged-to-help-those-at-risk-of-becoming-stateless-128558

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