- Muslims are often at the forefront of CAA-NRC protests. It is their place in India, after all, and their rights as Indian citizens, that are being targeted by our divisive government.
- Unfortunately, in their understandable anger and frustration with the course of events, some Muslims have doubled down on their identity, reiterating their faith in the manner and tone of their protests.
- Alarmed at this, I tweeted a cautionary message which unleashed a virulent reaction, with a storm of tweets, social media posts and print media op-ed articles taking me to task for denying Indian Muslims the right to protest in the name of their faith.
- You can’t fight Hindutva communalism by promoting Muslim communalism. Identity politics will destroy India.
- This is a battle for the soul of India. Every Indian has a stake in the India that Mahatma Gandhi fought to free.
The spontaneous, and continuing, protests against the discriminatory Citizenship Amendment Act (and its threatened successor, the proposed all-India National Register of Citizens) have inspired every democrat in the nation. Students, office-goers, artists, ordinary Indians of every description are standing up to be counted.
A University-gold medallist refusing to receive her medal from the Governor in protest; individuals forming a human chain at their gathering so that Muslim protestors could break for their afternoon namaz; students speaking passionately in defence of their protests to police and the media; the ordinary women of Shaheen Bagh in Delhi protesting night after night in the bitter cold; and above all ordinary Indians’ determination to stand up and continue, day after day, in the face of all the forces of intimidation arrayed against them by the state – all this has elicited admiration, applause, and of course, the inevitable attempts to discredit and intimidate.