Why India's citizenship law is so contentious

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Opponents say the measure is discriminatory and runs counter to the nation’s founding ethos.

in a major display of opposition to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Here's what you need to know about the measure convulsing the world's largest democracy.The Citizenship Amendment Act was approved by India’s Parliament on Dec. 11 and makes religion a criterion for nationality in India’s citizenship law for the first time.

The measure is “the first legal articulation that India is, you might say, a homeland for Hindus,” Pratap Bhanu Mehta, one of India’s most prominent political scientists,The law has deepened worries that Modi, who leads the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party, is pursuing policies that effectively turn India’s Muslims into second-class citizens.

While some critics of the citizenship law view it as discriminatory and counter to India’s founding principles, for others the opposition to the measure is rooted in different concerns. In India’s northeast — a collection of seven states bordering Bangladesh, China and Myanmar — there are over migrants entering the region. Residents there worry that the law makes it easier for migrants to become citizens, hastening demographic and linguistic change.The Modi government says the law is a humanitarian measure aimed at helping persecuted religious minorities from three neighboring countries who have entered India.

the government could have achieved its stated goal without using language that explicitly excludes Islam.International observers have expressed serious concerns about the measure. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said the legislation marked a

 

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