Contested rights, unequal citizens: how the Constitution presents paradoxes and hopes of equality for India’s Muslim minority

ABSTRACT

This article examines why the Indian Constitution is central to Muslim politics and political resistance. It examines the tensions and challenges the Indian Constitution and the political rise of Hindu nationalism present to the Muslim struggle for equality in India. The article underscores how the Indian Constitution’s paradoxical stance on governing religion places religious minorities, particularly Muslims, in a challenging position amid evolving state and political ideologies, resulting in underrepresentation, political focus on identity and marginalisation, and difficulties in addressing inequalities and discrimination. A case study of the protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 (Ind) is employed to illustrate how constitutional paradoxes shaped advocacy efforts using the Constitution. However, these endeavours ultimately proved unsuccessful, shedding light on the challenges that lie ahead for advocates of Muslim rights.

KEYWORDS:

• Indian Constitution
• secularism
• Indian Muslims
• Citizenship Amendment Act
• minority rights
• anti-CAA protests

Acknowledgements

The author expresses his sincere gratitude to guest editors Susan Banki and Suraina Pasha, as well as the anonymous reviewers and the Editor-in-Chief for their guidance and insightful feedback on the manuscript. Special thanks go to Saeeduddin Faridi, Isha Gupta and Kunthavi Kalachelvam for their excellent research assistance. A separate note of appreciation is extended to Perihan Unal and Reyhan Unal for their unwavering support.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Granville Austin, The Indian Constitution: Cornerstone of a Nation (Oxford University Press 1999) 17.

2 Indian Independence Act 1947 (Imp).

3 Government of India Act 1935 (Imp) s 100 as adapted by the India (Provisional Constitution) Order 1947 (Ind).

4 Austin (n 1) 8-17; Madhav Khosla, India’s Founding Moment: The Constitution of a Most Surprising Democracy (Harvard University Press 2020) 13.

5 The Constitution was adopted on 26 November 1949. It came into force on 26 January 1950.

6 Madhav Khosla, The Indian Constitution (Oxford University Press 2012) xvi-xvii.

7 Susanne Hoeber Rudolph and Lloyd I. Rudolph, ‘Living with Difference in India; Legal Pluralism and Legal Universalism in Historical Context’ in Gerald James Larson (ed), Religion and Personal Law in Secular India (Bloomington: Indiana University Press 2001) 45-7.

8 Ibid.

9 Personal laws are applied to individuals on the basis of their beliefs. This contrasts with territorial laws which are applied to all citizens regardless of their religious affiliations: Abbasi, Muhammad Zubair, and Shahbaz Ahmad Cheema. Family Laws in Pakistan (Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2018) 14.

10 The 2011 census data reports that Muslims in India total 172.2 million persons: Census India, ‘Population by Religious Community 2011’ (Government of India, 2011). <https://censusindia.gov.in/nada/index.php/catalog/11361/download/14474/DDW00C-01%20MDDS.XLS.> accessed 30 March 2023; Rukmini S.Vijaita Singh, ‘Muslim population growth slows’ The Hindu (25 August 2015) <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/Census-2011-data-on-Population-by-Religious-Communities/article61777196.ece> accessed 20 November 2022.

11 Muhammad Umer Hayat, Nida Khan, and Saira Nawaz Abbasi, ‘Rise of Hindutva Mind-Set and Saffronisation of Indian Society’ [2021] 9 International Review of Social Sciences 9–21.

12 Anasua Chatterjee, Margins of Citizenship - Muslim Experiences in Urban India (Abingdon: Routledge 2017) 88.

13 Ornit Shani, 'The People and the Making of India’s Constitution' [2022] 65(4) The Historical Journal 1104.

14 Austin (n 1).

15 Gautam Bhatia, The Transformative Constitution: A Radical Biography in Nine Acts (Harper Collins 2019) 15.

16 Rohit De, A People’s Constitution (Princeton University Press 2018) 4.

17 The Indian Constitution [1950] (Ind) arts 15, 16, 17.

18 Ian Copland and others, A History of State and Religion in India (Abingdon: Routledge 2013) 228.

19 Christine Keating, Decolonizing democracy: Transforming the social contract in India (Pennsylvania State University Press 2011) 64.

20 Shefali Jha, 'Secularism in the Constituent Assembly Debates, 1946-1950' [2002] 37(30) Economic and Political Weekly 3175-3180; Ian Copland, ‘What's in a name? India's tryst with secularism’ [2010] 48(2) Commonwealth & Comparative Politics 123-147.

21 Bernard S. Cohn, An Anthropologist Among the Historians and Other Essays (Oxford India Paperbacks 1991) 220.

22 Rudolph and Rudolph (n 7) 45.

23 Sadia Saeed, Politics of Desecularization: Law and the Minority Question in Pakistan (New York: Cambridge University Press 2016) 46.

24 Rochana Bajpai, Debating difference: Group rights and liberal democracy in India (Oxford University Press 2011) 38.

25 Ibid 33.

26 Thomas Metcalf, Ideologies of the Raj (Cambridge University Press 1997) 226.

27 Rudolph and Rudolph (n 7) 46.

28 Pradeep K. Chhibber and Rahul Verma, Ideology and Identity: The Changing Party Systems of India (New York Oxford Academic 2018) 69.

29 Constituent Assembly Debates Vol. VII (544), 23 November 1948.

30 Dieter Conrad, ‘The Personal Law Question and Hindu Nationalism’ in Vasudha Dalmia and Heinrich Stietencron (eds), The Oxford India Hinduism Reader (Oxford University Press 2007) 212-3.

31 Arun Thiruvengadam, The Constitution of India: A Contextual Analysis (Hart Publishing India 2017) 197.

32 Ibid. See for example Mohd Ahmed Khan v Shah Bano Begum AIR (1985) SC 945 (Supreme Court of India) and Daniel Latifi v Union of India (2001) 7 SCC 740 (Supreme Court of India).

33 Ibid 170. ‘The practice of secularism by the Indian state’, Rajeev Bhargava asserts, ‘has at best been inconsistent’: Bhargava Rajeev, ‘India's Secular Constitution’ in Hasan and others (eds), India's Living Constitution: Ideas, Practices, Controversies (London: Anthem Press 2005) 127. Deepa Das Acevedo has questioned India’s secular credentials, maintaining that the Indian Constitution is not secular and was never meant to be so in the first place: Deepa Das Acevedo, 'Secularism in the Indian Context' [2013] 38(1) Law & Social Inquiry 138-167.

34 K. Santhanam, The Constitution of India (Hindustam Times Press New Delhi 1951) 16.

35 Durga D Basu, Commentary on the Constitution of India 3rd ed (Calcutta: S. C. Sarkar 1955) 78.

36 State of Bombay v Narasu Appa Mali AIR (1952) Bom 84 (Bombay High Court).

37 Harvender Kaur v Harmander Singh Choudhry AIR (1984) Del 66 (Delhi High Court).

38 Saroj Rani v Sudarshan Kumar Chadha (1984) 4 SCC 90 (Andra Pradesh High Court).

39 C Masilamani Mudaliar v Idol of Sri Swaminathaswami Thirukoil (1996) 8 SCC 525 (Supreme Court of India).

40 Mohd Ahmed Khan v Shah Bano Begam (1985) 2 SCC 556 (Supreme Court of India).

41 In response to the Shah Bano judgement, the Jamiat Ulema-i-Hind, an influential Indian Islamic organisation led by traditionalist Sunni religious scholars, reasoned that ‘the demand [for a code] is tantamount to a fundamental departure from the position that, in the presentday situation where the Muslim community is deeply entangled in a struggle for the search and safeguard of its self-identity, it is only personal law that can be a permanent guarantee of its preservation.’ Neera Chandhoke, ‘Individual and Group Rights: A View From India’ in Hasan, Zoya, Eswaran Sridharan, and Ramaswamy Sudarshan (eds) India’s Living Constitution: Ideas, Practices, Controversies (Delhi: Permanent Black 2004) 230.

42 Jorden Diengdeh v. S.S Chopra AIR (1985) SC 935 (Supreme Court of India).

43 Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India AIR (1995) SC 1531 (Supreme Court of India).

44 Justice R.M. Sahai judgement argued that ‘religious practices, violative of human rights and dignity and sacerdotal suffocation of essentially civil and material freedoms, are not autonomy but oppression’: Sarla Mudgal v. Union of India (1995) 3 SCC 635 (Supreme Court of India).

45 John Vallamattom v. Union of India AIR (2003) SC 2902 (Supreme Court of India).

46 Ronojoy Sen, Articles of Faith: Religion, Secularism and the Indian Supreme Court (New Delhi, Oxford University Press 2010) 149.

47 Ibid.

48 Tanja Herklotz, 'Law, religion and gender equality: literature on the Indian personal law system from a women’s rights perspective' [2017] 1(3) Indian Law Review 253.

49 Flavia Agnes, Law and Gender Inequality: The Politics of Women's Rights in India (New Delhi, Oxford University Press 1999).

50 Christine Forster and Jaya Sagade, Women’s Human Rights in India (Routledge 2019) 9.

51 The origin of the word ‘caste’ is drawn from the Portuguese word for colour ‘casta’ to describe a social system unique to India. The caste system is a complex hierarchical, hereditary form of social stratification marked often by aspects of ritual purity, spatial separation, commensality, and endogamy.

52 Surinder Jodhka, Caste in Contemporary India (Routledge 2017) 69.

53 Trent Brown and Syed Shoaib Ali, 'Transgressive Capabilities: Skill Development and Social Disruption in Rural India' [2017] 112(8) Annals of the American Association of Geographers 2466.

54 The Indian Constitution allowed for the reservation of places in government-funded universities for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes as a compensatory measure. It provided separate quotas of 15% for untouchables and 7.5% for tribal peoples, initially for five years, but this provision has been periodically renewed. CM Jariwala, 'Reservation in admission to higher education: Development and directions' [2000] 42.2(4) Journal of the Indian Law Institute 207.

55 The Constitution (Seventy fourth Amendment) Act 1992 (Ind) inserted Article 243T into the Constitution. This Article mandated reserved seats for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes in every Municipality.

56 Arun Thiruvengadam, The Constitution of India: A Contextual Analysis (Hart Publishing India 2017) 175-179.

57 Rochana Bajpai, Debating difference: Group rights and liberal democracy in India (Oxford University Press 2011) 168.

58 While the spread of Muslim communities across India has contributed to Muslim underrepresentation, Christine Keating explains that ‘the Constituent Assembly’s removal of the measures that would have ensured their inclusion in national decision-making bodies has greatly restricted the discourse about how to remedy the situation’: Christine Keating, Decolonizing Democracy: Transforming the social contract in India (Pennsylvania State University Press 2011) 87.

59 Zoya Hasan, Politics of Inclusion: Castes, Minorities, and Affirmative Action (New Delhi: Oxford University Press 2011) 70.

60 The Pew Research Centre estimates that the largest population of Muslims in the world will be based in India by 2050 (approximately 311 million or 11% of the global total): Conrad Hackett, 'By 2050, India to have world’s largest populations of Hindus and Muslims' (Pew Research Centre, 21 April 2015) <https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/04/21/by-2050-india-to-have-worlds-largest-populations-of-hindus-and-muslims/> accessed 2 March 2023.

61 Christophe Jaffrelot and Gilles Verniers, ‘The dwindling minority’ (The Indian Express, 30 July 2018) <https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/muslims-politicians-in-india-bjp-narendra-modi-government-5282128/> accessed 28 December 2022; Scroll Staff, ‘2019 Lok Sabha election results: Only 27 Muslim MPs elected to Parliament, none from the BJP’ (Scroll.in, 24 May 2019) <https://scroll.in/latest/924627/2019-lok-sabha-election-results-only-24-muslim-mps-elected-to-parliament-none-from-the-bjp.> accessed 28 December 2022; TNN, ‘Elections 2014: Lowest number of Muslim MPs since 1952’ (The Times of India, 17 May 2014) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/news/elections-2014-lowest-number-of-muslim-mps-since-1952/articleshow/35247091.cms> accessed 29 December 2022.

62 Saloni Bhogale, ‘Who speaks for Muslims in Lok Sabha? The answer is quite tricky’ (Hindustan Times, 26 March 2019) <https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/who-speaks-for-muslims-in-lok-sabha-the-answer-is-quite-tricky/story-vSb0HP8cNPTLIW8n29rAXI.html> accessed 13 August 2023.

63 Jensenius, Francesca, Social Justice through Inclusion: The Consequences of Electoral Quotas in India (Oxford, Oxford University Press 2017).

64 Simon Chauchard, ‘Can Descriptive Representation Change Beliefs about a Stigmatized Group? Evidence from Rural India’ [2014] 108(2) American Political Science Review 403-422.

65 Marc Galanter argues that compensatory discrimination policies have produced substantial redistributive effects: Marc Galanter, 'The “Compensatory Discrimination” Theme in The Indian Commitment to Human Rights' [1986] 13(3/4) India International Centre Quarterly 78. For a contrasting view, see Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany, The Untouchables: Subordination, Poverty and the State in Modern India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1998) 119. A more recent assessment and review of literature on the merits of reservations can be found in Dudley Jenkins, ‘Contemporary Caste Discrimination and Affirmative Action’ in Timothy Lubin and others (eds), Hinduism and Law: An Introduction (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 2010) 215-233.

66 Sachar Committee Report, ‘A Report on the Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India’ (Government of India, 2016) <https://www.education.gov.in/sites/upload_files/mhrd/files/sachar_comm.pdf> 237.

67 Ibid.

68 Rowena Robinson, 'Religion, Socio-Economic Backwardness & Discrimination: The Case of Indian Muslims' [2008] 44(2) Indian Journal of Industrial Relations 199-200.

69 Malavika Prasad, ‘The CAA Is Not A Refugee Protection Law’ (Article 14, 17 Feb 2020) <https://article-14.com/post/the-caa-is-not-a-refugee-protection-law> accessed 9 April 2023.

70 The National Register of Citizens (NRC) compiles demographic data, listing legal citizens with documentation. It began in Assam to address concerns about illegal immigration from Bangladesh. While the Indian Home Minister proposed nationwide implementation to identify and deport those deemed ineligible for Indian citizenship, the NRC has only been carried out in Assam. Critics argue that the initiative is discriminatory and disproportionately excludes vulnerable, marginalised groups, and minorities.

71 Farrah Ahmed, ‘Arbitrariness, Subordination and Unequal Citizenship’ [2020] 4(2) Indian Law Review 121 <https://doi.org/10.1080/24730580.2020.1761142>.

72 SahilOnline TV News, ‘Powerful speech by Mufti Muazzam against CAA, NRC & NPR in Navunda | Citizenship Amendment Act’ (1 March 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hWMN4E4z6A> accessed 13 August 2023.

73 ‘Thousands take part in MSF's ‘Desh Hamara’ rally’ (Times of India, 23 December 2019) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kozhikode/thousands-take-part-in-msfs-desh-hamara-rally/articleshow/72935026.cms> accessed 23 August 2023.

74 ‘Jamaat-e-Islami Hind participates in massive rally against CAA in Kochi, Kerala’ (3 January 2020) <https://jamaateislamihind.org/eng/jamaat-e-islami-hind-participates-in-massive-rally-against-caa-in-kochi-kerala/> accessed 10 August 2023; ‘CAA: Jamaat-e-Islami disappointed over Supreme Court decision’ (The Hindu, 22 January 2020) <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/caa-jamaat-e-islami-disappointed-over-supreme-court-decision/article30626632.ece> accessed 10 August 2023.

75 ‘CAA: Writ Petition Summary (Indian Union Muslim League)’ (Supreme Court Observer, 7 June 2021) < https://www.scobserver.in/reports/indian-union-muslim-league-citizenship-amendment-act-caa-writ-petition-summary-indian-union-muslim-league/> accessed 10 August 2023; ‘IUML to continue fight against CAA’ (The Hindu, 15 June 2021) <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/iuml-to-continue-fight-against-caa/article34824425.ece> accessed 11 August 2023.

76 ‘TMMK holds protest against Citizenship Act’ (Times of India, 14 December 2019) <https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/madurai/tmmk-holds-protest-against-citizenship-act/articleshow/72555175.cms> accessed 10 August 2023.

77 ‘Punjab: Congress slams Centre over ‘divisive politics’’ (The Indian Express, 18 January 2020) <https://indianexpress.com/article/india/punjab-congress-slams-centre-over-divisive-politics-6222757/> accessed 13 August 2023.

78 Sujatha Subramanian, ‘Icons and Archive of the Protests Against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens’ (2021) 37 Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion 127 <https://muse.jhu.edu/article/810920>.

79 Rahul V Pisharody, ‘“Unable to laugh in these times”: Urdu satirist Mujtaba Hussain to return Padma Shri’ (The Indian Express, 18 December 2019) <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/hyderabad/mujtaba-hussain-padma-shri-award-citixenship-act-protest-6173305/> accessed 13 August 2023.

80 Ibid.

81 Ajeet Mahale, ‘Noted Urdu journalist Shireen Dalvi returns award in protest against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill’ (The Hindu, 12 December 2019) <https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/noted-urdu-journalist-shireen-dalvi-returns-award-in-protest-against-citizenship-amendment-bill/article61607776.ece> accessed 13 August 2023.

82 Zafar Aafaq, ‘India: Muslim activist recounts two “painful” years in jail’ (Al Jazeera, 22 March 2022) <https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/22/india-muslim-activist-ishrat-jahan-jail-delhi-riots-caa-protests> accessed 15 August 2023.

83 Maitrayee Basu, ‘When “Muslimness Could Bring Trouble into Secular Spaces”: Anti-CAA Protests and Religious Slogans’ [2021] 37(1) Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, 151 <https://doi.org/10.2979/jfemistudreli.37.2.13> accessed 10 August 2023.

84 Seema Chishti, ‘Constitution Day: The Many Reasons Why the BJP Decided to Celebrate It’ (The Indian Express, 26 November 2015) <https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/constitution-day-the-many-reasons-why-the-bjp-decided-to-celebrate-it/> accessed 10 April 2023.

85 Charmy Harikrishnan, ‘Anti-CAA Protests: People Hold Up Constitution as the Only Document That Matters’ (The Economic Times, 26 January 2020) <https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/anti-caa-protests-people-hold-up-constitution-as-the-only-document-that-matters/articleshow/73618451.cms> accessed 10 March 2023.

86 Suryakant Waghmore, ‘Humanizing Citizenship: Constitutional Principles and the Protests Against the CAA’ [2021] 54 PS: Political Science & Politics 640 <https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/abs/humanizing-citizenship-constitutional-principles-and-the-protests-against-the-caa/BEE2EE37E0669951E66C0E002E19075B>.

87 NDVT, ‘“Voted For Modi With Hope”: Anti-CAA Protesters in Delhi’ (25 December 2019) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDqSCV1ZC7g> accessed 10 March 2023; NDTV, ‘Protests Against Citizenship Law India's Youthquake Moment?’ (23 December 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1jgu6rTl4lo> accessed 1 May 2023; Newslaundry, ‘At Shaheen Bagh protest against citizenship law, NRC evokes real fear’ (3 January 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HqyzoLss5Wc> accessed 9 May 2023.

88 Anamni Gupta, ‘I Stand with Constitution, Won’t Take Lessons on Nationalism From Sangh: Bhim Army Chief On CAA Protests’ (The Indian Express, 16 December 2019) <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/bhim-army-chief-chandrashekhar-azad-constitution-amendment-act-protests-jamia-milia-islamia-delhi-police-6169419/> accessed 1 May 2023.

89 Press Trust of India, ‘Priyanka Gandhi Vadra Meets Families Of Anti-CAA Protesters In UP’ (NDTV, 12 February 2020) <https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/priyanka-gandhi-vadra-meets-families-of-anti-caa-protesters-in-up-2179291> accessed 9 May 2023; HT Correspondent, ‘On Congress’ foundation day, Rahul Gandhi to lead CAA protest in Guwahati’ (Hindustan Times, 11 August 2020) <https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/on-congress-foundation-day-rahul-gandhi-to-lead-caa-protest-in-guwahati/story-lr3j7Haz2Ef28GlXYG5kcM.html> accessed 1 May 2023; Anuja, ‘Congress to build pressure on CAA through state legislature route’ (LiveMint, 20 January 2020) <https://www.livemint.com/news/india/congress-to-build-pressure-on-caa-through-state-legislature-route-11579499208475.html> accessed 1 May 2023.

90 Outlook Web Bureau, ‘West Bengal Passes Anti-CAA Resolution, Becomes 4th State To Do So’ (Outlook India, 27 January 2020) <https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/india-news-west-bengal-govt-moves-anti-caa-resolution-in-assembly-becomes-4th-state-to-do-so/346319> accessed 9 May 2023.

91 The Quint, ‘Farhan Akhtar, Huma Qureshi, Suhasini Mulay at Mumbai’s Anti-CAA Protests’ (20 December 2019) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gLpjyRr5jYU> accessed 1 May 2023.

92 Express Web Desk, ‘CAA Protests: Actor Siddharth, TM Krishna among 600 Protesters Booked by Chennai police’ (The Indian Express, 20 December 2019) <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/chennai/chennai-police-register-case-against-600-people-for-caa-protest-in-city-6177310/> accessed 1 May 2023.

93 Scroll Staff, ‘The Art of Resistance: Delhi’s Shaheen Bagh has Turned into an Open Air Art Gallery’ (Scroll.in, 23 January 2020) <https://scroll.in/article/950720/the-art-of-resistance-delhis-shaheen-bagh-has-turned-into-an-open-air-art-gallery> accessed 9 May 2023; Soniya Agrawal, ‘Shaheen Bagh and the New Wave of Protest Art That’s Sweeping Across India’ (ThePrint,16 February 2020) <https://theprint.in/features/shaheen-bagh-and-the-new-wave-of-protest-art-thats-sweeping-across-india/364944/> accessed 1 May 2023; Sahil Beg, ‘The Colourful Dissent: When Shaheen Bagh, Jamia Become a Canvas For Protest’ (The Indian Express, 19 January 2020) <https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/the-colourful-dissent-when-shaheen-bagh-jamia-become-a-canvas-for-protest-6223028/> accessed 9 May 2023; Indian Express, ‘Madan Gopal Singh, Shubha Mudgal, Prateek Kuhad performed at Shaheen Bagh’ (18 February 2020) <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJeN9KmgOAw> accessed 9 May 2023.

94 Gayatri Ganju and Shilo Shiv Suleman, ‘The Pandemic Dispersed Delhi’s Mass Protests but Their Legacy Lives on in Art’ (Open Democracy, 13 May 2020) <https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/5050/the-pandemic-dispersed-delhis-mass-protests-but-their-legacy-lives-on-in-art/> accessed 30 November 2023.

95 Uttam Ghosh, ‘Scenes from an unusual protest’ (Rediff.com, 7 February 2020) <https://m.rediff.com/news/special/pix-scenes-from-an-unusual-protest/20200207.htm> accessed 30 November 2023.

96 ThePrint Team, ‘Do Shaheen Bagh Protesters Run Risk of Waning Interest or Should Stay Put for CAA Endgame?’ (ThePrint, 21 February 2020) <https://theprint.in/talk-point/do-shaheen-bagh-protesters-run-risk-of-waning-interest-or-should-stay-put-for-caa-endgame/368962/> accessed 9 May 2023.

97 IANS, ‘Anti-CAA Protests: ‘It was Spontaneity that Worked for Shaheen Bagh’’ (National Herald India, 23 July 2020) <https://www.nationalheraldindia.com/national/anti-caa-protests-it-was-spontaneity-that-worked-for-shaheen-bagh> accessed 9 May 2023; Elizabeth Puranam, ‘Why Shaheen Bagh Protests are an Important Moment in India’s History’ (Al Jazeera, 3 February 2020) <https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2020/2/3/why-shaheen-bagh-protests-are-an-important-moment-in-indias-history> accessed 9 May 2023.

98 Asim Ali, ‘Two Reasons That Can Keep CAA-NRC Protests From Evolving Into A Larger Anti-Modi Movement’ (ThePrint, 14 January 2020) <https://theprint.in/opinion/two-reasons-risk-caa-nrc-protests-from-becoming-larger-anti-modi-movement/349064/> accessed 10 March 2023.

99 Pratap Bhanu Mehta, ‘Anti-CAA Protests Gave Us Poetry to Resist, But Hard Plumbing of Alternative Politics Yet to Be Worked Out’ (The Indian Express, 10 March 2020) <https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/citizenship-amendment-act-caa-protests-delhi-up-6307305/> accessed 12 April 2023.

100 ‘Hindu Rashtra’ can be translated to mean ‘Hindu nation’ or ‘Hindu state’, and these terms are often used interchangeably. It signifies a political and cultural vision of India where Hinduism plays a central role in the identity and governance of the nation.

101 Iqbal Ansari, Political Representation of Muslims in India, 1952–2004 (New Delhi, Manak Publications 2006) 19.

102 Zoya Hasan, Politics of Inclusion: Castes, Minorities, and Affirmative Action (New Delhi, Oxford University Press 2011) 71.

103 Balmurli Natrajan, ‘Racialization and Ethnicization: Hindutva Hegemony and Caste’ [2022] 45(2) Ethnic and Racial Studies 298-318; Amit Ranjan and Devika Mittal, ‘The Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the changing idea of Indian Citizenship’ [2023] 24(3) Asian Ethnicity 463-481.

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Imran Ahmed

Imran Ahmed is a Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore.