ADVERTISEMENT

Why Millions in India Risk Losing Their Citizenship

Assam has published an updated citizenship registry for the first time in decades. 1.9 million names have been left off the list.

Why Millions in India Risk Losing Their Citizenship
Activists of the Hindu Yuba-Chattra Parishad burn copies of NRC list, in Guwahati. (Source: PTI)

(Bloomberg) -- Officials in Assam -- a lush, tea-growing state in northeastern India -- have published an updated citizenship registry for the first time in decades. About 1.9 million people’s names have been left off the list. Anyone who can’t prove they are living in the state legally risks being stripped of his or her citizenship and potentially deported. The state government, run by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, says the move is needed to identify illegal migrants. Critics accuse it of pushing a Hindu nationalist agenda that seeks to clear out Muslims.

1. What’s the background?

Illegal migration has been a source of ethnic conflict and political unrest in Assam for decades. When Bangladesh declared independence in 1971, leading to a war with Pakistan, many families fled across the border into India to escape the fighting, settling in Assam. Some were granted citizenship, while others never registered. BJP president Amit Shah, Modi’s home affairs minister, promised at a rally in 2018 to purge the voter list of “infiltrators.“

2. What’s the list?

It’s called the National Register of Citizenship, although it only covers the roughly 33 million people living in Assam state. It was first prepared after a 1951 national census, and debate about updating it has been going on for years. Draft lists released in 2018 and 2019 excluded some 4.1 million residents -- roughly equal to the population of Ireland or the U.S. state of Oregon.

3. How do you qualify?

The government released a number of criteria for registering, including people whose names were on the 1951 census or on voting lists in Assam up to midnight on March 24, 1971 -- the day before Bangladesh declared independence -- and their descendants. People who arrived from Bangladesh before that date, registered and became Indian citizens also qualify. The registration is being monitored by India’s Supreme Court.

4. What if you’re not on the list?

Modi’s federal government and the BJP-run state government have assured people that those left off the list won’t face detention immediately and will be given opportunities to appeal. But millions of people who have been there for decades are living in fear of losing their rights to vote or own property, access welfare programs -- or worse. Many are afraid they will be forced into detention camps or deported to Bangladesh if they can’t prove their identities, a process that could take months.

5. Could it spread to other states?

Stripping Bengali-speaking Muslims and other minorities of Indian citizenship is part of the BJP’s election platform, which saw Modi re-elected in May 2019 with a greater mandate. BJP politicians want to replicate the Assam move nationwide, potentially leading to a surge in sectarian violence at a time when India’s economy is slowing. Muslims in India suffered another setback in August when Modi scrapped the autonomy of Kashmir, a disputed region between India and Pakistan. Moreover, the Modi government has tried to push legislation that would offer citizenship to illegal migrants from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who are of Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian descent. Modi’s political opponents say it’s a move to shelter non-Muslim refugees and push its core ideology.

The Reference Shelf

To contact the reporter on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in New Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Ruth Pollard at rpollard2@bloomberg.net, Paul Geitner, Daniel Ten Kate

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.