The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) was approved by President Ram Nath Kovind on Thursday, a day after the country’s parliament passed it. It has been described by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government as a means of protecting vulnerable groups from persecution.
Critics, however, say the bill marginalizes Muslims and undermines the country’s secular constitution. Others say it risks bringing an unwanted influx of immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan into India’s northern states.
In Assam and Tripura, angry protesters marched through major cities Wednesday night and Thursday, holding flaming torches and setting alight car tires and piles of cardboard.
Indigenous groups in both states fear naturalizing large numbers of immigrants will change the region’s demographics and way of life, fearing the impact on jobs, government subsidies and education.
India’s northeast is home to more than 200 distinct indigenous minority groups. Both Assam and Tripura share a border with Bangladesh and some see the arrival of foreigners as a cultural threat regardless of religion; for others, anti-immigrant sentiment remains closely tied to religious divisions.
Images from the protests show crowds chanting slogans and holding signs that read, “We are Assamese and proud” and “Tripura is not the dumping ground of illegal migrants.”
Police arrested and clashed with the protesters, using batons and firing tear gas. About 1,800 people have been detained in Tripura since Wednesday, according to Rajiv Singh of the Tripura police force.
On Thursday, Indian military and paramilitary forces were deployed across the two states. In the Assam capital of Guwahati, the state’s largest and most important city, authorities have shut down the internet “for an indefinite period,” and announced a curfew.
But thousands defied the curfew Thursday after the All Assam Students Union (AASU) asked people to gather at Latasil cricket ground for a public meeting. Local celebrities joined the students, using anti-Modi, anti-CAB and anti-government slogans.