Troops have been deployed to India’s ethnically diverse northeastern states of Assam and Tripura, amid violent protests against the passing of a controversial and far-reaching law that offers a path to Indian citizenship for non-Muslim minorities from three neighboring countries.
The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which was passed by the country’s parliament on Wednesday, 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.
Security personnel use batons to disperse students protesting against the government’s Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), in Guwahati on December 11, 2019.
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.
The internet has been shut down in Assam since the evening of December 11th. As of now, two people have died in Assam due to police firing on protesters.