Citizenship Amendment Act in India, The real facts

I believe almost 70% of people living in Mauritius are Indian descendants, called Girmitiya. So it is very natural for them to remain emotionally attached to India, and keep a tab on the events unfolding on Indian soil. They always want to keep firmly connected to their roots for the simple reason that nothing happens to a tree even if the branches or leaves are cut provided the roots are left intact.

Over the last few days, the Indian media and the world media covering Indian news had been agog with one big news item ‘CAA’, the Citizenship Amendment Act. This act was democratically passed in both the houses of Indian parliament. But there has been lot of talks and protests for and against this act, on the streets, in the media and social media. An attempt is being made in this article to dig out the real facts.

Before we embark on the real facts about CAA, let’s have a quick look on the historical background of Indian subcontinent. The cultural richness of India or Bharat dates back to 7000 BC or even more, when Indus Valley civilization was unearthed in Harappa. This region had the world’s highest peak ‘Mt Everest’ and one of the deep seas Indian Ocean. It has the dry ‘Thar desserts of Rajasthan’ and wet ‘Cherapunji of Meghalaya’ recording one of the world’s highest railfalls. It has the vast fertile plain lands of Ganga-Jamuna belt and five rivers belt in Punjab. It has 22 officially recognized languages most of which have different scripts too whereas entire Europe has just one Roman script. Bhojpuri, widely spoken and having status of a language in Mauritius and Nepal, doesn’t find a place in the above list of 22 languages. It is just a dialect. Awadhi language in which great poet Tulsidas wrote famous epic ‘Ramcharitmanas’, too doesn’t find a place in this 22. The country has 28 states and 9 Union Territories, each having their own large number of dishes and delicacies.

Now coming to religion. If we traverse back to Ramayan and Mahabharata period, it was called ‘dharma’ in India. This dharma was a set of rules to govern Indian society. Translating literal meaning of religion into ‘dharma’ is misleading. Whereas other religions on earth are not subject to amendments, this dharma was flexible and subject to regular amendments suiting need of the hour. If you think Hinduism to be a religion, then in this same religion a north Indian near Delhi doesn’t eat non-veg or even onion-garlic during holy 9-days period of ‘navaratri’. But if you go to Bengal or Nepal or Assam, same Hindus eat only non-veg but even sacrifice animals to goddess Durga/Kali. So this dharma (not religion) is different and very tolerant, compassionate, flexible, adjusting and changeable. This dharma allowed many social reformers like Nanak, Kabir, Mahavir, Buddha, Gandhi, Raja Rammohan Rai to keep suggesting changes in the rules. They drew many followers who later became sects within Hinduism, like Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Aryasamaji etc. In real sense they were not different religions. Marriages were taking place among them. The eldest son of Hindu family was donated to the cause of Sikkhism. But later on with the induction of other religions in India like Islam and Christianity, the word ‘dharma’ took the Hindi meaning of religion. And later on, all these sects became known as religion.

In ancient time, this Hindu dharma society was spread out up to the foothills of Himalaya and Hindukush mountains in north covering Pakistan & Afghanistan, and up to the coastal belt of three oceans in the south. Gandhar king ‘Shakuni’ in Mahabharat epic was from present Kandhar in Afghanistan. Maharaja Ranajit Singh and other kings rule upto Kabul further brought in many Sikh and Hindu settlers. In the seventeenth century, British reached India and ruled for over two centuries. Their rule ended in 1947.

In 1947 when India was gaining independence, many Muslims demanded separate land for them. There was lot of violence and bloodshed. Finally the leaders decided to give part of land to Muslims. West Pakistan and East Pakistan became Islamic states whereas India continued as a secular state (East Pakistan later separated and became Bangladesh). However in India, Muslims were given the option to leave or stay back whatever they wished. Large scale migration took place from both sides. Still many minorities on both sides opted not to leave their soil.

In India, all the minorities including Muslims were enjoying equal status and constitutional rights. In fact Muslims were given special status in constitution in the form of Muslim Personal law. A separate ministry ‘minority affairs’ was formed to look after them. All Muslims were enjoying and growing. But their counterpart minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan were not so lucky. Their life soon became like living in a hell. They faced lot of violence and attacks. They were not allowed to freely practice their religious rites. Their women were kidnapped, raped and converted to Islam. Men were forced to grow beard and women to wear burqua. Minorities were forced not to eat or drink in public places during Ramadan fasting. The famous world heritage Buddha statues of Bamyan in Afghanistan were blasted away into pieces by Taliban using tanks and cannons, as the entire world community watched in horrified silence.

After partition of India in 1947, the minorities in Pakistan and Bangladesh were 23% each. This got reduced to around 8% in Bangladesh and 3% in Pakistan in 2011. On the contrary, the minority Muslims in India grew from 9% to 14% in same period. Large scale atrocities and violence forced the minorities in these 3 theocratic countries to either convert to Islam or run away to safer countries. India being closest, many of them illegally migrated and crossed over. They started living illegally and unwilling to go back. They say,” we will not go back to that hell again even if you kill us”.

They continued to stay on but were deprived of basic rights. This could not secure essential ingredients of life like education, jobs or property. So the govt thought of bringing in a legislation to grant them regular citizenship, only for the people who came before 2014. Since there was no reason for Muslims to face torture in these Islamic nations and then come to India, only non-Muslim minorities were covered under this act CAA. The 6 religions to be covered are Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Christians, Jain, Parsi. That makes sense. Then where is the problem and why all this brouhaha?

A false narrative is being created unnecessarily by some vested interests working against India. Some political parties eying on the minority vote bank are spreading false rumors. Here are some of the rumors and their answers.

Q: why should there be any act based on religion?

A: because the victims suffering is based on religion.

Q: it will deprive the Muslim citizens of India.

A: no, it covers only the outside immigrant non-citizens. It has nothing to do with those who are already citizens of India.

Q: India is already over populated. We don’t need immigrants to burden our economy.

A: according to intelligence bureau records, only 31,313 people will be covered under this act. This is mere 0.002% of current Indian population.

Q: Why not include Tamil and Rohingya refugees of Srilanka and Myanmar respectively?

A: Unlike Pakistan Bangladesh and Afghanistan theocratic countries, Myanmar and Srilanka are secular. So there is little chance of religious persecution. In fact the problems were created by minority communities themselves, and what followed was majority backlash in retaliation. Tamils created LTTE and fought long guerilla war demanding separate land which no sovereign country could agree to. Now after the annihilation of LTTE, Srilanka has no problem in taking back Tamilians of their origin. Most of them have already gone back. Those staying back even now have no reason to stay. Rohingyas too tried to follow LTTE path. But their attempt was nipped in the bud by Myanmar which considers them to be the immigrant from Arab nations. When Myanmar doesn’t consider them to be citizens of their country, why should India which has no historical bond with Rohingyas?

All said and done, the truth is that the CAA does not shut the door on anyone from anywhere who wants to apply for Indian citizenship. It is only defining an expedited path for some specified categories of applicants. Anyone can apply for Indian citizenship after having stayed in India for 12 years. For the specified group of immigrants (non-Muslims from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan) who entered India before 2014, the condition of stay has been reduced from 12 years to 5 years. Essentially this means that they can all apply now (doesn't mean that they will be granted citizenship) while others may have to wait. The fast track is being made for the people who are illegal immigrants on account of religious persecution.