Breaking the Circle: What is it like to grow up in India today?

 

A British-Assamese filmmaker explores what it’s like to grow up in India after the Citizenship Amendment Act was passed.

India has one of the world’s youngest populations, and it’s these young people who will live with the consequences of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed in 2019.

British-Assamese filmmaker Leona Chaliha travels back to northeast India to explore the question of what it’s like to grow up in India after the passing of the Act.

Is India’s BJP to blame for reports of rising Islamophobia?

 

Attacks against Muslims have allegedly increased since the Bharatiya Janata Party took power.

Left homeless for protesting against hate speech in India. That is what dozens of people whose houses have been demolished say has happened to them.

Most are Muslims. But the demolitions took place as emotions were running high across India.

Indian officials demolish houses of Muslims after protests

 

Authorities in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh have demolished the houses of several Muslims they allege are linked to recent protests that turned violent.

The demonstrations happened after derogatory remarks were made by two former leaders of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party about the Prophet Muhammad.

Delhi’s deadly riots, explained by an expert

On December 11th, 2019, India’s parliament passed a controversial new law: the Citizenship Amendment Act. The law fast-tracks citizenship for migrants from three neighboring countries, specifically if they are Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, or Christians. It conspicuously leaves out Muslims. Since the law was passed, it’s drawn widespread opposition and protests, and not only because it discriminates against Muslims. The law is also closely linked to another controversial initiative: the National Registry of Citizens, a citizenship list that could potentially leave millions of people, primarily Muslims, stateless.

As Violence Over Citizenship Breaks Out Trump Praises Religious Freedom In India

As Donald Trump completed his two day visit to India he praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fostering religious freedom in the country while a short distance away riots were taking place and people were dying protesting the Citizen Amendment Act past by the Indian Parliament on 11 December 2020. 

 The act grants the right to refugee status for all religious minorities except Muslims.  Modi's  Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) is a nationalist Hindu party which has a history of anti Muslim discrimination and violence.  Narendra Modi was First Minister of Gujarat in 2002 when a wave of inter sectional violence swept the state.  Modi was accused of inciting the violence against the sates Muslim minority.  Because of that, Modi  was denied visas to inter the U.S.   

In North-east Delhi on Day 3, violence spread and clashes broke out in new areas. Journalists were targeted, property damaged. The death toll rose to 13. And, after two days of failing to control the violence, police managed to clear some areas.

Around 7pm on Tuesday, a large posse of security personnel marched towards Chand Bagh, a Muslim-dominated locality in north-east Delhi, as reports of violence reached their wireless sets. In another half-hour, an armed mob gathered near a petrol pump in Gokalpuri and torched two vehicles, forcing the police to send a fresh deployment in the neighbourhood, less than 2km from Chand Bagh.

It continued over 24 hours as the violence spread from the Main Jafrabad Road and localities in vicinity to the large maze of narrow interconnected lanes across north-east Delhi in the last 24 hours.

Are the loudest voices on India’s airwaves normalising hate?

Indian TV anchors are in attack mode against critics of the ruling party. Plus, blackface in the Arab world.

Are the loudest voices on India's airwaves normalising hate?

India is more than two months into a series of nationwide protests against a new citizenship law known as the CAA, the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The CAA makes it easier for migrants from religious minorities to get Indian citizenship - unless they are Muslims.

This is a political story in which the media are playing a central role. Much of the media has taken to amplifying the nationalistic, pro-Hindu rhetoric of the ruling party, the BJP - labelling protesters "anti-national", implying that Muslims are inclined to spread terror - and, in the process, normalising hate speech and spreading it across their airwaves.

BJP spokesperson defends Prime Minister Narendra Modi's handling of violence in Indian administered Kashmir.

The 2019 manifesto of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) states: "In the last five years, we have made all necessary efforts to ensure peace in Jammu and Kashmir".

But, if anything, the disputed territory is witnessing more violence, as 2018 was Indian-administered Kashmir's deadliest year in 10 years. At least 586 people were killed and, according to rights groups, 160 of them were civilians.

Both the United Nations and Amnesty International have accused Indian security forces of using excessive force in the region. The UN has specifically raised concerns about the use of pellet-firing shotguns by Indian security forces between 2016 and 2018, describing it as "one of the most dangerous weapons used against protesters".

Will women win fight to worship in Hindu temple?

Protests paralyse the southern Indian state where two women defied an ancient ban on entering shrine

The state of Kerala has been at a standstill following violent protests against the lifting of a ban preventing women of reproductive age from entering one of Hinduism's holiest temples - Sabarimala.

The Supreme Court made the ruling in September but conservative groups backed by India's ruling party - the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - objected and blocked attempts by women to gain entrance.

Voices From Assam: India's Four Million Unwanted

Al Jazeera travels to Assam to speak to those facing an uncertain future and challenge the NRC on its citizenship list.

In the state of Assam, a sliver of India squeezed between Bangladesh and Bhutan, four million people are at risk of becoming stateless.

The local government has put together a draft list of those it considers to be "legitimate” citizens and four million of Assam's 32.9 million people didn’t make the cut.

The National Register of Citizens (NRC) lists those who can prove that they or their parents were in India before March 1971, when Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan.