The Indian law that led to deadly riots comes into force after a four-year delay

Weeks before national elections, India’s government abruptly announced it will begin enforcing a citizenship law that has been dormant since late 2019 after inciting deadly riots by opponents who called it anti-Muslim.

The seditious law grants Indian citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Jains, Parsees and Christians from some nearby countries. Muslims are expressly excluded.

In a characteristic clap of thunder, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government issued a brief statement Monday evening saying it had finalized details that would bring into force the law, known as the Citizenship Amendment Act.

The government’s move, just before India announces dates for elections expected in April and May, shows Modi is making good on a promise and could change the electoral math in districts with Hindu refugees who could benefit from the law .

Politics aside, the law is not expected to significantly change the demography of India’s diverse population of 1.4 billion people, at least not on its own. But it makes clear the power Mr. Modi is wielding to redefine the Indian republic, pushing aside any resistance to his vision of a Hinduism-first state.

The law spent more than four years in hibernation after protests by hundreds of thousands of Muslims and other Indians outraged by the idea that citizenship would be defined by reference to religious identity.

In February 2020, while President Donald J. Trump was on a state visit, riots broke out in the capital New Delhi. Entire neighborhoods were destroyed in the northeastern part of the city, where gas canisters were turned into makeshift bombs and thrown into mosques. At least 50 people were killed, most of them Muslims.

A high-profile protest camp at a place called Shaheen Bagh, run mainly by female protesters from various religious groups, lasted until late March before being dispersed. And then Covid-19 intervened, suppressing further protest.

The government justified the new rules as a humanitarian response to the plight of minorities in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, India’s three major Muslim-majority neighbors. Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu monk who became a political ally of Mr. Modi, wrote on social media that saving communities “suffering from religious brutality” would “bring joy to humanity.”

It is difficult for many to accept this statement at face value. First, the inclusion of some countries and the exclusion of others seems arbitrary. On the other hand, Muslims who are persecuted for their faith, for example the Ahmadiyya and the Shias in Pakistan, are not eligible for Indian citizenship. The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called the law “fundamentally discriminatory.”

To critics, the Citizenship Amendment Act appears to be part of a pincer movement against Muslims. It was created at the same time as a national citizenship registry that would allow the government to deport undocumented residents even if their families had lived in India for generations.

As Mr. Modi’s right-hand man, Amit Shah, said at the time: “Please understand the ‘chronology’: first the CAA,” and then the registry. In other words, the first non-Muslim refugees would receive citizenship. Then the remaining refugees would be expelled. More than a thousand ‘declared foreigners’ have been arrested in the northeastern state of Assam.

Protests erupted there and in several other states on Monday after the government announced enforcement of the citizenship law. Shaheen Ahmed, a PhD student in Kerala, said he and other students came out to protest across his state.

“We were demanding the rollback of the law when the police came and started beating us,” Mr Ahmed said.

One group that rejoiced at the news is a large community of lower-caste Hindus in West Bengal, whose ancestors came to India from Bangladesh. Their support for Mr Modi in the coming elections could tilt several parliamentary seats towards the majority he is expected to win anyway.

Other Hindu refugees from Pakistan had already acquired citizenship. Since 2016, more than 1,100 people have been granted this status in Mr Modi’s home state of Gujarat. The aim of the Citizenship Amendment Act will be to make these naturalizations possible at national level and make them more visible.