„India’s rapid descent into xenophobia, violence, and irrationality has an important economic dimension, but it takes politicians to channel these emotions into nationalism, and to embolden the nationalists to commit violence. Now that the ruling BJP has done so, is it able – or willing – to exorcise the many demons it has unleashed?“ (…)
„In August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government stripped Jammu and Kashmir – India’s only Muslim-majority territory – of its special status, which had granted it considerable autonomy, and split it into two “union territories” over which the central government now wields more direct control.“ (…)
„In the northeastern state of Assam, another horror unfolds. In August, authorities
released their jurisdiction’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), which excluded nearly two million people who could not provide proof of their names or parents’ names in the electoral rolls before March 24, 1971 – an arbitrary date essentially directed at identifying Muslim immigrants. Many of these now-stateless people have been sent to detention camps, where they live in appalling conditions.“ (…)
„While the NRC implicitly targeted Muslims, some Hindus were caught in the crossfire. So the government is keen to pass a new Citizenship Amendment Bill, which makes Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, Sikh, Parsi, or Christian refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship. Muslims are excluded.“ (…)