Citizenship Amendment Act protests

Citizenship Amendment Act protests
Part of the Protests of 2019
File:Khasi Students' Union (KSU) - CAB.jpg Jamia Milia Islamia students protesting, protests in Guwahati and Meghalaya, protestors stopping traffic.
Date	4 December 2019 - ongoing
Location	India
Caused by	Introduction of Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 Anticipation of implementation of the National Register of Citizens of India Police brutality at university campuses
Goals	Repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 Evasion of implementation of the National Register of Citizens of India Independent judicial probe into Delhi Police for police brutality
Methods	Protestors: Civil disobedience, demonstrations, Gherao, hunger strikes, Hartal, vandalism, stone pelting, hashtag activism, general strike (Bandh) Government: Mass Shooting by police, Riot police, lathi charge, Mass arrest, Internet shutdown, curfew, transport restrictions, water cannon, imposing ban on assembly (Section 144)
Status	Ongoing Section 144, Curfew, Internet shutdown imposed in various parts of the country. Indian Army deployed in Assam. Paramilitary forces deployed in various parts of the country.
Parties
Government of India Indian Army Assam Rifles Central Reserve Police Force Border Security Force Sashastra Seema Bal Delhi Police File:Upplogo.png Uttar Pradesh Police Assam Police various state police forces Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad Supported by: Bharatiya Janata Party National groups Multiple groups of citizens throughout India All India Students Federation Chhatra Bharati Pinjra Tod Students Federation of India Democratic Youth Federation of India National Students' Union of India All India Students Association All India Democratic Students Organisation Campus Front of India Groups in Assam Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti All Assam Students’ Union Supported by: Indian National Congress Communist Party of India (Marxist) Communist Party of India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Indian Union Muslim League All India Trinamool Congress Nationalist Congress Party All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen
Lead figures
Narendra Modi (Prime Minister of India) Amit Shah (Minister of Home Affairs) (No centralized leadership) Mamata Banerjee (Chief Minister of West Bengal) Priyanka Gandhi Kanhaiya Kumar Sitaram Yechury Yogendra Yadav Akhil Gogoi Chandrashekhar Azad
Casualties
Death(s)	20 (including 3 minors)
Injuries	175 (reported as of 16 December)

The Citizenship Amendment Act protests, also known as the CAA and NRC protests, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill protests, or the CAB and NRC protests, are a series of ongoing protests in India against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which was enacted into law on December 12, 2019, and against nationwide National Register of Citizens. The protests began in Assam, Delhi, Meghalaya, Manipur, and Tripura on December 4, 2019, and soon spread to the rest of India. The reasons given for the protests by the participating student organizations, human rights activists, and citizen groups include alleged discrimination on the basis of religion, accommodation of illegal immigrants, and police brutality against protesters on university campuses during demonstrations.

Citizens of Assam are opposing the Act out of fear that settlement of non-Assamese immigrants granted citizenship in their regions would unfavourably shift the demographic balance and result in sectarian violence. Other northeastern states had similar concerns. Assam had previously reached an accord with the central government that it would only need to accept illegal immigrants up to 1971, but the new Amendment appears to allow non-Muslim immigrants up to 2014, in violation of the previous accord.

Protesters in all regions are concerned that the upcoming compilation of the National Register of Citizens might be used to deprive Muslims of Indian citizenship. The Citizenship Amendment Act allows the government to make distinctions between Muslims and non-Muslims, and to brand Muslim citizens as illegal immigrants if they lack the necessary documents to prove Indian citizenship.

A number of other parties and religious figures have spoken out over the omission of refugees from non-Muslim countries, such as stateless Buddhist-Hindu Lhotshampa refugees from Nepal and Bhutan, Tamil-speaking Hindus from Sri Lanka legally settled in Tamil Nadu, and Buddhist Tibetans from China.

The protests started in Assam on December 4, 2019, after the bill was introduced in parliament. Later on, protests erupted in all of Northeast India, and subsequently spread to all major cities of India. On December 15, police forcibly entered the campus of the Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, where major protests were being held. Police used batons and tear gas on the students, and more than 200 students were injured and around 100 were detained overnight in the police station. The unprecedented level of police brutality was widely criticized, and resulted in students intensifying their protests across the country in response to the reprisals.

The protests have resulted in thousands of arrests and 20 deaths. Two boys under the age of 18 were among those reported to have been killed due to police firing live ammunition on protesters in Assam. The Act has been criticized and declared unconstitutional by several constitutional lawyers such as Soli Sorabjee, Markandey Katju, Kapil Sibal, Mahua Moitra, Jairam Ramesh, P Chidambaram, Abhishek M Singhvi, Ashish Goel, and Suhrith Parthasarathy. Several organizations have petitioned the Supreme Court of India to declare the bill as illegal and unconstitutional, and on December 19, the police issued a complete ban on protests in several parts of India. As a result of defying the ban, thousands of protesters were detained.

Background

A child taking part in an anti-CAB NRC protest with Jamia Millia Islamia students and locals.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) is an act of the Indian parliament, which amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 to grant a swifter path to Indian citizenship under the assumption of religious persecution to any individual belonging to the specific minorities of Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan, who entered India on or before December 31, 2014. The Act however, does not mention Muslims and does not offer the same eligibility benefits to Muslim immigrants. The Act also seeks to relax the requirement of residence in India for citizenship by naturalization from 11 years to 5 years for migrants covered under the Act.

The opposition has stated that the Citizenship Amendment Act undermines Muslim identity by declaring India a welcome refuge to all other religious communities except Islam, and that it seeks to legally classify Muslims as second-class citizens by providing preferential treatment to other groups and therefore violates Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the fundamental right of equality under the law to all citizens.

Critics of the Act have stated that due to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), Muslims would be made stateless, while the Citizenship Amendment Act would be able to shield people with Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian identity as a means of providing them with Indian citizenship if they failed to prove that they were citizens of India under the stringent requirements of the NRC. Some critics allege that it is a deliberate attempt at disenfranchising and segregating Muslims in line with the ethnonationalist Hindutva ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The home minister Amit Shah had previously set a deadline for the implementation of a countrywide NRC by stating that the register would be rolled out before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

The passage of the Act has sparked massive protests in India. Both Muslim and secular groups have protested, alleging that the Act amounts to state-sponsored religious discrimination. A large number of people in Assam and other north-eastern states have been protesting against the bill over fears that non-Muslim illegal immigrants present in the states would be allowed to stay and that the bill could embolden a rise in further illegal immigration, adversely affecting the culture and society of the region, and potentially escalating sectarian violence and tensions. After the act was passed, protests in the region turned violent with over 3000 protesters being been arrested as of December 17th, 2019, and some news outlets have described these protests as riots.

The Act directly violates Clause 5 and Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord. The Act was criticized by liberal, progressive, and socialist organizations across the country, with the Indian National Congress and other major political parties announcing their staunch opposition. The states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Punjab and Kerala have outright refused to implement it. The Indian Union Muslim League has also petitioned the Supreme Court of India to strike down the bill as illegal and unconstitutional.

There has also been concerns voiced regarding the exclusion of several non-Muslim countries around India from the Act, such as Sri Lanka, over whom Shiv Sena and several religious figures have quarreled about the citizenship status of Tamil-speaking Hindus who were allowed to legally settle in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu due to previously suffering discrimination in Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan, the latter of which is accused of discriminating against Hindus through a Buddhist-only society. Tibetan refugees from China are also excluded from the bill despite being an persecuted minority and being unable to acquire Indian nationality.

Timeline of the Protest

• 4 December

• The Union Cabinet cleared the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 for introduction in the parliament.
• After the bill was cleared, violent protests erupted in Assam, especially in Guwahati, and other areas in the state.
• In Dispur, several thousands of protesters broke down police barricades to protest in front of the Assam Legislative Assembly building.
• Demonstrations were held in Agartala. Six people have died and fifty people have been injured in the protests against the Act.

• 9 December

• The Bill was introduced in 17th Lok Sabha by the Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah,.

• 10 December

• The Bill was passed with 311 MPs voting in favour and 80 against the Bill.

• 11 December

• The bill was subsequently passed by the Rajya Sabha with 125 votes in favour and 105 votes against it. Those voted in favour included BJP allies such as Janata Dal (United), AIADMK, Biju Janata Dal, TDP and YSR-Congress.

• 12 December

• After receiving assent from the President of India, the bill assumed the status of an act. The act will come into force on a date chosen by the Government of India, and will be notified as such.
• Akhil Gogoi taken in preventive custody.

• 13 December

• The UK, USA, France, Israel and Canada issued travel warnings for people visiting India's north-east region, telling their citizens to "exercise caution".
• Chief Ministers of Indian states of West Bengal, Punjab, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh said they will not implement the law.

• 14 December

• Thousands of protesters packed into Jantar Mantar Road in Delhi.

• 15 December

• In Delhi near New Friends Colony, three Delhi Transport Corporation buses were torched.
• Police forcefully entered the campus of Jamia Milia Islamia university, and detained the students. Police used batons and tear gas on the students. More than a hundred students were injured and an equal number were detained. The police action was widely criticized, and resulted in protests across the country.
• Protests held outside the campus of the Aligarh Muslim University. In the evening, police officers forcefully entered the campus and assaulted students. At least 80 students were injured.
• In West Bengal, violent protests occurred and five trains were set on fire by the protesters in Lalgola and Krishnapur railway stations in Murshidabad district.

• 16 December

• In Lucknow, police prevents students of Nadwa University to come out of the campus to protest, leading to clashes.
• Priyanka Gandhi led a silent protest at the India Gate along with about three hundred congress workers to show solidarity with the students of Jamia.
• In West Bengal thousands of people joined a demonstration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress party.
• Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed for calm on twitter and clarified that CAA was for the immigrants.

• 17 December

• Violent clash occur in Delhi's Seelampur area. Police retaliated with tear gas and batons against the stone throwing protesters, several protesters and officers were injured. A police station was set on fire and buses were vandalized in the area.

• 18 December

• Supreme Court of India hearing 60 petitions challenging the Act, declined to stay implementation of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and set 22 January 2020 as the next date of hearing on the constitutional validity of the act.

• 19 December

• 3 protesters (2 in Mangalore and one in Lucknow) die in police firings.
• The Administrative authorities imposed ban against public gatherings in BJP ruled states Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh and parts of Delhi. Access to internet was restricted in certain places in Delhi and Bangalore.
• Internet was suspended in certain regions of Uttar Pradesh, including the capital city, Lucknow having the data & text services restricted till noon of 21st December 2019. Internet services were also suspended in Sambhal, Aligarh, Mau, Ghaziabad, and Azamgarh districts.
• Protest meetings were held defying the ban in Delhi's Red Fort and Bengaluru. Tens of thousands of people protested in Hyderabad, Patna, Chandigarh, Mumbai and other cities. Calls were made using social medial platforms to ask people to turn up and protest peacefully.
• In Bengaluru, Historian Ramchandra Guha along with several other professors was detained by the police. According to the police around 200 protestors were detained in Bengaluru.
• In Delhi, politicians Yogendra Yadav and Sitaram Yechury along with around 1,200 protesters was detained by the police.
• Curfew imposed in Mangaluru until 20 December, accompanied by violent clashes and death of 2 people due to police firing. The police was later witnessed to have forced entry into the hospital where the 2 people were brought.
• UNICEF issued a statement asking the government to respect children's right of freedom of expression, peaceful assembly and protest as per the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
• In Ahmedabad, during a violent clash in the Shah-e-Alam's Roza area police used tear gas to counter stone pelting while trying to disperse a crowd of 2000 protesters.
• 90 protestors including 50 students of the Hyderabad university were detained by Hyderabad police.
• A crowd with thousands of protesters gathered at Moulali in central Kolkata to peacefully object CAA and NRC.
• In Delhi, at least 700 flights were delayed and more than 20 cancelled due to traffic jams caused by police closing the roads to stifle protests.
• The protests involving 20,000 protesters concluded peacefully at the August Kranti Maidan at Mumbai.

• 20 December

• 6 protesters (one each in Meerut, Sambhal, Kanpur and Firozabad and 2 in Bijnor) are killed in police firing in UP.
• Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad conducted a protest march from Delhi's Jama Masjid.

• 21 December

• 1100 academics and academia staff from around the world issue a joint statement supporting the Act.

Protests

After the bill was approved on December 4, 2019, violent protests erupted in Assam, especially in Guwahati, and other areas in the state. Reactionary protests were held as well in several metropolitan cities across India, including Delhi, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Kolkata and Mumbai.

As a reaction, protests were also held at universities across the country, including Cotton University, Gauhati University, IIT Bombay, Presidency University, Jamia Millia Islamia, Osmania University, University of Hyderabad, University of Delhi, Panjab University and Aligarh Muslim University. By 16 December, the protests had spread across India with demonstrations occurring in at least 17 cities including Chennai, Jaipur, Bhopal, Lucknow and Puducherry. In Maharashtra the students of Tata Institute of Social Science and the University of Mumbai in Mumbai, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University in Aurangabad and the Savitribai Phule Pune University (SPPU) in Pune staged protests in solidarity with their counterparts at the Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University. Students from various SPPU-affiliated colleges and members of organisations such as the National Students Union of India, the Students Federation of India and the Yuvak Kranti Dal took part in the protest..

On 19th December, police banned protests in several parts of India with the imposition of section 144 which prohibits the gathering of more than 4 individuals in a public space as being unlawful, namely, parts of the capital Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka, including Bangalore. Police in Chennai denied permission for marches, rallies or any other demonstration. Internet services have also been shutdown in several parts of Delhi. As a result of defying the ban, thousands of protesters were detained, primarily in Delhi, including several opposition leaders and activists such as Ramachandra Guha, Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Umar Khalid, Sandeep Dikshit, and D Raja. Despite of the fear of being detained, tens of thousands of people protested in Hyderabad, Patna, Chandigarh, Mumbai and other cities. Civil society groups, political parties, students, activists and ordinary citizens used social medial platforms to ask people to turn up and protest peacefully. The protests involving 20,000 protesters concluded peacefully at the August Kranti Maidan at Mumbai.

Assam

After the bill was cleared on 4 December 2019, violent protests erupted in Assam, especially in Guwahati, and other areas in the state. Reuters noted the protests in the state were the most violent in the recent days, and added that at least two people were killed. Buildings and railway stations were set on fire. The protesters were angry that the new law would allow thousands of Bengali speaking non-muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, to become legal citizens of India, thereby influencing the political and cultural environment of Assam. Thousands of members and workers of All Assam Students Union (AASU) and 30 other indigenous organizations, artists, cultural activists of the state had gathered at Latasil ground in the capital city of Assam to stage protest against the Act. Assam police had subsequently detained the general secretary, the adviser to the AASU and over 1,000 protesters in Guwahati while they took out a protest rally.

Peasant leader, Akhil Gogoi, was arrested in Jorhat on Thursday, Decemeber 12 who had been organizing protests as a preventive measure by authorities, A special court of National Investigation Agency (NIA) in Guwahati on Tuesday charged him under sedition for "maoist links" and has sent him to 10-day NIA custody. The Assam human rights Commission has decided to take suo moto cognizance of reports of alleged torture upon Akhil Gogoi. According to the Assam government, 190 people have been arrested by the Assam Police for their alleged involvement in the violent incidents during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests across the state, as of 17 December.

In Dispur, several thousands of protesters broke down police barricades to protest in front of the Assam Legislative Assembly building. Demonstrations were also held in Agartala.

In Dibrugarh, the All Assam Student's Union vandalized the district office of the Asom Gana Parishad which had voted in favor of the act as part of the ruling Coalition. On Thursday, curfew in Dibrugarh was relaxed for 14 hours since 6 am.

Access to the Internet was restricted in Assam by the administrative authorities. A curfew was also declared in Assam and Tripura due to the protests, leading the army to be deployed as protesters defied those curfews. Railway services were suspended and some airlines started to waive rescheduling or cancellation fees in those areas. Officials reported that at least two people died after clashes with police in Guwahati, Assam. On 15 December Gauhati Medical College and Hospital official stated that Ishwar Nayak died on the night of 14 December and Abdul Alim died on 15 December morning. Both of them had been admitted to the hospital after suffering gunshot wounds.

Assamese language newspapers have been extensively covering the ongoing protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 across the state. On Friday, all the newspapers carried reports of violence during the protest from all over the state. Reports of excessive use of force by security forces have also found prominence in all the newspapers besides reports of vandalism in different places.

Tripura

Tripura also saw protests against CAA. Along with Assam, the internet was also shut down in Tripura.

Other North-Eastern states

Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh saw protests with their respective student organisations calling strikes and shutdowns.

Delhi

On Saturday, 14 December, thousands of agitators packed into Jantar Mantar Road, filling up a space estimated to be half the size of a football ground, as multiple demonstrations occurred against the CAA in Delhi.

On 15 December, in Delhi near New Friends Colony, three Delhi Transport Corporation buses were torched.

On 16 December, Priyanka Gandhi led a silent protest at the India Gate along with about three hundred congress workers to show solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.

On 17 December, Delhi's Seelampur area had stone-throwing crowds face off against police officers. Police retaliated with tear gas and batons, in which, according to local reports, several protesters and officers were injured. There were also reports of a police station being set on fire. According to police, buses were vandalized in the area.

On 19 December, the administrative authorities imposed ban against public gatherings in parts of Delhi. 20 metro stations were closed to prevent the movement for protests. At least 700 flights were delayed and more than 20 cancelled due to traffic jams caused by police closing the roads to stifle protests. Protest meetings were held defying the ban in Delhi's Red Fort and Mandi House. Access to mobile internet was restricted in certain places for the first time in Delhi. In Delhi, politicians Yogendra Yadav, Sitaram Yechury, Nilotpal Basu, Brinda Karat, Ajay Maken, and Sandeep Dikshit, and Umar Khalid along with around 1,200 protesters was detained by the police from Red Fort and Mandi House areas.

Digital rights activists, who accessed and studied the order suspending internet in several areas in Delhi on 19 December, stated that it was not issued from the "right channels" and, therefore, was "illegal".

On 20 December, 2 Delhi Metro stations- Jamia Millia Islamia and Jasola Vihar Shaheen Bagh were closed. Amid nationwide crackdown because of CAA, Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad's permission for the march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar had been denied by Delhi Police. In spite of the denial of permission and the imposition of Section 144, a protest march was held where Azad was able to escape after being detained by the police. The protests were peaceful throughout the day, but in the evening a car was torched in Daryaganj after which the police attacked the protesters with water cannons and lathi charge.

Jamia Millia Islamia

On 13 December, the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University undertook a march to the Parliament, protesting against the CAA. They were prevented from going ahead by the police who used batons and tear gas to disperse the protesters leading to clashes with them. Fifty students were detained by the police after the clash. According to the students, police attacked the peaceful protestors with stones and sticks, in which several students were injured. The students then retaliated with the stones and clash ensued. Police denied the allegations claiming that after the protestors were prevented from taking their march onwards they attacked the policemen with stones first. Police then used tear gas to disperse them.

On the morning of 15 December, more than two thousand students of Jamia joined the protests against CAA in Delhi. Jamia Milia Student Body and Jamia Millia Islamia Teacher’s Association (JTA) condemned the violence that happened on the same day in Delhi and stated that no student or teacher was involved in the violence.

At 6:46 pm on 15 December, hundreds of police officers forcefully entered the campus of Jamia, without the permission of college authority. The police used batons and tear gas on the protesting students. Nearly a hundred students were detained by the Delhi police and released at 3:30 am next morning. The visuals of students being dragged and assaulted by the police was telecasted in the news. Students from all across Delhi joined the agitation. About two hundred people were injured and were admitted to AIIMS and the Holy Family Hospital.

Anti-CAA Banner demonstrated at Cultural Protest organised by Artistes of Assam at AEI ground, Chandmari, Guwahati.

On 16 December, two students of Jamia were admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital with bullet injuries received during the protests on 15 December. One of the victims, M. Tamin stated that he was not participating in the protest and was passing through the area on a motorcycle, when police suddenly started caning the protesters and he was shot in the leg by Police, from a point blank range. The doctors treating him stated that the wounds were gunshot wounds. The police stated that they were investigating the allegations of gunshot.

The university has been shut until 5 January and the residents were asked to leave the campus. The vice chancellor of the university stated that they will file a court case against the police, demanding an investigation on how police was entered the university premises and assaulted the students.

Response

The police violence was heavily criticized by filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, actor John Cusack and Rajkummar Rao condemned the police violence, with Cusack referring it to fascism and Kashyap calling the government to be "clearly fascist". Actor Swara Bhaskar, praised the students protests for raising their voice against communalism and called the police action as dictatorial, brutal, shocking and shameful. She also questioned if it was the police and not the protesters who vandalized the property in Delhi and Aligarh.

Amnesty International India criticized the police for the violence against the students of Jamia and Aligarh University and stated that the allegations of police brutality and sexual harassment against the students should be investigated and culprits be punished. Defending the right of the students to protest, its director stated that the arrest of protesters violate India's obligations under the Article 19 and Article 21 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to respect and protect the right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly.

In response to the police crackdown in Jamia Millia Islamia University and Aligarh Muslim University, protests were also joined by the students of the educational institutions of IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras, Jadavpur University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, IISc, Pondicherry University, IIM Ahmedabad, as well as organisations such as Pinjra Tod and the Students' Federation of India. The students of Jadavpur University, West Bengal, called a protest gathering on 16th December, to "condemn the brutal state terror on the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University".

On 17 December, Police arrested ten people (some of them having criminal history) in the case of the violent clashes in Jamia. None of the arrested were students of Jamia.

Sikkim

Youths and students from Sikkim University joined in the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, expressing condemnation for the deaths of protesters in Assam and harsh treatment against students protesting against the Act on Saturday, 14 December. There were also concerns regarding the scrapping of Article 371(F) of the Indian Constitution which safeguards the rights of the local people of Sikkim and demands for introduction of Inner Line Permit in Sikkim.

West Bengal

On Saturday, 14 December, violent protests occurred in West Bengal as the protesters attacked railway stations and public buses. Five trains were set on fire by the protesters in Lalgola and Krishnapur railway stations in Murshidabad district; railway tracks were also damaged in Suti.

On Monday, 16 December, tens of thousands of people joined a demonstration led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress party. Mamata Banerjee stated that the NRC and CAA would be implemented in the state "over her dead body", she further appealed people to maintain peace and tranquility while accusing "outside forces" and "stooges of the BJP" of engaging in violence.

On Tuesday, 17 December, road and rail blockades continued in parts of West Bengal though no major incidents of violence were reported while protests continued in the districts of South 24 Parganas, North 24 Parganas and Nadia.

On 19 December, a crowd with thousands of protesters gathered at Moulali in central Kolkata to peacefully object CAA and NRC. Mamata Banerjee held a second rally in Kolkata and stated that The Central Government was trying to project the CAA Protests as though it was a Hindu vs Muslim fight. She also stated that "BJP is buying skull caps for its cadres who are wearing them while vandalising properties to malign a particular community,". Earlier, on 18 December, a youth known locally as a BJP worker named Abhishek Sarkar and five associates, each of them in lungi and skullcap, were detained by Murshidabad police on Wednesday after local people allegedly caught them throwing stones at a train engine.

Uttar Pradesh

Protests were held in Aligarh, Kanpur, Bareilly, Varanasi and Lucknow. Banaras Hindu University students also protested in support of AMU and Jamia students. On 19 December, the administration banned the public assembly all over the state to prevent further protests in the state. Access to the internet was restricted in Azamgarh district for 2 days, after protest continued for 2 days in the area. In Lucknow several buses, cars, media vans and motorbikes were torched. A protester named Mohammad Vakil died due to gunshot injuries in the stomach.

On 20 December 6 protesters are killed in police firing in UP. Arif (25), Zaheer (40), and Moshin (25) from Meerut, while Anas (22) and Sulaiman (26) from Nehtaur area, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh. Rights activists in Uttar Pradesh, said local policemen were conducting raids on their houses and offices to prevent them from planning fresh demonstrations. According to the Press Trust of India (PTI), the death toll from Friday's protests in Uttar Pradesh's 13 districts has risen to 11.

Aligarh Muslim University

On 15 December, protests against CAA were held outside the campus of the Aligarh Muslim University. On the evening of 15 December, police officers forcefully entered the campus of the University and assaulted the students. At least 60 students were injured including the president of the students Union. The access to the internet was restricted in the area by the district administration. The university was closed from 15 December till 5 January 2020. On the evening of 17 December, police released 26 people (including 8 students) on personal bonds. They had been arrested on charges of violence.

Mau

On 16 December, in response to the police crackdown at Jamia Millia University in Delhi and Aligarh Muslim University over the Citizenship Amendment Act, clashes between the police and protesters occurred in Dakshintola area of Mau, Uttar Pradesh where at least fifteen vehicles (including police vehicles) were torched and pelted with stones. Police resorted to firing in the air and using tear gas to disperse the protesters. A portion of the police station at Mirza Hadipura area of Mau district was set on fire. According to the District magistrate, the protesters were upset with the police action in Jamia University.

Nadwa University, Lucknow

On 16 December, the students of Nadwa University, in Lucknow while protesting inside the campus planned a protest march, but the police locked the gates of the campus from outside to prevent the planned march. A clash between the police and the students locked inside the campus ensued and involved stone pelting from both sides. The police officers were hitting the students with sticks as seen in the television footage.

Kerala

On 16 December, the ruling Left Democratic Front (LDF) coalition and the rival parliamentary opposition coalition of United Democratric Front (UDF) organized a joint hunger strike in the Thiruvananthapuram Martyr's Square. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that Kerala will "stand together to fight against the evil designs of the Modi government undermining the secular credentials of India, terming the Citizens Amendment Act as "anti-constitutional and anti-people". Leader of the Opposition Ramesh Chennithala observed that another struggle for Independence is required to save the constitution from 'fascist forces'.

Kozhikode city on Monday witnessed a number of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act with people from various walks of life hitting the street to oppose what they called a discriminatory legislation. There were also protests against previous night’s police action on the Jamia Millia campus in the national capital too.Hundreds of students participated in a ‘Long March’ organised by the Kozhikode district committee of the Students' Federation of India, from Kerala Government Polytechnic College to Mananchira, in the afternoon.

On 17 December, Social Democratic Party of India (SDPI) and allied organisations called up harthal against CAA. Buses of Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) were vandalised during the protest. Kerala police has detained nearly 233 people in connection with the hartal.

Hundreds of students from 40 colleges and universities all over Kerala conducted a long march and sit down protest on December 18 from 2.30 pm to 5 pm. They also expressed solidarity to the students of Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia. Representatives from Pondicherry University and Delhi University were present in the march, which was conducted by a collective called Students' Unity of Ernakulam.

Karnataka

Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) broke out in various parts of Karnataka on Monday. In Mysore, hundreds of people came out on the street, raising slogans demanding the abolition of the CAA and took out a bike rally against the Act was taken out. Following the agitation, the police imposed prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) terming any congregation in the city of Mysore to be illegal. In Bangalore, the IISc students organised a day-long silent protest in front of the statue of Jamsetji Tata in solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia University in New Delhi and other parts of India. The protesters staged sit-in demonstrations, took out rallies and raised slogans against the BJP government at the Centre.

In Shimoga, former MLA K B Prasanna Kumar who led the protests near Gandhi Park in the city was detained by the police under the premise of the protests potentially turning violent. Rallies and protests were also carried out opposing the CAA in Bellary, Bidar, Gulbarga, Kodagu and Udupi. Protests were held in Raichur after it became apparent that approximately 5,000 of the 20,000 Bangladeshi immigrants residing at a camp in Sindhanur would obtain citizenship.

The police arrested 38 protesters from Campus Front of India in Mangalore who were marching towards the Deputy Commissioner residence on grounds of blocking traffic on Balmatta Road. On 19 December, a curfew was imposed in Mangalore until 20 December, while protesters hit the streets, defying prohibitory orders resulting in the death of two people after police firing into a crowd. The police later barged into Highland Hospital with riot gear where the two people where brought, while also allegedly beating up patients and their relatives. The incident was caught on CCTV cameras, which recorded them as banging on ICU doors within the hospital. Home Minister of Karnataka Basavaraj Bommai claimed that people from Kerala started the violence in Mangalore and that they tried to set a police station on fire. On 20 December, the police arrested and confiscated the mobile phones of several journalists in Mangalore, including many from Kerala.

Bangalore Police detained hundreds of people including historian Ramachandra Guha who had gathered outside Town Hall in the city to protest against the CAA and the proposed NRC, in the morning. Bangalore Police said that the imposed Section 144 will be until midnight on December 21. On 20 December, Karnataka High Court has asked the AG to file a reply on hearing plea against Section 144 in Bangalore.

Tamil Nadu

On 16 December, protest against CAA was organised by the Muslim organisations and political parties, in Tirupathur district of Tamil Nadu. Effigies of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were burnt, after which more than a hundred people were detained by the police. Demonstrations protesting against the CAA and the attack on students in Delhi were also held by the students of Government Law College at Katpadi and Government Arts College in Tiruvannamalai.

A protest is organized to be held at Valluvar Kottam in Chennai at 3 pm on Dec 19. On Dec 18, police permission for this protest was revoked.

On 20 December, Kollywood actors Siddharth, Singer TM Krishna and other 600 detained for anti-CAA protests in Valluvar Kottam In Chennai.

Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam along with allied parties has announced that it will hold a "mega rally" as an anti-CAA protest on December 23.

Gujarat

On 17 December, five students were arrested by Gujarat police for allegedly creating a graffiti against Citizenship Act. According to the police, the students (all in their early twenties) of the Maharaja Sayajirao University's Fine Arts department had made a graffiti that said "no CAB Modi", but instead of the letter 'o' in the phrase the students made a 'swastika' sign. The graffiti was made at locations that included police headquarters, Kala Ghoda Circle, the Fatehgunj pavilion wall and the wall of a hostel near Rosary School. A police complaint was registered on 16 December for "using provocative and humiliating words to hurt sentiments of the people from one community and cause violence, and also damaging public property". The Police in a stated that "They used slogans with certain symbols in their graffiti to intentionally hurt religious sentiments of a particular community and affect public peace and cause riots against members of a community. They also damaged public property." The police has already arrested five and two students who were absconding were being searched.

On 19 December 2019, peaceful protest march was carried out in several parts of Ahmedabad such as Lal Darwaja, Jamalpur, Juhapura, Mirzapur, Shah E Alam, Nehrunagar. The peaceful protest march in Shah-e-Alam's Roza area turned violent after police intervened to disperse the crowd. Police used tear gas to counter stone pelting while trying to disperse a crowd of 2000 protesters.

On 19 December 2019, the protest rallies and strikes were organised in several cities of Gujarat including Vadodara, Palanpur, Chhapi, Shahera, Godhra, Borsad, Wankaner, Morbi and Modasa. Section 144 was imposed in Gir Somnath district.

Odisha

Members of the Muslim community from different parts of state, farmer leaders, student activists and Dalit leaders, hit the road in Odisha with a peaceful protest demanding that the amended Citizenship Act and the National Register of Citizens not be implemented in the State. They marched from Satyanagar Masjid towards the residence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. They submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister and Governor Ganeshi Lal.

Bihar

On Wednesday, 17 December, posters describing Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar as "missing" were erected as a form of protest in Patna. Nitish Kumar has been criticised for his silence over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. while his party, Janata Dal (United), had supported the bill in both the Houses of Parliament as part of the alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. The JD(U) party strategist Prashant Kishor, party spokesperson Pavan Verma and MLC Gulam Rasool Balyawi have also voiced dissatisfaction over the party's stance on CAA.

On Thursday, a bandh was called by communist parties in Bihar, supported by a number of small parties, where protesters blocked rail and road traffic in protest against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 and the proposed countrywide implementation of National Register of Citizens. In Patna, the state capital, activists belonging to the All India Students Federation and All India Students Association barged into Rajendra Nagar Terminus and squatted on the tracks disrupting movement of trains for about half an hour early in the morning. Traffic was restored after the protesters were chased away by CRPF personnel. Fresh disturbance was witnessed at the station at around 10 am when hundreds of activists of Jan Adhikar Party Loktantrik burnt tyres on the road adjacent to the Rajendra Nagar Terminus while some of them squatted on the tracks.

Maharashtra

Different NGOs and college students, backed by Congress, Nationalist Congress Party and Left Democratic Front parties jointly formed a front with the name "Hum Bharat Ke Log" held the protest on 19 December, at the August Kranti Maidan. In Mumbai, several actors including Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Huma Qureshi, Raj Babbar, Sushant Singh, Javed Jaffrey, Aditi Rao Hydari, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Arjun Mathur and filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and Saeed Mirza joined in the protest venue. Mumbai police had deployed more than 2,500 policemen to monitor and control around 20,000 protesters. The peaceful protest concluded without any violent incidents. Mumbai police was applauded by prominent artists including Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Kunal Kamra, politician Milind Deora and citizens for its professional conduct in maintaining law and order.

Jharkhand

Protest marches were held in Ranchi and Jamshedpur, with participation of various tribal people's rights organisations which additionally raised concerns that Adivasis enjoyed land rights by tradition and most of their land is vested with village heads hence it will be difficult for them to show individual ownership of land for the National Register of Citizens.

Madhya Pradesh

Section 144 was brought to effect in 44 districts of Madhya Pradesh on 19 December. Congress leader Arif Masood led a silent procession in Panna. Violent protests, which included stone pelting, were reported in Khandwa. Protests reportedly turned violent in Jabalpur, leading to a curfew being imposed in four police station limits. In Bhopal, hundreds of people gathered at the Iqbal Maidan where they carried out a silent protest by sitting in groups of four in order to abide by the Section 144.

Worldwide protests

The Assamese community in London staged a protest outside the High Commission of India. Protests were also held at Harvard Universityand Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States of America, where the students held demonstrations against the violent police crackdown in Jamia Milia Islamia. Protests are also planned in Berlin and Zurich.

Participants

The CAA, even at its proposal stage, had been contentious and had faced severe protests from civil society, intelligentsia, local political outfits and students. Initial resistance was offered by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), a students’ organisation, best known for the Assam Movement agitation against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in the 1970s and 1980s. The organisation has been actively protesting against the CAA, since 4 December, when it was still a draft legislation. On 12 December, students in at least 50 colleges and universities nationwide had taken to the streets to protest as the legislation was passed. However, the wave of student protests snowballed into a pan-India movement late on December 15 following what transpired at a demonstration held by students of New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) University.

Students Organisations

Protesting

Assam

• All Assam Students’ Union

National

• All India Students Federation
• Chhatra Bharati
• Students Federation of India (affiliated to the Communist Party of India (Marxist))
• Democratic Youth Federation of India (youth wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist))
• National Students' Union of India (youth wing of the Indian National Congress)
• All India Students Association (student wing of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation)
• All India Democratic Students Organisation (affiliated to the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist))

Pro-government

• Akhil Bhartiya Vidyarthi Parishad (student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party)

Casualties

• Dipanjal Das, 23, Assam
• Sam Stafford, 17, Assam
• Abdul Alim , 23, Assam
• Ishwar Nayak, 25, Assam
• Azizul Haque, 45, Assam

19 December

• Mohammad Wakeel, 25, Uttar Pradesh
• Nausheen, 23, Mangalore, Karnataka
• Jaleel Kudroli, 49, Mangalore, Karnataka

20 December

• Arif (25), Zaheer (40), and Moshin (25) from Meerut, Uttar Pradesh
• Anas (22) and Sulaiman (26) from Nehtaur area, Bijnor, Uttar Pradesh
• Noor-e-Alam in Muzaffarnagar, Uttar Pradesh

Impact

No play was possible on the fourth day of the cricket match between Assam and Services in the 2019–20 Ranji Trophy because of the protests. BCCI shifted two fixtures featuring three northeastern teams to other venues. The protests also affected the football matches of NorthEast United, with their fixture against Chennaiyin getting postponed. The India-Japan summit in Guwahati, which was supposed to be attended by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was also cancelled. France, Israel, the U.S. and the U.K. have issued travel advisories for nationals travelling to northeast India.

Transport

Several trains and at least 700 flights were delayed and more than 20 cancelled as a result of the protest. It was reported that the Indian Railways suffered losses worth ₹ 85 crore in property damage due to the protests.

On 19 and 20 December, several stations of the Delhi Metro were closed as a precautionary measure.

Communication

The government imposed internet shutdowns in the states of Assam and Tripura, five districts in West Bengal, Bhopal, Mangalore and parts of Delhi. Mobile internet and/or SMS services were suspended in several places in Uttar Pradesh such as Lucknow, Ghaziabad, Bareilly, Meerut and Prayagraj.

Reactions

Return of Awards and Honours

• Mujtaba Hussain decided to return his Padma Shri and claimed Indian democracy has reduced to "a joke".
• Malayalam film titled Sudani from Nigeria crews decided to boycott national awards function over NRC, CAA protest which won national award for the Best Malayalam film in 66th National Film Awards.
• Shirin Dalvi decided to return Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Akademi Award.
• Yaqoob Yawar announced that he will return the Uttar Pradesh State Urdu Academy Award for translation.
• Supriyo Sen decided to not to attend National Film Award ceremony.
• Jahnu Barua withdrew his film Bhoga Khirikee from the Assam State Film Awards.
• Uday Shankar decided to return Assam State Film Award for Best Choreography as a part of protest.

International

People's Daily, an official newspaper of Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, justified internet restrictions citing India's internet shutdowns. The newspaper said that India did not hesitate to shut down the internet in its two states when there was a significant threat to its national security; according to an article in the Times of India, activists described the justification as setting a dangerous precedent for internet freedom.

Gallery

• 
  Anti-CAA protestors stopping traffic in New Delhi
• 
  Locals in New Delhi protest against CAA and NRC
• Art work created by various artists as a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 at AEI ground, Chandmari, Guwahati, Assam.
  Art work created by various artists as a demonstration against the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 at AEI ground, Chandmari, Guwahati, Assam.
• 
  Mass Gathering of Anti Citizenship Act protests at Chandmari, Guwahati, Assam.
• 
  A Rangoli created as a part of protests against anti Citizenship Act 2019 at Chandmari, Guwahati, Assam.

See also

• Assam movement
• Assam Accord