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This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at GWU chapter.

WHAT’S HAPPENING? 

In August of 2019, India lifted it’s special “semi-autonomous” status of Kashmir, rendering the occupied region without internet and communication. The region was claimed by both Pakistan and India during the Partition and currently, it is still under siege with thousands on Indian military personnel keeping watch, baiting action from Pakistan. Six million people – mostly Muslim – are under the threat of a genocide largely based on the Indian government’s claims of religious and ethnic superiority. The Kashmiri conflict dates back to 1947 and was largely overshadowed by the Palestine-Israeli conflict of the same time, which partially explains why the international community is overwhelmingly unaware and silent in the face of the impending violence. But that doesn’t explain India’s rapid descent into religious fascism. 

The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), India’s ruling party, is infamous for its’ anti-Muslim, anti-Dalit, and anti-secular rhetoric and the past two years has seen Hindutva nationalism swell to its height – reminiscent of the 1947 partition of India and the Sikh Genocide of 1984. (For more historical context about India and religious nationalism, read this.) The Muslim minority and Indians of lower caste are often scapegoated for India’s economic and development problems and Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s willingness to harp on these tendencies has ultimately led to what is it happening presently. By annexing occupied Kashmir, the BJP administration effectively cleared the path for Hindu Indian settlers to buy land in Kashmir, diluting the Muslim majority and making it easier for a potential referendum that would make Kashmir a part of India.

In an effort to appease mainland Hindu extremists, the BJP then passed the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) that targets Muslims and Dalits in 2019. The bill does not allow Muslims to prove their citizenship without proper documentation – but does allow for other groups to do so. India’s National Register of Citizens hasn’t been properly updated since 1951 and many citizenship documents were lost during the Partition. The CAB is forcing Muslims to prove citizenry well beyond their time and because of the inaccessibility of government records, Muslims will be disenfranchised and rendered stateless, while non-Muslims who cannot prove their citizenship will be labeled as refugees. The Bill was met with violent protests and backlash, killing more than a dozen citizens. Historically Muslim schools such as Jamia Millia Islamia were targeted by police, resulting in sexual assault and open fire on student protestors. CAB was revised recently, putting even more restrictions on Muslim and Dalit citizenship which has led to intense Hindutva riots in New Delhi. At least twenty Muslims have been killed in the riots, mosques have been burned to the ground, Muslim owned businesses looted, and Hindu nationalist chants are echoing the streets. 

The international media has stayed alarmingly quiet until now because CAB’s revision coincidentally aligns with Donald Trump’s visit to India. However, the post-colonial legacies created by the British rule of India and Pakistan cannot be excused – to say that this vicious outburst is entirely India’s in the making is lazy and simplistic. The British harped on communal divides for economic and political gain, something the region evidently never recovered from. The disparity of action and India’s guise of secularism is harming its own citizens, descending into state-sanctioned violence and horrific displays of Islamophobia. 

 

WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?

Deepa Iyer, a racial justice activist, has compiled several ways that we can help from outside India:

  1. Educate yourself on Kashmir.

  2. Acknowledge your own privileges.

  3. If you are Hindu, petition the board of your local temple to condemn the insurgence of Hindutva violence. 

  4. If you are a student in a South Asian organization, plan a Holi Against Hindutva. 

  5. Petition your local government, legislators, and senators to pass a resolution that condemns these efforts to deny rights to religious minorities. 

  6. Consider donating or joining Equality Lab, Indian American Muslim Council, SAS Resist, The Polis Project, and SAALT.

  7. Organize a solidarity march or vigil. There are plenty of free posters that you can use from here and elsewhere.

 

We can all take an active role in becoming more educated, letting go of nationalist propaganda, and fighting against anti-Muslim violence.

Hiba is a sophomore, majoring in Political Communication and minoring in Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. At GW, she is on the board of the Pakistani Student Association and takes a lot of pride in her heritage. She currently works at the United State of Women and is a content writer for the Anar Collective. She loves talking about South Asian politics and pop culture. She aspires to be a journalist or foreign policy analyst in the future and in her spare time, she writes poetry and watches Christian Bale movies.
Sarah is a junior at The George Washington University School of Business, studying Finance and Sports Management, with a minor in Spanish. She previously worked at the Her Campus Media headquarters in Boston as a Product and Operations intern. She is a dedicated Boston sports fan, loves to travel, and pets every dog she sees.