The questions of citizenship and nationality have often been intertwined and have become increasingly hard to answer, especially in the context of India, which boasts of a shared history, common culture, and a sense of unique togetherness.
However, political leaders yearning for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) is not new, it is a painful rehashing of history segregating people on communal lines.
The NRC isn’t simply about the Narendra Modi government’s initiative. It is also about tapping into indigenous demands that have existed for decades, and this is where the problem starts. How is the demand for an NRC different from people opposing the US’ Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme, or resisting the influx of Syrian refugees in Germany? It is not.
The quest for an Assam only for the Assamese, or any other similar quest, shows a deep primal instinct – the human need to belong to a social group and the immediate insecurity felt if the social composition is challenged.
Also read: Illegal immigration was always an issue & Modi govt’s pan-India NRC is a timely move
Supreme Court’s validation
The people who demand an NRC are not very different from those who claim that the supposedly growing population of Muslims is a threat to India’s Hindu society.
The Supreme Court, by allowing the NRC exercise, has set a precedent for giving validation to other such historical claims of citizenship. It has exacerbated the tendency to question the Indianness of residents.
Also read: After Aadhaar, NRC, Amit Shah proposes a new agni parkisha for Indians
Othering Muslims
It must be realised that the anti-Bangladeshi rhetoric is no different from the anti-Bengali sentiment in Assam. To maintain the purity of one’s culture is to make it devoid of the ‘other’, and the definition of the ‘other’ will keep changing whenever found convenient, until we reach the point of enforcing Nuremberg-like laws.
The BJP has indirectly indicated that it will not grant Muslim “refugees” Indian citizenship. The demand for ousting Muslim “infiltrators” from Assam others the Muslim citizen living in Mumbai just as much.
Also read: Bangladesh’s high GDP a fitting reply to Amit Shah’s ‘termite’ taunt at illegal immigrants
It’s all the same blood
As new patterns of division on the basis of race, community, language and religion crop up, the proposed enforcement of the NRC across India, and even the mere thought of it, divides people into the two camps of “belonging” and “not-belonging”. They want to create a homogenous Indian state that we never wished for.
These quests for division must be seen as dubious means to accumulate more power, not as a quest to achieve the ends they apparently claim.
The implications of the Supreme Court’s approval will prove to be incredibly dangerous for the country, where communal tensions are already peaking.
It is at this time that one must remember Assam’s celebrated singer Bhupen Hazarika’s lyrics: “Give me a white man whose blood is white”. These lyrics are still applicable to Assam, and the rest of India today.
Shreenandini Mukhopadhyay is the winner of the opinion writing contest on the third edition of Democracy Wall, Season 2. This was in response to the question asked by ThePrint: BJP wants NRC to be conducted across India. By ordering it be carried out in Assam, has SC opened a can of worms?
Democracy Wall is a monthly free speech campus initiative organised by ThePrint in collaboration with Facebook.
And so it shall be if the distribution is closer than it is now. Hell, even in USA white suburbs become black gradually over 10-15 years as blacks rise in their economic power., move in to the all white neighborhood and Whites move out beyond being richer now. Worst case is this 51-49 demography. The present 86-14 is Sangi game having nothing else to do.
India is divided on religious line muslims vs others. Muslims got their share in Pakistan hence naturally they must not give any chance to divide India again.No place for muslim invaders in India
NRC like activity should immediately be stopped.India’s pluralism must be protected at any cost,in the name of NRC it is ethnic cleansing undertaken by the government.It may appear as a bold step taken by the government by the majority population but in the long run..can anyone smell Germany?
I do differ from the idea of the above writer scholar. We are to look ‘NRC’ in another practical way.
A guardian of a family should know the number of family members and should know details of their condition. Similarly each member should have scope to know the other members of his/her family. We are not in the society where father cannot say the number of their children and their physical status. We are not animals that the information of the members are not to be known.
In India, the existing elected Government is the guardian of the family of India. Whoever the party in governance is regarded as guardian/father. Government must have records of all of its members as ordinarily every guardian keep at present.
Someone may say, census counting is the information of family members for the government at present. But, is that correct and applicable for civilised guardian? Certainly not, because it does not have authenticity and completely verbal/hearsay. In India the Britishers introduced the present form of census for their business(mainly in Assam) and to increase their dominance in other parts of their country. The framers of our Construction were so far sighted that they Incorporated several provisions in the Constitution and enacted very important laws for the society in the period of 1950- 1960. The object of the parliamentary proceedings and enactment of the laws indicate the concept of modern guardian of welfare. Thus, better lately even, the concept of ‘NRC’ is very much correct and appropriate.
The process of preparation of NRC in Assam is on wrong footing. The ‘idea’ of some people in Assam was taken as gospel truth- the government (legislature, executive and specially judiciary) was also influenced by the created ‘idea’ of some politically influence parties. As a super authority, the Judiciary came in fire front by its some comments in musical orders and dig a pin by order of ‘NRC’ which was destructively implemented and the whole object, instead of unity it becomes divisive. The wrong way of implementation gave a strong weapon to the existing government. The party in power also took the opportunity and attempted to sit in governance. In the future the judiciary may also be blamed for ‘partiality’ to some group of people.
Today it is Muslims, tomorrow it will embolden them to pick and choose victims of their choice. This trend is dangerous and fraught with consequences.
What is wrong with this assertion, it has always been, the Muslim population use Arabic names, follow Arabic culture then their will be question mark.
In spite of all the paranoia about the Muslim growth rates, the best available figures say that by 2050, India will still be 76% HIndu and 18% Muslim. That should lower blood pressures at Nagpur quite a bit.