Why India’s New Citizenship Law Has Sparked An Outcry – Even Among Those It Sought To Please

The passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019 in both houses of the Indian parliament seeks to give Indian nationality to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians who migrated to India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who are facing alleged religious persecution.

The exclusion of Muslims from the bill has resulted in widespread protests in India and condemnation from other parts of the world.

The Indian government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, argues that Muslims were not included in the bill because they could not have faced religious persecution in those Muslim-majority countries and thus would have come to India of their own volition as economic migrants.

This is specious logic as the bill does not cover around 60,000 Tamil Hindus, Christians and Muslims who fled Sri Lanka during the civil war.

There has also been a large influx of Rohingya Muslims into India due to religious persecution by