Why India’s New Citizenship Bill is Sparking Mass Outrage

FEATURING SOUMYA SHANKAR – Mass protests have broken out in cities and states across India in response to the passage of a controversial anti-Muslim bill called the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). The Hindu Nationalist prime minister Narendra Modi has called for calm and unity after his party ushered in the bill offering non-Indians from neighboring nations citizenship only if they are not Muslim. So far at least half a dozen people have been killed in protests that have been met by a violent crackdown from police. India is home to 200 million Muslims who remain a minority.

Soumya Shankar reports on electoral politics and social movements with a South Asia focus. She teaches journalism at Stony Brook University in New York. Her work has been published in The Intercept and other publications.