What Media Won’t Tell You About India’s CAA

9 min readMar 13, 2024

On March 11, 2024, more than four years after it passed in the lower and upper houses of Parliament, the Home Ministry of India notified the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act) 2019 rules. The law was introduced in late 2019 and passed in both houses of the Indian Parliament with an overwhelming majority. This act provides relief in terms of time duration (from 11 years to 5 years) to citizenship in India for the persecuted minorities (Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi and Christian) who have entered India before December 2014, fleeing Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. Unfortunately, with a four-year delay, the intended benefit has also been delayed (9 years instead of 5), bringing it almost at par with the regular process, which has a wait time of 11 years.

Anybody who is not living under a rock would be aware of the history of continuous persecution of religious minorities in these three countries (Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan) as their populations dwindle, systemic discrimination galore, and their places of worship demolished. In fact, the refusal to live in harmony with other religious communities has been the genesis of countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh (East Pakistan, before 1971).

However, for those living under a rock, let’s understand what kind of people India’s CAA intends to benefit.

According to the Pakistani newspaper Dawn, in a 2015 Aurat Foundation report, every year, nearly 1,000 girls from minority religions are forcefully converted to Islam in Pakistan. Bangladesh is no better. They get abducted, often in broad daylight, in front of their families, only to be found converted and married off to random men days later. When a police complaint is filed and courts are approached, courts send these girls to what they call “shelter homes”. In no time, in court records, the girls are made to say they’ve converted on their own accord, but behind the scenes, they’re threatened that their families will be killed if they don’t do so.

In the last three months itself, the following major incidents have been recorded (only the select few that made it to the media):

A minor Hindu girl, 13-year-old Chanda, was abducted, forcibly converted to Islam and married off to an old Muslim man two years ago; she was handed over to her abductor by the court after keeping her in a “shelter home” away from her family, for two years.
Minor Hindu girl Nazia, daughter of Baadal Bheel, is abducted and forcefully converted to Islam by Babar Ali in Larkhana, Sindh.
Minor Hindu girl Varsha Kohli is abducted and forcefully converted to Islam by Nazeer Buledi in Tando Allahyar in Sindh. Police investigating the case reported that Nazeer Buledi claims the girl has converted to his religion, and they are married.
Abdullah barges into Lali Bheel’s house in Umerkot, Sindh and abducts her at gunpoint.
A 15-year-old minor Hindu girl, Jaya Meghwar, daughter of a construction worker, Prem Meghwar, was abducted from her home by Muhammad Ferozold Ghulam Hussain when she was alone and forcefully converted and married off in Karachi.
A minor Hindu girl, Pooja Thakur, was abducted and forcefully converted to Islam by Nadeem Ali Mashori in Sindh.

In addition, one of the cases that garnered major media attention was of the 18-year-old girl Pooja Oad, who was shot dead for resisting abduction in the Sukkur area of Sindh. This was the second attempt at abduction after she successfully escaped the first one.

In 2012, Rinkle Kumari of Mirpur Mathelo in Sindh was abducted at gunpoint by Naved Shah and four others. In no time, she was converted to Islam and married off to Naved Shah. Despite crying several times and even screaming in front of the media, expressing her wish to go back to her family and pleading that she was kidnapped, every single court, including the Supreme Court of Pakistan, sided with the abductors, repeatedly sending her to “shelter home” where she was tortured to change her statements in court.

In 2019, two daughters, Reena and Raveena, of Hari Lal in the Ghotki district of Sindh, were kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam around Holi, a major Hindu festival, and married off to two Muslim men, Safdar Ali and Barkat Ali — both already married and having kids. A viral video of Lal helplessly slapping himself outside the police station, urging the police to do something to recover her daughters, was heartwrenching. Despite assurances from senior political leaders at the federal level, the Islamabad High Court sided with the abductors.

Around the same time, 18-year-old Simran was kidnapped as she went to a nearby temple with her mother. A week later, just like Reena and Raveena, a video surfaced where she was seen saying that she had changed her religion without coercion and married her husband Afaq out of her own free will.

In 2022, Rajeeta Koliar was abducted by Islamists, forcefully converted and married. The girl managed to escape the captivity to return to her parents, but the court, once again failing Hindu girls of Pakistan, ordered her to be sent to a “shelter home”.

Ameet Kumar, a social rights activist and mukhiya (chief) of the local Hindu community in Daharki in Sindh, said, “When a mother gives birth to a daughter in our community, we feel fear,”

According to the Tribune, a Pakistan-based news daily, an investigation in 2014 by a human rights group revealed that out of 428 Hindu temples that existed in 1947 in Pakistan, only 20 survive, while the rest have been converted into stores, restaurants, government offices, cattle farms, and schools.

Watch this podcast by the Canadian activist Yasmine Mohammed on Hindu Girls Abducted in Pakistan.

What’s amazing is that radical Islamists like Mian Mithu, who is notorious for being the mastermind behind these kidnappings, insist that “they convert out of their own free will” but don’t care to explain why it is always Hindu women running away with Muslim men and embrace Islam and not other way round? Having said that, it is still more honest than Islamists or their sympathizers in India who keep calling such marriages “interfaith” even after women have been forced/lured to convert.

However, despite such glaring truths staring at their faces, many have engaged in an unfortunate disinformation campaign against CAA that barely does the minimum for the people who are fleeing these countries for their lives. The following are some of the most common accusations about the law and my response.

CAA Is Against the Constitution

There have been as many challenges against CAA in the Supreme Court of India, but no party has been able to prove why it is against the constitution yet. The Supreme Court has often refused even to stay the law, let alone strike it down. I will only comment a little since this is a highly legal topic, and it is up to the courts to decide.

Here’s what a Supreme Court lawyer in India, J Sai Deepak, has to say about CAA

This is an anti-Muslim Law by the Hindutva Government.

How is a law anti-Muslim when Hindus from any other country, except these three, will be going through the same process as anybody else? The law does not stop Muslims from these three countries from seeking refuge in India and applying for citizenship. In fact, India is home to one of the largest (perhaps the largest) Rohingya refugee groups pouring in from Bangladesh. According to the Finance Minister of India in 2020, “Three hundred and ninety-one Afghanistani Muslims and 1595 Pakistani migrants were given citizenship from 2016 to 2018.” This also included the famous singer Adnan Sami. Famous Bangladeshi writer and activist Taslima Nasrin, who is facing death threats in Bangladesh by radical fundamentalists due to her views, has been living on a residence permit in Delhi since 2004 (she can take Indian citizenship, but she doesn’t want to give up her Swedish citizenship for that).

For the First Time, Religion is the Basis for Citizenship

While I am not a legal expert and certainly not opining here as well, logically, if laws that take religion into consideration are such a no-go, why does India have a Muslim Personal Law for matters related to succession, marriage, adoption, etc.? Similarly, there are laws specific to the Christian community and other minorities as well. And what happens to thousands of schemes at the federal and state levels for the welfare of minorities? More importantly, does framing laws specific to communities take away the rights of other communities granted under the Constitution? And why are other criteria okay, but religion is a touch-me-not? In the Western hemisphere, there is Lautenberg Law in the US, which spells out certain religious minorities in the Soviet Union, allowing them to come to the US — yes, “come to the US.” It’s amazing how it is okay when the US makes religion a consideration in gaining entry into the US. Still, hell breaks loose when India makes a specific law to grant citizenship that doesn’t take away others’ rights to apply for citizenship through the regular process.

CAA will take away the citizenship of Indian Muslims

To begin with, the law is about giving citizenship, not taking it away. Granting citizenship to those who don’t have it surely can’t affect those who have it already. The law’s text does not mention anywhere that the citizenship will be taken away for XYZ reasons. The rules are for providing citizenship, and that too for a particular group of people who are facing existential crises in the three neighbouring Islamic republics with a long history of persecuting religious minorities. Instead of asking questions to Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan on why minorities are being systematically wiped out in their countries, it’s strange that the country protecting them is being made to stand in the witness box.

Many with whom I have debated have not been able to respond to this and, within minutes, shift the goalpost to, “Okay, yeah, CAA is not a problem, but CAA with NRC will become a problem.” This does nothing but expose their lack of understanding of CAA and NRC.

What about Ahmadiyyas, Shias?

The misconception that Muslims from these three countries are being prevented from gaining citizenship appears to be based on a false projection that CAA is the only way to get India’s citizenship and that if you’re not qualified under CAA, you can’t get India’s citizenship. Muslims from Pakistan who moved to India and have gained citizenship lawfully through the regular process will tell you the correct story if you want to research.

Secondly, when talking about Shias and Ahmadiyyas, while there is no denial of their persecution, thinking that it is at par with the plight of distinctly non-Muslim religious minorities who are facing an existential threat and have nowhere to go except India is a bit rich. One must ask a question of what views they hold about the kafirs (their word, not mine) of India? Maybe the media and think tanks dog-whistling around CAA would like to conduct a survey in Pakistan and Bangladesh. One must also inquire about the role that the two communities in this region played in partitioning the country in 1947, in the first place. One must also ask a question: if Shias and Ahmadiyyas are so persecuted, why is not a single rich Muslim-majority country — Saudi, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Turkey, Tunisia, Morocco — ready to take them?

Lastly, it’s also to be noted that India has, not once but twice, conceded that the minorities in its neighbourhood are its responsibility. Firstly, it was right after the partition, and the second time, it was the Indira-Mujib Pact of 1972. On both occasions, only Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Christian refugees were absorbed into the Indian side.

Diversion Tactics

Unfortunately, all this cacophony diverts (possibly deliberately) attention from the grave human rights violations that are happening in broad daylight in Pakistan and Bangladesh (Afghanistan — nobody is expecting anything at this point). It gives an exit point to these three countries from being answerable to the international communities. One wonders why the international community, especially organizations like the United Nations, did not keep Pakistan accountable for their obligations under the Nehru-Liaqat pact of 1950.

As Harsh Madhusudan (I think) aptly pointed out, the government of India needs to do better in naming the law based on its purpose. CAA should have been called RRA (Refugee Rehabilitation Act).

References and Additional Read:

https://loksabhadocs.nic.in/Refinput/New_Reference_Notes/English/09122019_104728_1021205239.pdf

https://www.drishtiias.com/pdf/citizenship-amendment-act-2019.pdf

https://sundayguardianlive.com/opinion/may-no-hindus-left-bangladesh-30-years

https://www.dawn.com/news/1331464

https://www.dawn.com/news/1098452

https://www.dawn.com/news/1515863

https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/nation/341482/idols-at-barisal-kali-temple-vandalized

https://www.newsintervention.com/radical-islamist-abducts-and-converts-another-minor-hindu-girl-in-pak-occupied-sindh/

https://sindhrenaissance.com/forced-conversion-and-marriage-disturbing-case-of-abduction-of-a-minor-hindu-girl-in-tando-al-hiyar-district-pakistan/

https://www.pgurus.com/18-year-old-hindu-girl-shot-dead-for-resisting-abduction-in-pakistan/

https://twitter.com/mssirsa/status/1506120149036048386