{"id":87023,"date":"2020-02-27T10:19:01","date_gmt":"2020-02-27T16:19:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=87023"},"modified":"2020-02-27T17:17:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-27T23:17:58","slug":"many-indian-students-on-us-campuses-are-silent-on-new-indian-citizenship-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/many-indian-students-on-us-campuses-are-silent-on-new-indian-citizenship-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Many Indian students on US campuses are silent on new Indian citizenship bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Madhurita Goswami<\/strong>
\nMedill Reports<\/em><\/p>\n

Some Indian students are hitting Chicago\u2019s streets to protest against an increasingly authoritarian government back home. But many students don\u2019t want to get involved.<\/p>\n

In December 2019, India\u2019s parliament passed a bill that grants citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, Muslim minorities such as the Ahmadis from Pakistan and Rohingyas from Myanmar were excluded from the bill.<\/p>\n

At the same time, the government demanded Indian citizens provide documents to be included in a national registry of citizens. Most people don\u2019t have the documents demanded, but the citizenship bill would effectively protect most people left out of the national registry from deportation or internment as long as they weren\u2019t Muslim, said opposition parties and activists.<\/p>\n

Echoing student-led protests in India, some Indian university students in Chicago are also rallying against the moves.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A student gives a speech at the anti-citizenship bill rally on Jan. 26 (Madhurita Goswami\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, they along with a few Muslim organizations protested on Devon Avenue, where many South Asians live. There was another rally in downtown Chicago on Jan. 26, India\u2019s Republic Day.<\/p>\n

Nearly a hundred protesters, including American Indians and Indian students, turned up at the rallies. They brought posters and shouted \u201cStop the violence, stop the hate\u201d and slogans in Hindi, saying \u201cNo matter what you do, we will get freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n

The protesters cut across religious lines, but experts and student activists said that supporters of the bill were largely Hindu and from relatively privileged backgrounds.<\/p>\n

Tyler Williams, a professor of South Asian studies at the University of Chicago, said most Indian immigrants in the U.S. benefitted from the Indian government\u2019s educational or employment programs and might not represent the views of the country\u2019s disenfranchised classes.<\/p>\n

He said students asked him why they should be concerned about the new laws at a panel discussion organized by Northwestern South Asian Solidarity, last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone isn\u2019t affected personally, it is difficult to understand why the laws might be an issue for someone else,\u201d Williams said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am privileged too but know what is happening is wrong,\u201d University of Chicago graduate student Pratiti Deb, who was a speaker at the downtown protest, said.<\/p>\n

Students who support the regime weren\u2019t thinking, she said. \u201cThey are silent because on some level, they know they are wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anuranjan Sethi, a Northwestern University doctorate student who attended the downtown protest, said the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party wanted to create a fissure between Indian Muslims and Indian Hindus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf more students were from families feeling the heat of the current laws in India, there would be more participation (in the Chicago protests),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Abhraneel Sharma, a Northwestern University doctorate student who hails from Assam, said the protests weren\u2019t tailored for all Indians. Assam opposed the citizenship bill but supported the national registry of citizens to stop undocumented immigration through India\u2019s border with Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Some Indian students, who celebrated India\u2019s Republic Day on Jan. 25 with a movie screening at Northwestern University, said they couldn\u2019t attend the rallies because it was cold outside. A few also approved of Modi\u2019s leadership.<\/p>\n

Students, who organized a panel discussion on the citizenship bill at the University of Illinois at Chicago on Jan. 23, said they had reached out to all Indian student organizations on campus. However, only a few students were seen at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult to be rigid in a university space. \u2026 but many students choose not to engage in debates,\u201d University of Illinois at Chicago doctorate student Ritu Ghosh said.<\/p>\n

Photo at top: A protest rally on Michigan Avenue on the occasion of India’s Republic Day. (Madhurita Goswami\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Madhurita Goswami Medill Reports Some Indian students are hitting Chicago\u2019s streets to protest against an increasingly authoritarian government back home. But many students don\u2019t want to get involved. In December 2019, India\u2019s parliament passed a bill that grants citizenship to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. However, Muslim minorities such as the Ahmadis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":620,"featured_media":87031,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2951,30,675,4892],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politicsnational-security","category-public-affairs","category-social-justice","category-winter-2020"],"yoast_head":"\nMany Indian students on US campuses are silent on new Indian citizenship bill - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/many-indian-students-on-us-campuses-are-silent-on-new-indian-citizenship-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Many Indian students on US campuses are silent on new Indian citizenship bill - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Madhurita Goswami Medill Reports Some Indian students are hitting Chicago\u2019s streets to protest against an increasingly authoritarian government back home. 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