Week 2 - Samyuktha Rao

Apart from the dangerous impact of CAA-NRC exercise on the Muslim community, there is also a much darker side of the CAA-NRC exercise which is about losing identity. In a move to saffronize India, BJP is now play the card of Hinduising Dalits and Adivasis which would essentially play out in three ways. Firstly, it may work in favour of those of the lower castes who have the “urge of becoming Hindu” as they would be happy about gaining a Hindu identity during the exercise. Secondly, it would force Dalit Muslims to go through persecution for gaining citizenship under CAA if they do not possess documents. Thirdly, for Adivasis who do not belong to any of the listed religions and wish to maintain their own indigenous practices, it would cost them their welfare rights and could be sent to detention centers for not taking part in the exercise. In all these possibilities, we can witness that identities of marginalized people are at stake. The government claims that CAA is for protecting identity of people from other neighboring countries but it clearly doesn’t seem to care about identities of people currently living in the country. On the face of it, it might seem like a move that shows that Hindu Dalits are going to be embraced as Hindu as the bigger debate is now about Hindu-Muslim but then the question of “Who is more Hindu” is definitely going to come up in near future after the Hindu-Muslim debate rests. 

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