CAA–NRC and the Struggles to Save India’s Secular Polity

The rightward shift in Indian politics has long been a subject of discussion in academia. For a very long time, the discussion was confined to the sphere of economic policies. Occ­asional and regional assertions of communal and sectarian groups, most often identified with a particular version of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), were dismissed as reactive outbursts. With the victory of Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2014 and 2019 general elections, the point of right wing’s reactive nature is no more convincing. It is obvious that the BJP government has an agenda of transforming the Indian society by using its hegemonic electoral presence in the country. The nature of the transformation is obviously regressive which goes fundamentally aga­inst the constituti­onal morality visua­lised by the founders of independent India. The BJP government in the centre has, through the choice of its policies, proved that it is waging a counter-revolution against the idea of ­India which emerged as hegemonic during the national movement. The book under review asserts that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) passed in Parliament in 2019 along with the proposed National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) are, till now, the most far-reaching assaults on country’s secular polity. It provides the rea­ders with a “toolkit” to resist the move. However, this reviewer believes that some of the fundamental aspects of the “toolkit” need thorough revisions.

Resistance Text