Are we the Citizens of Hindu Rashtra: Decoding contentions of Muslim citizenship crisis and beyond in India
Abstract
In its 2021 report, the V-DEM institute through its multiple parameters classified India into an Electoral Autocracy indicating a significant downgrade from its erstwhile classification as an Electoral Democracy. I would be indicating on one such (slightly engaged with) parameter which holds massive potential to not only further slide India's position but rapture its democratic ethos perennially.
The research aims to connect the linkages of the current citizenship crisis associated with the massive bureaucratic exercises of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) with the right-wing BJP led Hindu nationalist (Hindutva) discourse. This paper shall be highlighting on evidences of democratic decay through the above-mentioned controversial policies that aim to disparage citizenship rights of certain groups in the sub-continent.
The objective is not to look at the citizenship crisis as an isolated event; rather its relevance lies in the blueprint of carefully cultured religious nationalism which has already given a clarion call for transforming India into a Hindu Rashtra (Nation)