The Country I call my Home

“We , The people of India , having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a Sovereign , Socialist , Secular , Democratic , Republic......”
-- Few lines from the preamble of Constitution of India.

India has always been proud of its secular culture, as India is among the few countries in the World that can boast of a diverse cultural landscape containing people and prodigies from every ethnic, cultural and religious groups. Indians has always been proud and affectionate to this secular root until the present times when the memory of this secular constituent has come to a hurtful Question with the implementation of NRC and CAA 2019. NRC or National Register of Citizen is a register containing list of genuine Indian Citizen residing in or outside the country. NRC was first implemented in 1951 after the partition of India to register the residing citizen of the country as well as the citizen that have moved in India from partitioned region of East and West Pakistan back then. CAA or Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 amends the citizenship act 0f 1951 to grant Indian citizenship to minority Hindu residents of Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, leaving people of Islamic origin out of this Law.

Both NRC and CAA 2019 is brainchild of Indian Home minister and BJP Supremo Mr. Amit Shah who campaigned to victory in 2019 Lok Sabha election with the message to remove all illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and neighboring countries from India.

Controversies has not been easy on both this laws from the first day of its declaration and application starting from Assam. The array of documents that has been demanded by the government to prove ones citizenship has been controversial. NRC demanded any document that proves that a person from an applicant family has resided into India before March ,1971,or has direct link to his or her forefather who may have immigrated into India before that stated timeline.

History has not been easy on the landscape of India, with the country suffering often from environmental to socio-political crisis, many has lost there homes and everything during these dire times and for them producing such documents is nothing less than a nightmare, bringing into question of documents like voter id and adhar card , on basis of which the electoral have elected ones government into power and the government who have actively promoted Adhar as One card for everything, is now not a proof of Citizen for everyone in the country.

A bigger controversies surrounds the Citizenship Amendment Act 2019 which amends the Citizenship Act of 1951. The act approves to grant citizenship to Hindu immigrants , leaving other religion ,specially Muslims out of the context . Hurting the secular thought process that governed the nation from the declaration of the Indian constitution.

A massive protests erupted all through out the nation against these laws . From students to common citizens from all ethnic culture joining feet against the religious based mentality and implementation of CAA 2019. The documentation takes place in the city of Kolkata and in the border state of Bengal at large. Students from various institutions around the state , along with Islamic organizations of Kolkata took out massive rallies against the act. The protest was welcomed by the West Bengal government in positive sense as the governing political party of the state also agreed that these law hurts the secular sentiment of the country. While the protestors weren’t blocked from their agitations , law violations were not tolerated and many a time clashes erupted between police and protestors.

It has been almost a year since introduction of these laws , yet today the future and the uncertainty of the country looms in the balance as the movement continues. Today along with CAA and NRC , many anti constitutional laws has joined the ranks as the protest against these policies and the government rages on , different days different forms and in different slogans , but with on moto - to save the democracy and secularism of the country of India.

Me in a personal level has seen the worst of these laws , as my father used to spent sleepless nights searching through old documents to find the papers needed to prove his citizenship. I have seen my 70 year old aunt in tears , saying and i quote , " I have spent 70 years of my life in this soil and now the government whom I selected in power asks whether i am citizen of India , it hurts...… ! "

This is my ongoing project in its first iteration....

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