On December 12, 2019, the President of India gave his assent to the newly passed Citizenship Amendment Bill, 2019, effectively turning it into the Citizenship Amendment Act.
Before this bill could pass the upper house of the Parliament, people had already hit the streets in various parts of the country to show their dissent.
The polarising nature of this bill stems from the fact that it promises to grant citizenship to refugees on the basis of religion, effectively leaving out Muslims. Critics of this act allege that the CAA, along with the National Register of Citizen, will disenfranchise the Muslim community in India and see it as an attack on India's secular values.
The first major protest to break out after the passing of the act was in Assam. The protests quickly turned violent, with the death of at least 4 protestors in police firing, as a curfew and an internet shutdown hit the North Eastern state.
And that was just the beginning.
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The protests have spread nationwide, with students from all over the country showing their dissent against the government's decision. While the protests have been peaceful in most parts of the country, things took a turn for a worse in Delhi with multiple reports of police brutality and vandalism. There has been around 18 reported deaths around the country.
The following map visualises all the major protests that have broken out across the country in December, 2019. The map will be updated as further reports of protests emerge.
(Click on bottom-right to go full screen)
Visualisation done by Mohammed Kudrati.
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