The Indian government has moved forward with a citizenship law that has drawn criticism for excluding Muslims.
The Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) offers a pathway to citizenship for religious minorities from neighboring Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan, as long as they are not Muslim. Proponents say it’s a humanitarian measure to aid those facing religious persecution.
The law’s passage in 2019 triggered widespread protests that turned violent, resulting in deaths and arrests. Implementation was delayed, but according to Home Minister Amit Shah, the rules are now finalized.
Shah, in a social media post, praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling “a promise to honor the legacy of our constitution’s framers” by aiding Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians from those countries.
India’s Home Ministry announced the opening of an online application portal for those eligible under the CAA. The ministry acknowledged “misconceptions” surrounding the law and attributed the delay to the Covid-19 pandemic. They emphasized that the CAA is intended solely for those who have endured religious persecution and have no other safe haven besides India.
Prime Minister Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party, made implementing the CAA a central pledge in their campaign for this year’s general elections.
This law alters India’s existing 64-year-old Citizenship Act, which previously denied citizenship to undocumented immigrants.

The CAA establishes a cut-off date of December 31st, 2014, by which applicants seeking citizenship must prove they entered India from Pakistan, Bangladesh, or Afghanistan.
The Indian government has yet to announce an official start date for the amended law.
The announcement on Monday wasn’t unexpected. BJP leaders had been foreshadowing the law’s implementation for months, and following the notification, BJP hashtags like “Jo Kaha So Kiya” (Promise Kept) dominated online spaces.
Meanwhile, protests against the CAA have erupted in several states. In Assam, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), which led the 2019 protests in the northeast, has called for a shutdown on Tuesday. Similarly, Kerala’s ruling Communist Party of India (Marxist) has organized statewide demonstrations. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan condemned the law, calling it divisive and undermining the Constitution’s core principles. He vowed to block its implementation in his state.
The CAA faces criticism for being discriminatory and breaching India’s constitutional commitment to secularism, which forbids religion-based discrimination against citizens.
One key point of contention is the law’s exclusion of persecuted minorities from non-Muslim majority nations, such as Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka and Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar. This selectivity raises concerns about its true purpose.
Critics further argue that the CAA, coupled with a proposed national registry of citizens, could be a tool to target India’s 200 million-strong Muslim population. Additionally, some Indian citizens, particularly those residing near the borders, fear the law will trigger a surge in immigration.