Overview

 A lot of Muslims in India are nervous and anxious about the National Register of Citizens (NRC) due to the possible effects that its implementation could have. Much of these fears arise from the understanding that the NRC, alongside the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), might differently affect Muslim communities by inflicting discrimination and causing elongated periods without statehood and exclusion from Indian citizenship. Anxies of this kind have been stimulated by historical, social, and political elements.

NRC and its Context: The NRC’s purpose is to spotlight actual Indian citizens, focusing mainly on the identification of undocumented immigrants, widely known as a longstanding challenge in states including Assam that grapple with migration from nearby Bangladesh. Seeking to distinguish legal residents from illegal migrants, the NRC was started in Assam, so that residents must prove their citizenship with documentation. A lot of people, notably from marginalized groups, found it hard to generate the required paperwork, due to illiteracy, hardship, or their relocation over the years.

Fears Among Muslims: The major fear among Muslims results from the belief that the NRC could be used against them. There exist causes of alarm that those who do not have important documents to prove their citizenship might go unrecorded and hence relinquish their status as citizens. The CAA quickly grants citizenship to non-Muslims from adjacent lands (Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh), but Muslim applicants do not qualify. The fear of Muslims being excessively harmed by a nationwide rollout of the NRC without the safeguards reserved for other religious groups under the CAA has resulted from this exclusionary characteristic.

Historical and Social Context: Regardless of being a secular state with a substantial Muslim population, India has a tale of tensions between these two groups. In this environment, a great many Muslims interpret the NRC-CAA integration as a move likely to cause systematic discrimination. The worries over the Assam NRC have intensified because many people did not make it onto the list.

Conclusion

 Indians of the Muslim faith are mainly concerned about the NRC, worried about the threats that result from exclusion and statelessness tied to the religious guidelines set by the CAA. In addition, these worries are complicated by a lack of confidence in government intentions and the large social-political milieu, with many people thinking that the NRC might bring about unwarranted discrimination on religious grounds.

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