INSTITUTIONALIZED RELIGIOUS DISCRIMINATION IN INDIA: CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT (CAA) AND NATIONAL REGISTER OF CITIZENS (NRC), 2019¿2024

Abstract

This paper examines the systematic religious discrimination against India's Muslim minority under the BJP governments of Narendra Modi (2014-2024), arguing that the Citizenship Amendment Act of 2019 represents not a rupture but the legal culmination of an ideological project with century-long roots. Drawing on doctrinal legal analysis, historical-political scholarship, and human rights documentation, the paper traces how Hindu nationalism was progressively institutionalized through discriminatory legislation, state violence, and the socioeconomic marginalization of Muslims. It demonstrates that the CAA, read alongside the proposed National Register of Citizens, creates structural conditions for statelessness targeting a specific religious community, in violation of India's obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.