Protests in India Expand After Violence on University Campuses

By Claire Meyer

16 December 2019

Protests against a citizenship law turned violent this weekend in India as police used force inside two university campuses, injuring more than 100 students.

The law in question created an expedited path to citizenship for certain religious minorities—Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, and Christians—from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Migrants practicing Islam were excluded by the provision, sparking criticism and protest, The Washington Post reports.

Protests over a new citizenship law based on religion spread to student campuses across India on Monday. More here: https://t.co/6729nMzTTN by @DevjyotGhoshal @sankalp_sp pic.twitter.com/Ft7YyYCaHK
— Reuters (@Reuters) December 16, 2019

Students in New Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) and Uttar Pradesh state’s Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) had been protesting since the law was passed last week, Al Jazeera reports. Police tried to disperse demonstrators on Sunday after protesters threw stones at police and setting some vehicles on fire. Police beat protesters with batons and stormed the nearby JMI campus, firing tear gas into some classrooms and a library.

Following these clashes, fresh protests swept through India on Monday in at least 17 cities.

India's Prime Minister Narenda Modi called for calm, saying in a tweet: “Debate, discussion and dissent are essential parts of democracy but, never has damage to public property and disturbance of normal life been part of our ethos.”