Housewives, grandmothers and students in Delhi at centre of resistance to new citizenship laws With a toothless grin and a clenched fist raised to the heavens, 90-year-old Asma Khatun chanted exuberantly. `Azadi,` she cried, using the Hindi word for freedom and joining a loud chorus that rang out across Shaheen Bagh, a neighbourhood in South Delhi that over the past few weeks has become a nationwide symbol of resistance.In her nine decades, Khatun has lived through British colonial rule, the war of independence and India´s bloody partition with Pakistan, but as a housewife she had always stayed behind closed doors and barely brushed with politics. That was until last month.The new citizenship law provides a path to citizenship for religious minorities who have immigrated into India from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan before 31 December 2014. It explicitly lists Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians as being able to take advantage of the new provisions, excluding Muslims. Continue reading...
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