South Asians in the U.S. are planning a first-of-its-kind national day of action in Indian districts around the United States including Los Angeles, Jersey City, Chicago, Boston and Atlanta to pressure members of the diaspora to stop funding and supporting India’s right-wing government, currently being protested across the world. These protests are in response to the Indian government passing the Citizenship Amendment Act which bars Muslim immigrants from becoming Indian nationals and lays the legal foundation to force the country’s 200 million Muslims into a registry and a series of detention camps.

The protests are historic because they are hosted in Indian districts which have rarely seen national protests against Hindu Nationalism. Artesia Boulevard in Los Angeles, Devon Street in Chicago, Moody Street in Waltham, Patel Plaza in Decatur, Newark Street in Jersey City are just a few of the cities participating. The protests are happening the weekend of January 18-19.

The actions are part of national month of resistance events that will culminate in protests at all of the Indian embassies in the US. For more information contact press@equalitylabs.org.

Organizers' statements: 

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, Executive Director of South Asian American organization Equality Labs, said, “The CAA is an integral part of the Modi government’s process of creating a stateless Muslim population -- who can be profiled, treated as second-class citizens, and imprisoned in massive detention centers already being built in India. Without the pipeline of support they receive from networks of upper caste Hindu networks in the diaspora, India’s right wing militias and the Modi government would lack the financial support they need to distribute their fascist ideologies. Their relationship lies at the nexus of wealth inequality and nationalist fervor that are both typical of the South Asian diaspora. 

This is why we’re mobilizing a National Day of Action with South Asian american grassroots groups across the U.S. to uplift the demand that these networks immediately cease their support and divest from the spread of Hindu fascism. We are drawing a line in the sand: The diaspora will not be complicit with genocide.” 

Theresa Matthews of South Asia Solidarity Initiative (SASI) NY,  who is one of the organizers for Jersey City said,“These streets are the new battleground against fascism. Dominant caste Hindu Indians in the diaspora have long hoarded wealth on behalf of the opportunist fascists in India. We’re   hosting the National Day of Action in Jersey City, in a state with one of the largest Indian diasporic populations in the world, to urge people to move as one in an act of conscience and object to Modi and his genocidal project to Indian minorites. As an Indian Christian I know the CAA will not just impact Muslims, it will effect all minority faiths. It also has consequences for queer and trans people.”

Bilal Hussain who has been spearheading the Artesia mobilization and who was one the first organizers to join this call, said: “We are bringing this battle to Artesia because I am sick of hearing people openly asking for the death of Muslims in restaurants in my community. I have family who are afraid for their lives and it is heartbreaking. I have not slept since the CAA passed. I am Muslim, I am Queer. And I am of Indian descent. The CAA has genocidal implications for all of my communities and we will not be silent.”

Vinnu Wolhowe, who has been helping organize the action in Seattle, Washington said: As a Dalit Christian from India, who now lives in Seattle, I know that religious and caste minorities in India have experienced state-sponsored violence through a plethora of avenues, and that we have seen this coming. We have to wake up and be willing to look at these uncomfortable truths: India has never been a tolerant, secular, nation, and what we tout to be the biggest democracy has never been safe for minorities. The passing of the CAA proves how normalized religious un-freedom has become in India. I am joining the Seattle protests in opposition to the CAA because I will not let this pass by as another normal violence."

Shelly Anand, who has been helping organize the action in Decatur, Georgia, said: “As the granddaughter of refugees from the Partition of India and Pakistan, the CAA is reopening wounds that have been passed down generation to generation. There is so much healing that still hasn’t taken place. There has never been any process of truth and reconciliation in the subcontinent. The Modi-led government is taking advantage of this trauma, seeking to further deepen the divide among South Asians by caste and creed, rather than bring us together -- and all for the benefit of upper caste Hindus. I'm taking a stand against the CAA, the Hindu Right, and the Modi government because I refuse to perpetuate the communal tensions that have plagued the subcontinent and the diaspora for over a century."