Defending Citizenship and Polarization: Kerala Muslim’s Response to Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019

This paper explores how the Muslim community in Kerala responded to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, an act which many perceived as a ploy by the Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi Government to polarize the country and further marginalize Muslims. Against the backdrop of growing communal polarization in India, the CAA combined with the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was widely viewed as a move to reconfigure the citizenship regimes to exclude and deport many Muslims in the country. Kerala Muslims manifested a unique form of resistance against the act that attracted wider support from non-Muslim communities and strategically contained possibilities of open confrontation with pro-CAA activists, as happened in other parts of the country. The study investigates how the organized Muslim community in Kerala designed a localized response to a polarizing question in the context of a secular political atmosphere in the state. This study utilizes Social Movement Theory to comprehend various strategies adopted by anti-CAA protest organizers in Kerala to mobilize people, set themes, and unite people of different communities for the movement. The study employs a qualitative research methodology combining ethnography and interviews with community leaders, protest organizers, and participants in various anti-CAA events in the state. The paper highlights the distinct strategies deployed by Muslim collectives like public gatherings with participation from other communities, legal battles, inter-faith solidarity events, and awareness campaigns. Kerala Muslims’ response to a polarizing political issue gives a significant implication to movements that defend citizenships of ethnic/religious minorities across the world and contributes valuable insights to pro-democracy protests in ethnically divided societies.