Facing bias, India’s Muslims are rallying behind its secular constitution, not radical Islam

Demonstrations against the Citizenship Amendment Act and the proposed National Register of Citizens have re-inserted secularism into India’s mainstream political vocabulary. This shift in political discourse has come at the behest of the Muslim community and was then picked up by students, civil society groups, and political parties. The arguments made by the Muslim community, even by Islamic activists, against these citizenship initiatives are mostly articulated in the language of constitutional rights guaranteed to all Indians.