We Are Faced With Biggest Challenge Since Independence: Arundhati Roy On Citizenship Act

On 16th December, Indian author and human rights activist, Arundhati Roy, issued a statement through the Twitter handle of Haymarket Books asking Indians to “stand up” against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).

Concurring the sentiments of the on-going student protests in the country – most prominently in Delhi – she said: “We are faced with the biggest challenge since Independence. Stand up. Please Stand up.”

In her statement published by Haymarket Books – that calls itself “a radical publisher of politics, culture, current events,” she pointed out that the people of India were obedient when demonetisation was imposed on them and stood in ATM lines as required.

Calling demonetisation a policy that broke the back of India’s economy, she said that the new Citizenship Amendment Act coupled with the National Register of Citizens “is set to break the back of our Constitution and cut the ground from under our feet.”

She even drew parallelism between the CAA and the 1935 Nuremberg Laws of the Third Reich – the legal segregation of Jews in Germany that propelled the Holocaust.

“Are we going to stand in line once again, obediently, and comply with this policy that eerily resembles the 1935 Nuremberg Laws of the Third Reich? If we do, India will cease to exist,” the writer said in closing.

Arundhati Roy’s statement on protests in India against the National Register of Citizens and the Citizenship Amendment Bill: pic.twitter.com/ZddrUdNZlj

— Haymarket Books (@haymarketbooks) December 16, 2019

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