{"id":19370,"date":"2020-01-06T02:52:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=19370"},"modified":"2020-01-06T02:52:37","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T07:52:37","slug":"tens-of-thousands-march-in-southern-india-to-protest-citizenship-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/?p=19370","title":{"rendered":"Tens of thousands march in southern India to protest citizenship law"},"content":{"rendered":"
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…. HUMAN RIGHTS ….<\/p>\n

An article by Vinod Babu and Manoj Kumar from Reuters<\/a> (reprinted by permission)<\/p>\n

Over one hundred thousand protesters, many carrying the Indian tricolour flag, took part in a peaceful march in the southern city of Hyderabad on Saturday [January 4], chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s new citizenship law.<\/p>\n

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\nDemonstrators hold placards and flags as they attend a protest rally against a new citizenship law, in Hyderabad, India, January 4, 2020. REUTERS\/Vinod Babu<\/center><\/p>\n

The protest, dubbed the \u2018Million March\u2019, was organized by an umbrella group of Muslim and civil society organizations. More than 40 percent of Hyderabad\u2019s estimated population of nearly 7 million are Muslims.<\/p>\n

Demonstrators were still pouring into the protest site late on Saturday afternoon, according to a Reuters witness, despite police saying no march would be allowed and that permission had only been granted for a 1,000-person gathering.<\/p>\n

(Article continued in the right column)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Questions related to this article:\n<\/div>\n
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How effective are mass protest marches?<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Article continued from the left column)<\/p>\n

The Indian government has faced weeks of acrimonious and, at times, violent protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which was passed by Modi\u2019s government in December.<\/p>\n

The Hyderabad protesters held placards with slogans including \u201cWithdraw CAA immediately,\u201d and \u201cIndia\u2019s only religion in Secularism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Reuters witness said the protest remained peaceful, and estimated that more than one hundred thousand people were in attendance.<\/p>\n

The new law eases the path for non-Muslim minorities from the neighboring Muslim-majority nations of Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan to gain Indian citizenship. But, if combined with a proposed national register of citizens, critics of the CAA fear it will discriminate against minority Muslims in India and chip away at India\u2019s secular constitution.<\/p>\n

Modi\u2019s government maintains the new law is necessary to help minorities facing persecution in Muslim-majority nations, and it has called the pan-India protests politically motivated.<\/p>\n

At least 25 people have been killed in protest-related clashes with police since early December.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, protests against the CAA also went ahead in several other Indian cities on Saturday with hundreds turning out for protests in cities in the southern state of Karnataka.<\/p>\n

Hundreds of men and women gathered at a rally in the tech hub of Bengaluru, with some accusing Modi\u2019s government of trying to divide India along communal lines, to distract from a sharp domestic economic slowdown and job losses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

…. HUMAN RIGHTS …. An article by Vinod Babu and Manoj Kumar from Reuters (reprinted by permission) Over one hundred thousand protesters, many carrying the Indian tricolour flag, took part in a peaceful march in the southern city of Hyderabad on Saturday [January 4], chanting slogans against Prime Minister Narendra Modi\u2019s new citizenship law. Demonstrators … Continue reading Tens of thousands march in southern India to protest citizenship law<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,80],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-19370","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-human-rights","category-south-asia","tag-south-asia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19370","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19370"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19370\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/english.cpnn-world.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}