India citizenship law fuels fear and anti-immigrant fervor in Assam

Muslims feel targeted while nationalists decry leniency for other groups

Student activists burn effigies of Indian Home Minister Amit Shah, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister of Assam Sarbananda Sonowal over a legal provision that grants citizenship to minorities persecuted in neighboring countries. © Reuters

JOSEPH ALLCHIN, Contributing writer

January 1, 2020 14:20 JST

GUWAHATI, India -- The new Indian citizenship law that has sparked violent protests over its apparent anti-Muslim bias has also thrown an additional shroud of uncertainty over the country's tense northeastern state of Assam -- where residents have already felt the strain of a different heritage test.