S3 Ep. 8: Who Can Be A Citizen?: Rohini Mohan and Praveen Donthi on Hindu Nationalism, Exclusion, and Belonging in Modi's India

In this episode, journalists Rohini Mohan and Praveen Donthi talk to Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast co-hosts V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell about the recent widespread protests in India over the Modi government’s Citizenship Amendment Act and why many see the act as a threat to India’s secular nature and constitution. Donthi talks about his time reporting in Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state, and the abrupt change in its autonomous status, announced in August; Mohan speaks about covering Assam, a state in India’s northeast where the debates over who belongs have a longer history.  To hear the full episode, subscribe to the Fiction/Non/Fiction podcast through iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app (include the forward slashes when searching). You can also listen by streaming from the player below. Guests: Rohini Mohan Praveen Donthi Selected readings for the episode: Rohini Mohan Inside India’s Sham Trials That Could Strip Millions of Citizenship, Vice, July 29, 2019  India’s Immigration Crackdown Could Make Millions Stateless, Time, August 14, 2018 Prove your grandfather is Indian: People who lack flawless paperwork cannot just be jailed as illegal migrants, August 2, 2019  Prove your Grandfather is Indian: Ground Reportage on NRC / Bangalore International Centre video interview Seasons of Trouble: Life Amid the Ruins of Sri Lanka's Civil War (Verso) Praveen Donthi (all pieces from The Caravan) Modiʼs war: Dispatches from a seething Kashmir September 22, 2019 “One Solution, Gun Solution”: Ground report: Kashmir in shock and anger, August 16, 2019 The liberals who loved Modi May 16, 2019 Others Books Basharat Peer Curfewed Night Mirza Waheed (multiple novels) Under Siege: Mirza Waheed on Kashmir (LitHub, September 10, 2019) Karan Mahajan The Association of Small Bombs: A Novel Madhuri Vijay, The Far Field: a novel Articles Ground report: On a cold night in the new year, JNU attacked by a masked mob; Delhi Police watched, The Caravan, January 5, 2020 India’s first-time protesters: Mothers and grandmothers stage weeks-long sit-in against citizenship law, By Niha Masih, The Washington Post, Jan. 13, 2020 Reading the Signs: The protest poster is where art meets agitation, poetry meets politics. In India, it was born during the freedom struggle, and grew up through post-Independence struggles against inequality. With the anti-CAA protests, it embraces a new digital life. by Benita Fernando, The Indian Express, January 5, 2020 Blood and Soil in Narendra Modi's India, by Dexter Filkins, The New Yorker, Dec. 9, 2019 ‘Hum Dekhenge’: Singer and writer Ali Sethi explains how to read (and interpret) Faiz’s poem, Scroll, Jan. 9, 2020 Why the National Population Register is more dangerous than the Assam NRC, by Harsh Mander & Mohsin Alam Bhat, Scroll, Jan 12, 2020 Pankaj Mishra and Mirza Waheed on the Death of India's Liberal Self-Image, Scroll, Jan. 5, 2020 Behind Campus Attack in India, Some See a Far-Right Agenda, By Kai Schultz and Suhasini Raj, The New York Times, Jan. 10, 2020 Earlier attacks on students: Attack on art, by Anupama Katakam, Frontline Magazine, May-June 2007 Earlier, Rohini Mohan on Kashmir in The Wire: In Kashmir, Doctors Bear Witness, Sept. 5, 2016 Earlier, Praveen Donthi on Assam in The Caravan: How Assam's Supreme Court-mandated NRC project is targeting and detaining Bengali Muslims, breaking families, July 1, 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices