Protest and Performance: My Engagement with the Anti-CAA-NRC Protests in India

This essay reflects my position as a feminist academic vis-à-vis some of the other young women I met during the anti–Citizenship Amendment Act–National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC) protests that began in December 2019 and continued through March 2020 when they were halted due to the coronavirus pandemic. 1 The CAA and NRC deny citizenship to specific religious communities; all Muslims from any part of the world but also persecuted minorities from countries such as Myanmar and Sri Lanka who have long been in the throes of ethnic conflict. 2 The CAA and the policies it created in the form of the NRC and changes to the ways in which data is collected and used for the National Population Register