Arrests, protests continue in India

Thousands of protesters turned out in India after Islamic prayers on Friday despite a ban on assemblies and an internet shutdown. The demonstrators are upset over a law that offers citizenship to Christians, Hindus, and other migrants who fled religious persecution but not to Muslims. The death toll now stands at 11 since the protests began this month.

How will this affect the government? The protests could grow into a much larger threat to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party. Friday’s demonstrations included chants of “Remove Modi,” as demonstrators waved Indian flags outside one of the nation’s largest mosques in New Delhi. On Thursday, the city temporarily detained 1,200 people for defying the public gathering ban.

Dig deeper: Read Kiley Crossland’s report in Relations about how Hindu nationalism feeds religious persecution and population control in India.