Statement of solidarity with student protests in India

We, a group of South Asian graduate students at Princeton University, stand in solidarity, without hesitation or reservation, with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia, Aligarh Muslim University, and all other institutions who are protesting against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

This proposed act would give Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian migrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan a faster path to Indian citizenship, a privilege neither afforded to Muslims from those countries nor to minorities from countries excluded by the Act.

Impunity and citizenship based upon religion are against the Indian Constitution. We oppose any threat to secular India.

We strongly condemn the use of police force and police brutality against students exercising their right to protest and demonstrate against the CAA. We demand an immediate end to all of the brutal violence being unleashed against students. This violence is illegal, and those involved in sanctioning such violence must be held accountable.

As we hope for this violence to come to an end and for justice to be achieved, we stand in solidarity and lend all our support to the students fighting fearlessly in the streets.

Aditi Bhowmick, Meghana Mungikar, Fatima Khan, Shalini Sharma, Mayank Sarika, Disha Sharma, Pooja Ramamurthi, Spogmay Ahmed, Harshita Rallabhandi, Sujata Rajpurohit, Yashna Gungadurdoss, Jatin Batra, Liza Paudel, Malini Nambiar