The Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 has triggered widespread protests across India. The Act seeks to amend the definition of illegal immigrant for Hindu, Sikh, Parsi, Buddhist and Christian immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh -- from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh who arrived in India before December 31, 2014. The anger over CAA led to street protests, first in Assam that later spread to Delhi and other parts of the country. Among the states in the Northeast, the outrage against CAA has been the most intense in Assam. While a chunk of these states has been exempted from the legislation, CAA overs a large part of Assam. The protests stem from the fear that illegal Bengali Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, if regularised under CAB, will threaten cultural and linguistic identities of the state.
