On Wednesday, Home Minister Amit Shah repeated in Parliament a promise first made during the 2019 election: that a citizenship test would be carried out across the country.
He also emphasised that the National Register of Citizens would be preceded by the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill. This Bill ensures that Hindus, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains and Parsis –which is to say, everyone except for Muslims – cannot be charged with being illegal migrants even if they entered India without papers. This is a narrative that Shah has stressed since the 2019 elections, making sure to communicate that since the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would precede the NRC, in effect the NRC would only apply to Muslims.
India’s Muslims population is more than 170 million – a number that by itself would be the world’s seventh most-populous country. A process to check the citizenship of such a large body of people is unprecedented anywhere in the world. The nation-wide NRC would not only bury the idea of a secular India, it would grievously threaten the country’s stability.
From fear to boycott
Confronted with this threat, many Muslims have reacted with panic and fear. Across the country, Muslims are gathering documents that will prove their citizenship. West Bengal has seen suicides that have been linked to fear of an NRC. Given the dislocation that the NRC caused in Assam, a nation-wide NRC would be a disaster.
However, an idea has also been floated in Muslim circles of mounting a Gandhian civil disobedience against the NRC. Given the scale of the NRC, and its targeting of nearly 200 million of India’s Muslims, it has been argued that a boycott of the NRC would effectively make the exercise a lame duck.
Let them put all 200 millions Muslim in jail #BoycottNRC
— Ali (@sheralisayed3) November 22, 2019
Our forefathers laid down their lives fighting the British for the freedom of this country. In 1947, we CHOOSE this country. Those whose ancestors & ideological founders licked the feet of British CANNOT ask us to prove our citizenship. We will resist. We will fight. #BoycottNRC
— Saif (@isaifpatel) November 21, 2019
My family have decided that we will #BoycottNRC whatever will be the consequences
— Asmar Khan (@asmar006) November 21, 2019
A communal tool
Given the NRC will follow the communally-filtered Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, many argued that it not good-faith citizenship check but simply a way to victimise Muslims.
This farce called NRC is just a tool to target Muslims.
— Md Asif Khan آصِف (@imMAK02) November 21, 2019
We all must boycott this NRC, they can not throw 200 Million people into ocean but we need sane people from Majority society as allies.
If people from South India and Punjab also #BoycottNRC then govt cant implement it
Doesn't matter whatever the consequences will be, it's time to #BoycottNRC. Because at the end,by whatever means , you have to face consequences. So why not fighting instead supporting it. pic.twitter.com/OcWGAnk0dj
— OSAMA (@OSAMA_MD0487) November 21, 2019
NRC puts the onus of proving your innocence (in this case, citizenship) on the victim, contrary to all accepted norms of justice. It's meant to exclude as many as possible. The problem isn't that it was "badly implemented", or mismanaged. The problem's that it's a fascist project
— Yeh Log ! (@yehlog) August 31, 2019
So Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Christian, Parsi will not undergo nationwide NRC process or will they do and then get citizenship via CAB? In any case, this will be just a farce like Assam.#BoycottNRC https://t.co/wAFvsbjFVR
— Wasim Ansari (@Itsak26) November 21, 2019
A class argument was made. For many poor Muslims, who do not even have enough to eat, how can they ensure documents, asks Hasnat in Hindi.
जिस गरीब के पास खाने के लिए दो वक़्त की रोटी नहीं होती है , वो अपनी कागजात कहां से खोजेंगे ?
— Hasnat (@hasnat_sk1) November 21, 2019
एनआरसी में सिर्फ असम में हजारों करोड़ रुपए फूंक दिए गए 5 साल का वक्त लगा .. लेकिन कुछ हासिल नहीं हुआ .. और अब वहां भी फिर से लागू होगी #NRC
RT करें !!#BoycottNRC
Former IAS officer Kannan Gopinath made the point that rather that go into panic looking for documents, India’s citizens should hit the streets and make sure the NRC plan is rolled back.
Hit the streets
What @naukarshah saying is truth but who are ready?#IwillNotShowDocumentsInNRC pic.twitter.com/W0bDwYPssT
— مبشرالدین خرم (@infomubashir) November 20, 2019
Aman Wadud, a Guwahati-based lawyer closely involved with the legal cases arising from the Assam NRC, also seconded Gopinath’s point, urging Muslims to protest on the ground.
Some are supporting NRC, some trending #BoycottNRC
— Aman Wadud (@AmanWadud) November 22, 2019
Whatever you do,PLEASE make ur presence felt on the ground when it is required.ONLY Tweeting can make you popular,BUT won't make much difference to the lives of ppl
MAKING DIFFERENCE takes lots of hard work,away from limelight
Calls also came in for Hindus to join in the boycott.
Hindus should boycott the nation-wide implementation of NRC and fill the detention centres themselves to show the Govt. that its divisive politics will not work any more.
— SonaliRanade (@sonaliranade) November 21, 2019
It is time to reinvent the true Satyagraha.
Hindus should step forward and not submit any documents , no matter what. You target me before you touch my minority brothers and sisters . If only minorities do it , they won’t care and persecute them.
— محترمہ پربھا (@deepsealioness) November 21, 2019
How many Hindus are ready to do this? #NRC https://t.co/mhQHvJlGOC
Atleast , me & @naukarshah are going to refuse to show any documents !
— Adv. Manoj (@RURALINDIA) November 21, 2019
And millions others would join us ! https://t.co/xZnq3Tqs1x
The issue has also given rise to a “No NRC Movement” Facebook page with more than one lakh members.

And while most of this narrative has circulated on Twitter and Facebook, some has also found its way to WhatsApp.

Opposition voices
However, there were also some dissenting voices. Delhi-based lawyer Anas Tanwir argued on Twitter that “civil disobedience has no place in democracy” and Muslims should prepare their documents instead.
Dear Muslims,
— बुकरात वकील (انس) (@Vakeel_Sb) November 21, 2019
You are not in a position to boycott NRC. Civil disobedience has no place in democracy. Please prepare your documents instead. Stop responding sentimentally.
Regards.