Following is a statement issued by current and former faculty members and students of the University of Warwick in solidarity with the ongoing struggle of the students against the new citizenship law.

As students, alumni and faculty members of the University of Warwick, we stand in solidarity with all students in India who are engaged in protests against the discriminatory Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. We believe that the right to dissent, protest and demonstrate are fundamental rights integral to all democracies. Articles 19 (1) (a) and 19 (1) (b) of the Indian Constitution explicitly state that the right to protest is a fundamental right. Such a right is safeguarded in international human rights conventions as well.

The peaceful and non-violent demonstrations by students have been met with extraordinary police violence, particularly in Jamia Millia Islamia and Aligarh Muslim University, with recent reports from established media sources indicating that police and paramilitary forces entered university campuses and hostels by force and brutally attacked students. As a consequence, hundreds of students have been injured, some very seriously. Such police action contravenes both the Constitution of India as well as international human rights laws. We call for an immediate end to state-led violence and for proper action to be taken against the perpetrators of it.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, passed by the Indian Parliament on December 12, 2019, accords the right to religious minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan in acquiring Indian citizenship. By the same token, it directly excludes Muslims from the process. Combined with the expanding reach of the National Register of Citizens, this amounts to a virtual denial of citizenship based on religion and represents a complete negation of the ideals of equality and secularism that are an essential part of the Constitution of India. We join students and citizens all across India in support of their demand that this immoral law be abrogated at the earliest.

Dr. Rashmi Varma

Prof. Shirin Rai

Dr. Silvija Jestrovic

Prof. Bishnupriya Gupta

Amul Gyawali

Mantra Mukim

Prof. Shaheen Ali

Prof. Sarah Hodges

Dr. Sara Kalwala

Prof. SharunMukand

Dr. Jayanthi Lingam

Dr. Sam Adelman

Prof. Abdul Paliwala

Prof. Azrini Wahidin

Dr.  Marianna Fotaki

Dr.  CEK Maclean

Zameer Nawaz

Thomas Terence

Debjani Dasgupta

Subhashish Dey

Prof. Ann Stewart

Atisha Ghosh

Sudipa Sarkar

Divya Rao

Nishpriha Thakur

Somak Biswas

Prof. VirinderKalra

Dr. Shrikant Botre

Swanil Choksi

Arpan Mukhopadhyay

Sabera Bhayat

Shalini Rudra

Dr. Goldie Osuri

Debjani Dasgupta

Tanaya Guha

Te-Anne Robles

Rania Mohamed

Dr. Jonathan Vickery

Dr.Mouthan Solange

Prof. Nickie Charles

Dr. Gill Fregerio

Harbir Kaur

Michele Underwood

Dr. Nick Bernards

Faye Padfield

Dr. Julia Welland

Tanishk Saha

Krisna  Satrio Perbowo

Prof. Pablo Mukherjee

Dr. David Hampshire