Since RSS rose to pre-eminence in India and its control of political power in 2014, the Muslim community in India has been systematically marginalised and dehumanised. Since this aspect is not discussed much in Pakistan, there is a need to analyse these trends within India and discuss the structural targeting of 250 million Muslims in India.

Professor Tanweer Fazal is a prominent Indian sociologist and has taught at Jawaharlal Nehru University as well as the Department of Sociology at the University of Hyderabad. He is the author of several key works, including Practices of the State: Muslims, Law and Violence in India and Nation-state and Minority Rights in India.

At the core of Professor Fazal's work is his theory of ‘otherisation’ and ‘de-nationalisation’ of Muslims through a structured project of Hindutva. Fazal argues that ‘otherisation’ is primarily a deliberate project, rather than something that is inherently embedded in a culture. It involves mobilising economic, cultural, historical, and political resources to marginalise specific communities.

Fazal's concept of "denationalisation" describes a systematic process whereby the Indian state, particularly since 2014, has actively sought to delegitimise the citizenship and belonging of a section of its Muslim population. This state-sponsored identity flattens the diverse Muslim community into a homogeneous group, portraying them as an "unruly margin" that needs to be "tamed" and "civilised".

State actions, such as the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the National Register of Citizens (NRC), are testament to these "exclusionary mechanisms". The process of otherisation........

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