Education is not knowing how the exact number of people who were killed in the Holocaust but instead, education is being able to identify patterns within events in our past, present, and future. The definition of education has slowly been blurred and varied to an extent that today, most fail to truly learn from past experiences and mistakes. Today, halfway across the world, Indian college students are protesting on the streets at the risk of death. Meanwhile, the government shuts down the internet to prevent more organized protests. The highlight of this ongoing event was that the students in India came to the conclusion that history was repeating itself.

The Citizenship Amendment Act is the catalyst for these protests. Tensions between India and neighboring Muslim majority nations have been prominent for decades. However, such hostility reached a boiling point on December 11th, when the Indian equivalent of the American Congress ratified a bill to expedite the citizenship process for Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi, and Christian religious minorities fleeing persecution from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan. Reading between the lines, the bill provides aid for all people being persecuted in these nations, except Muslims. This was the first time that the Indian government passed a piece of legislature with religion as a criterion. The reasons for the protests should be clear: religious discrimination, violation of human rights, and sheer unconstitutionality. 

Furthermore, it wasn't long before links between the C.A.A and the N.R.C were exposed. The N.R.C is the National Register of Citizens law which lays out the requirements for being a natural and true citizen of India. Some of these requirements include having documents that prove residence of ancestors pre and post-independence. The majority of the population in India does not have paper-work that proves residence which makes it difficult for both Hindus and Muslims to prove their citizenship. The results: a complete change of demographics in India; an increase in more conservative Hindus and paradoxically a more powerful conservative Hindu party; an increase in deportation; and an increase in detention camps, as stated in the N.R.C legislation. 

Although vaguely indicating a rise in dictatorship, these events are following a similar timeline and pattern as to events such as the Holocaust. The Indian Government is being urged to reevaluate what may be the most dangerous piece of legislation passed in India to date before it goes into effect.