03 March, 2020
This project depicts properties in the Shiv Vihar quarter of North East Delhi, India, on 3 March, a few days after sectarian riots in the district. India’s National Register of Citizens (NRC), a register containing names of all ‘genuine’ Indian citizens, was first prepared in 1951 to deal with issues regarding illegal migrants in the border state of Assam. In 2019, the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) proposed that the register be extended to cover the whole of India, and on 12 December 2019, parliament passed a Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) to this effect. The new law allowed Hindus and other non-Muslims in Assam who were unable to prove their citizenship status to be included in the NRC, but left Muslims off the registry. This sparked peaceful protests locally, which spread nationwide. In late February 2020, protests turned to rioting in areas of North East Delhi, in what became the worst sectarian violence in the Indian capital in decades. At least 53 people, mostly Muslims, were killed and property was destroyed.
Zishaan A Latif
Zishaan A Latif (b. 1984) is a photographer and visual artist based in Noida, India. Through working with different textures, mediums and forms, Zishaan challenges the preconc...
