[3][93] Protesters in Assam and other northeastern states do not want Indian citizenship to be granted to any refugee or immigrant, regardless of their religion, as they fear it would alter the region's demographic balance, resulting in a loss of their political rights, culture, and land.

[104] The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019 (CAB) was introduced by the Home Minister, Amit Shah on the floor of the Parliament of India on 9 December 2019 in response to the exclusion of 1.9 million people, predominantly Hindus and Muslims[105] in the National Register of Citizens for Assam.

[121] The Act was criticised by various NGOs, students bodies, and liberal, progressive, and socialist organisations across the country, with the Indian National Congress and other major political parties announcing their staunch opposition.

The states of Rajasthan, West Bengal, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand[122] and Chhattisgarh – all ruled by political parties that had poor relations with the BJP in the year 2020 – announced that they would not implement either the National Register of Citizens (NRC) or the Citizenship Amendment Act.

As a result of defying the ban, thousands of protesters were detained, primarily in Delhi, including several opposition leaders and activists such as Ramachandra Guha, Sitaram Yechury, Yogendra Yadav, Umar Khalid, Sandeep Dikshit, and D Raja.

Civil society groups, political parties, students, activists and ordinary citizens used social medial platforms to ask people to turn up and protest peacefully.

[414][415][416] The protesters were angry that the new law would allow thousands of Bengali speaking non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh to become legal citizens of India,[153][128] thereby influencing the political and cultural environment of Assam.

[417] Thousands of members and workers of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and 30 other indigenous organisations, artists, cultural activists of the state gathered at Latasil ground in Dispur to stage a satyagraha against the Act on 16, 17 and 18 December.

[240] On 22 January, thousands of students from 9 universities in North East India boycotted classes and joined a protest march in the states of Assam, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.

[78][153] On 15 December, Delhi Police attacked students of Jamia Millia Islamia including Shaheen Abdullah, Chanda Yadav, Ladeeda Farzana and Aysha Renna at New Friends Colony.

[462] On 19 December, People's Union for Democratic Rights' fact-finding team consisting of activists Yogendra Yadav, Harsh Mander and Kavita Krishnan released a report on police crackdown at the Aligarh Muslim University.

[479] On 14 December 2019, thousands of agitators packed into Jantar Mantar Road, filling up a space estimated to be half the size of a football ground, as multiple demonstrations occurred against the CAA in Delhi.

[151][147] On 16 December, Priyanka Gandhi led a silent protest at the India Gate along with about three hundred congress workers to show solidarity with the students of Jamia Millia Islamia.

Amid nationwide crackdown because of CAA, Bhim Army Chief Chandrashekhar Azad's permission for the march from Jama Masjid to Jantar Mantar had been denied by Delhi Police.

[489][490] On 24 December 2019, Police imposed a ban on gatherings in central Delhi's Mandi House near the Lutyens' Zone to prevent the protest march of students from multiple universities.

The OIC statement further went on to add that it "condemns the recent and alarming violence against Muslims in India, resulting in the death and injury of innocent people and the arson and vandalism of mosques and Muslim-owned properties.

[157] On Monday, 16 December 2019, tens of thousands of people joined a protest march led by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress party.

[540] On 4 January in Bangalore hundreds of protesters participated in a rally and accused Modi government of attempts to divide India on the basis of religion, and distracting people from the issues of economic slowdown and job losses in the country.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that Kerala will "stand together to fight against the evil designs of the Modi government undermining the secular credentials of India", terming the Citizens Amendment Act "anti-constitutional and anti-people".

[570] On 28 December, several delegates attending the Indian History Congress held at Kannur University protested during Kerala Governor Arif Mohammad Khan's speech.

Protesters demanded Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, whose party Telangana Rashtra Samithi had voted against the bill in parliament, to end his silence with respect to the CAA.

[586] During the stampede, an eighteen years old teenage protester Amir Hanzla ran towards the lanes of Sangat Mohalla, a neighbourhood that was a hub of RSS-affiliated right wing Hindutva members.

[590][168] In Mumbai, several actors including Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Huma Qureshi, Raj Babbar, Sushant Singh, Javed Jaffrey, Aditi Rao Hydari, Parvathy Thiruvothu, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Arjun Mathur and filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, and Saeed Mirza joined in the protest venue.

Mumbai police was praised by prominent artists including Farhan Akhtar, Swara Bhaskar, Kunal Kamra, politician Milind Deora and citizens for its professional conduct in maintaining law and order.

[205] On the midnight of 6 January, students of IIT Bombay began a protest called "Occupy Gateway" in Mumbai in response to the attack on Jawaharlal Nehru University campus.

The venue had banners with slogans such as 'Tumhari Lathi Se Tej Hamari Awaaz Hai' and 'Liar Liar Desh on Fire', as well as 'India Needs Education, Jobs, Not CAA, NRC, NPR'.

Various organisations including Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC), Equality Labs, Black Lives Matter (BLM), Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and Hindus for Human Rights (HfHR) participated in the protest.

[296] A five-page resolution against the CAA was drafted by more than 150 members of the European Union, who stated that it "marks a dangerous shift in the way citizenship will be determined in India and is set to create the largest statelessness crisis in the world and cause immense human suffering".

[665] Pink Floyd co-founder and musician Roger Waters recites "Everything will be remembered, Everything recorded", an English Transliteration of Aamir Aziz's poem "Sab Yaad Rakha Jayega" at a protest in London.

[288] On 3 March, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), filed an application in the Supreme Court and asked to be made a party in the case citing "the exclusions of persons... on the basis of their religion".