Technology and Hindu nationalism have transformed India

A few months after winning a second term in 2019 Narendra Modi, India’s prime minister, and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) passed a law called the Citizenship Amendment Act. The law granted fast-track citizenship to refugees from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan—so long as they were not Muslim. At the same time, the government was planning to compile something called the National Register of Citizens, which would require every Indian to prove their nationality.