I really want to impress upon people who do not follow Indian news as much what a nightmare this year has been for Indian Muslims. Last year this time, India passed its anti-Muslim (anti-other people too but let's focus for now) citizenship laws. 1/n

When students at India's two leading Muslim identity universities protested, the police stormed both campuses, one in the middle of the capital city, Jamia, and one outside, Aligarh Muslim University. They beat up students, in the library, in the mosque, bloodshed everywhere. 2/n

Nobody could access the news reliably from AMU that night, I was in Delhi that night and people congregated at Jamia, but the events at AMU were not clear because Internet was snapped, no photos or videos coming out, although people heard about hostel rooms burnt by police. 3/n

The police openly used Islamophobic slurs, their motives, the state's motives in attacking these two campuses in particular were not disguised at all. The Muslim majority community around Jamia rallied in support. 4/n

Eventually, Muslim women began a 24/7 months long sit-in in Shaheen Bagh. "Shaheen Baghs" sprung up across India in Muslim neighborhoods. In January, there was also a night of police attacks on JNU, another university, a terrible night of waiting for the police to disperse. 5/n

There was also violence on Delhi University campus by right wing goons, I remember one friend sent a video of them leaving North Campus on an autorickshaw while ABVP (the ruling BJP's student wing) chased them with sticks. 6/n

For me, it was not possible to function normally the first few months of 2020. Every day had some nightmarish news coming out of India, affecting mostly Muslims but also others in the movement. 7/n

One of the worst parts of this for me is that I know so many people who simply didn't care. My India trip photos last year are a bizarre alternation of protests and family gatherings. How were people (like my family) continuing as normal in a country on the brink of genocide? 8/n

It's the question that still most deeply bothers me. How are Indian Hindus continuing like nothing is happening? How am I loved by and related to people who are actively or passively okay with the genocide of Indian Muslims? 9/n

Anyway, going back to the events this year, in February there was an anti-Muslim pogrom in Delhi in one of the Muslim neighborhoods holding a sit-in. Think bodies found in sewers, state-sanctioned Hindu mob violence. 10/n

People who went to do relief work and survey the situation and Muslims who themselves were attacked, driven out of their homes, were charged and picked up indiscriminately by Delhi police. The perpetrators still walk free. 11/n

With the onset of the pandemic, the sit-ins slowly tapered off in different parts of the country. The Delhi police went so far as to spray paint across protest graffiti AFTER the end of the sit-ins, that's how much the Muslim women's resistance scares them. 12/n

Anyway, ah, I forgot, in between, during the protests, right wing Hindu vigilantes attacked the unarmed peaceful protesters more than once. At Jamia, a man who aimed a gun at Kashmiri student was lovingly led away by the police. 13/n

Oh also forgot, right before the Delhi pogrom, BJP politician Kapil Mishra basically invited Hindu vigilantes to clear out the Muslim protesters. He is doing fine, of course. Roaming free. 14/n

I don't know what other nightmarish event I am missing out on, but most Muslims associated with the anti-citizenship bill protests are in jail or have been in jail at some point, many charged under the Draconian UAPA bill (different story, different thread). 15/n

This thread is mostly a rant, but I want people to get India is possibly on the brink of a genocide, not an exaggeration. I can't Tweet about other things today. I can't think about other things. Please follow Muslim and caste-oppressed voices from India. n/n