South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 of millions being suddenly stateless is very real.24 The regional impact of such an exercise cannot be overstated. The two countries likely to be immediately affected by the Assam NRC are Bangladesh and Nepal. The intent behind the CAA is, clearly, to target Muslims who cannot prove residence in India. But since it does not cover migrants of Nepali origin within its ambit and even though the presence of Nepalis in India is governed by a bilateral treaty, given the overall sentiment against outsiders in India’s northeast, there is a clear and present danger that both Bengali- and Nepali-speakers are likely to find themselves tarred as foreigners. While the immediate fallout on such an eventuality could be the targeting of Hindus by radical Islamists in Bangladesh, a country where this religious minority has always lived in constant fear, the larger consequence of rendering potentially an immensely large number of people suddenly stateless could have huge implications on the region’s stability, both political and demographic. The Indian example is but the most visible at the moment since it is only emblematic of a process that has been ongoing in different South Asian countries over decades, with the delegitimatisation of the claims over equal citizenship by various groups of people. This is partly a result of historical processes that have both political and social roots. But, it is also, to a large extent, due to political developments that have seen the nationalist-majoritarian agenda that have been successfully framed by political leaders in most of the countries, to the detriment of all kinds of in-country minorities. The Report The South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 deals with the theme of migrants, refugees and the stateless. The particular focus of the report is on religious persecution or discrimination on the basis of religion contributing to those conditions for significant sections of the population in six of the eight countries in South Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Bhutan and the Maldives do not feature in this publication since as 24 For a discussion on the links between the NRC and the CAA, see Rohan Venkataramakrishnan, ‘Who is linking Citizenship Act to NRC? Here are five times Amit Shah did so,’ Scroll.in, December 20, 2019, https://scroll.in/ article/947436/who-is-linking-citizenship-act-to-nrc-here-are-five-times-amitshah-did-so. xxxii