“We are such a connected world and we have so many opportunities to understand and reach out across the world where the same issues play into each other again and again. And, you know, we have such an incredible ability to empathize and understand other parts of the world. And I think it's just such a shame to cry ignorance.”
--- VICE senior correspondent Isobel Yeung
In December 2019, the Indian government passed the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), a law that requires Indian Muslims to prove their citizenship, often in impossible ways, or risk deportation. Now, with construction underway for detention camps meant to hold Muslim “non-citizens,” India’s Muslim population of 200 million is facing an increasingly dire level of state-sponsored discrimination.
In a conversation with duPont Director Lisa R. Cohen, Isobel Yeung discusses the real-life impact of the CAA on Indian Muslims and how she and her team were able to report on a major story thousands of miles from home, under a government hostile to foreign press.
Yeung and her team wanted to uncover the construction of a Muslim detention center in the remote northern state of Assam. But government press constraints forced the team to be creative - so they snuck a skeleton crew into Assam as tourists.
In her reporting, Yeung spoke with a young Muslim man whose mother was being forced to prove her citizenship, a costly process that requires digging up decades-old documents. To help raise the funds, the son found work building the very detention center where his mother might one day be held.
“It's a really cruel, ironic twist in which the only way they can fund her mother's legal matters is for her son to help build these detention centers,” said Yeung.
In this wide-ranging conversation, Yeung reflects on the tensions that exist in reporting on the vulnerable and keeping them safe from blowback, and the difficulties and frustrations of trying to highlight an important international issue for an American audience.
You can watch India Burning with a Showtime account or free trial here.
You can learn more about the 2021 duPont-Columbia winners and watch the ceremony here.
VICE senior correspondent Isobel Yeung interviews Dr. Subramanian Swamy, a top leader of India’s ruling BJP party and an advocate for discriminatory policy against Muslims.
Excerpts of India Burning from the 2021 duPont-Columbia Awards Ceremony.