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[PROTESTERS CHANTING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ISOBEL] These protests have really erupted
across the country.
[WOMEN SCREAMING]
[ISOBEL] This is where they're planning on putting
hundreds of thousands of "foreigners."
Are all people not equal?
All people are not equal.
[BOY] [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
Are you afraid that if the kids don't have wrestling
that they may turn to terrorism?
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ALZO] All of these kids want to become champions,
but not all of them can make it to the top.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[DRAMATIC ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
♪♪♪
[INDISTINCT SHOUTING]
♪♪♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[MAN] [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
Several thousand people showed up today
to make their voices heard
about what they see as anti-Muslim
discriminatory moves by the ruling BJP government.
But they've been met by hundreds and hundreds
of police forces, some of them in full riot gear,
ready to push them back.
[ISOBEL] Demonstrations like this
have swept across India since December,
with hundreds of thousands of people
taking to the streets
to protest a set of new laws that they see
as an attack on India's secular core.
They've been met by heavy police response.
[MAN] [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
Some of the protesters have managed to break through.
They're trying to get over these barricades.
How old are you?
[ISOBEL] More than 32 people were taken to the hospital,
mostly due to the large crowds.
India is the world's biggest democracy,
but many here are angry.
They say Prime Minister Narendra Modi
and his ruling BJP party have spent the last six years
turning India into a Hindu nationalist state.
Modi was once banned from the U.S.
for his alleged role in anti-Muslim riots
that left thousands dead.
He's also successfully campaigned
for Muslim religious sites to be replaced
with Hindu temples.
And just last year, he locked down
India's largest Muslim region, Kashmir,
jailing opposition and limiting Internet access.
But his latest policy could pose an even larger threat.
In December 2019, Modi's party passed
the Citizenship Amendment Act, or CAA.
This legislation promised an easier route to citizenship
for Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists,
Jains, Parsis, and Christians.
Everyone, that is, except Muslims.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ISOBEL] This new law, combined with an effort
to update India's citizenship registry,
has many of the country's 200 million Muslims,
the world's second-largest Muslim population,
extremely worried.
They fear that the government's pledge
to remove illegal immigrants is actually a plan
to get rid of them.
- [MAN SHOUTS] - [EXPLOSION BOOMS]
[ISOBEL] The months-long protest kicked off
at Jamia Millia Islamia,
a majority-Muslim university in New Delhi.
♪♪♪
[ISOBEL] Zakia Ali was guarding the library
when hundreds of police broke into campus,
claiming they were looking for troublemaking protesters.
[MAN] [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ISOBEL] Is this blood?
Forced it open?
[PROTESTERS CHANTING]
[ISOBEL] The university crackdown became
an iconic moment in protests that continued for months.
[PROTESTERS CHANTING]
The widespread resistance sparked more police action.
[WOMEN SCREAMING]
And the situation eventually descended
into full-blown sectarian riots.
Mosques were vandalized.
People were beaten,
sometimes with police joining in.
In total, at least 70 people have been killed.
I have never witnessed anything more traumatizing
than what I have been witnessing right now
as a journalist in India.
[ISOBEL] Rana Ayyub is a renowned Muslim
journalist-turned-activist
who's one of the loudest voices
condemning Hindu nationalism.
Ever since Narendra Modi has come to power,
this... this bigotry which used to be in the fringe
has now become the mainstream.
So we are headed towards an India
which is now asserting itself
not as a democracy but as a Hindu nation.
Why is it do you think that that Hindu
nationalist rhetoric is so popular?
Because they make this 82% Hindu majority
feel like victims in their own country.
It's like, why are white supremacists
popular in the United States?
This is all stoking the sentiment
that most of the Muslims are migrants;
they do not belong here.
This democracy's no longer a democracy.
[ISOBEL] This is Assam,
a sleepy northeastern state
that's become the test case for how the new
citizenship policies could play out nationwide.
♪♪♪
Last year, the government published
a national register of citizens, or NRC,
which excluded 1.9 million people.
Those off this list now have to prove
they really are Indian citizens,
and for Muslims who were excluded
from the Citizenship Amendment Act,
being off the list could mean ending up in a detention camp,
something Modi says doesn't exist.
♪♪♪
So we've just reached
the first detention center that they started building.
Until just a few months ago, this area
was all farmland, and now suddenly,
hundreds of workers have descended
on this spot and started building
these massive watchtowers, double walls,
and huge, huge facilities inside.
♪♪♪
This is a brand-new detention camp
being built in the state.
The central government has directed other states
to start building their own.
22-year-old Razul is a Muslim construction worker
who's been at this site for the last year and a half.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ISOBEL] Working here is hard for Razul.
He tells me his own mother was left off the citizenship list.
At what point did you realize
what it was that you're building?
Why have you stayed working here
for the last year and a half, knowing that your own
family members could end up here?
♪♪♪
[ISOBEL] Razul has no choice
but to earn the money to help his mother
prove her citizenship,
a process that means providing documents dating back decades,
something that's particularly hard
for the quarter of Indians who are illiterate.
Razul has been busy working at the site
of the detention camp recently,
but several hours this way, there's a village,
which is where he grew up,
where the rest of his family is still living.
♪♪♪
[ISOBEL] Even in this remote village,
Halima, Razul's mother, is afraid the authorities
might find her and take her away.
[ISOBEL] What went through your mind when you found out
you were not on that list?
How can that be the case?
I mean, you guys provided presumably
the same documents for all of you.
How come it's just her that was left off the list?
[ISOBEL] Women's names are often left off
important documents,
meaning that even though this family
have lived in Assam for generations
and the rest of the family are considered citizens,
Razul's mother is not.
[ISOBEL] Halima is set to stand trial
before a Foreigners' Tribunal
to determine her citizenship fate,
but it won't be easy.
We've obtained documents that show the government
has dismissed judges who don't declare
a high rate of people foreigners.
In a performance review of 70 judges,
those who had a good performance
and were recommended for retention
declared on average
about seven times more foreigners
than those who were terminated.
Kartik Chandra Roy was one of those judges
removed from his post.
What proportion of people who are deemed foreigners
do you think are getting a fair judgment?
I mean, India is supposed to be a democratic, secular country.
Do you think that it is?
[ISOBEL] But those at the top are doubling down.
All that we can say is that the PJB government has acted.
[ISOBEL] We met Dr. Subramanian Swamy,
a top leader of the ruling BJP party,
at his home in New Delhi.
On this issue, the country is with us.
Most people like our hardline approach
to solving pending problems.
I mean, the UN has called this bill
fundamentally discriminatory in nature.
Surely by leaving out Muslims and including
every other religion in this bill, this is just...
this is rolling back India's secular, democratic core.
The act cannot be faulted for that.
This was a commitment we had made
over several years, over several governments.
We have completed the job.
We know, where the Muslim population is large,
there's always trouble,
because the Islamic ideology says so.
I mean, there's 200 million Muslims living in India.
That's the second-largest Muslim population in the world,
and you're saying that wherever Muslims live, there's problems?
If Muslims become more than 30%,
that country's in danger.
- That sounds like hatred. - No.
That sounds like language of hatred towards...
It's easy to say hatred.
I'm being kind to them
by not letting them come to India.
Article 14 of the Indian Constitution
guarantees the right to equality, as you know,
for all persons living in India.
I can tell you that's a misinterpretation
of Article 14.
Article 14 guarantees
equality of equals.
- I'll give you an example... - Are all people not equal?
All people are not equal.
Muslims do not deserve
equal rights to apply for citizenship?
There's no such thing as equal rights.
They're not in an equal category.
I mean, clearly, there is a lot of resistance.
There is a lot of fear coming
from both Muslim and non-Muslim people
who are deeply dissatisfied.
I think these demonstrations are very small.
[ISOBEL] That's a matter of opinion.
Public outcry has continued for months.
And the protest that seems to rankle
the ruling party the most is this one,
a peaceful sit-in that's shut down
a major New Delhi highway.
This highway is a site where women,
mostly mothers of students of Jamia University,
first came to express their dissatisfaction
and start protesting against the government,
and since then,
these protests have really swollen.
This sit-in has become something of a ground zero
for those resisting the Citizenship Amendment Act
and what it stands for.
How many days have you been coming here for?
[RANA] Yes, we are heading towards a dark time,
but it's also a moment of glory for us
because India is finally resisting.
What's at stake is the vibrant plural democracy
that India took great pride in.
Our secularism is at stake.
The fact that we're a diverse country is at stake.
The soul of India is at stake.
[PROTESTERS CHANTING]
[percussive music]
♪♪♪
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪♪♪
[BOYS ALL SPEAKING AT ONCE]
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[FAST-PACED CLASSICAL MUSIC]
We're here at one of the most famous
wrestling schools in the capital of Dagestan,
where hundreds of young boys come
in hopes of being wrestling champions.
[WHISTLE BLOWS]
This is just the warm-up.
So all of these kids want to become champions, right?
[ALZO] Dagestan:
it's a small mountainous republic
in the Russian Federation.
It's kind of like a state within the U.S.
Like its neighbor Chechnya,
Dagestan is predominantly Muslim.
Despite its size, it's home to 33
Olympic champion freestyle wrestlers,
including 16 gold medalists.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ALZO] Magomed Abasov is a wrestling coach
who oversees a network of wrestling schools
in the highlands of Dagestan.
Where do these wrestlers come from?
If the root is in the village, that's where I want to go.
[ALZO] What is it that makes the mountain people so strong?
Wow. Wow. [CHUCKLES]
♪♪♪
- [MAGOMED] Oh-ho. - [ALZO LAUGHS]
That's a lot of vodka. [LAUGHS]
[ALZO] To my health? What about your health?
[LAUGHS]
To the mountain men of Dagestan.
[MAN] Alzo, a little bit, little bit.
[ALZO PANTING]
So out of the three of you,
who's the best wrestler?
[ALL] [SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
So all of three of you want to be champions of wrestling.
[LAUGHTER]
[ALZO] You don't have a sign on here that says "don't do drugs."
You just have a sign that says "no terrorism."
Are you afraid that if the kids don't have wrestling
that they may turn to terrorism?
[ALZO] Dagestan grappled with terrorism decades ago
after the long-standing conflict between Russia
and the Islamic insurgency in neighboring Chechnya
spilled over its border.
It remained the site of one of Europe's
bloodiest conflicts as recently as 2013.
[WOMAN] Russian authorities say this morning
they've arrested two people connected
to a pair of deadly bombings that raise tensions
for the Winter Olympics.
[ALZO] Today Dagestan is much more stable,
and wrestling remains the republic's
greatest cultural export.
It seems that here at the school,
it's more than just wrestling.
You're teaching character and how to behave.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
How would you feel if one of your sons said,
"I don't want to be a wrestler"?
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[SCHOOL BELL RINGING]
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ALZO] You have a fight coming up.
Are you prepared?
What happens if you don't make Olympic champion?
Then what do you do?
[ALZO] Dagestan is also known for producing
some of the fiercest mixed martial arts fighters in the world,
who dominate its most prominent
and lucrative organization, the UFC.
[JOE] Dagestan, there's just something
- in the water over there. - [MAN] Yeah, they just...
Oh, they train with bears, right?
[ALZO] The reigning undefeated champion
of the lightweight division is national hero
Khabib Nurmagomedov.
[MAN] There's the tap!
[ALZO] In October 2018, he defeated the former champ
and UFC legend Conor McGregor.
Even Khabib traces his roots
to the wrestling culture of the Dagestani highlands.
In this viral video,
this dude is wrestling a bear at nine years old.
♪♪♪
Every few months,
MMA fighters take to the mountains here
to train in this unforgiving environment.
[PANTING]
Wait, I'm not done?
We still got more?
Among them is professional MMA fighter
Timur Valiev, who's only lost
one bout since 2011.
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ALZO] It's about 8,000 feet above sea level up here.
I can hardly talk.
I feel like I'm Sylvester Stallone in Rocky IV.
You run across the ice?
I'll bust my ass.
Man, y'all crazy.
Ah! Ah!
Come on, come on!
Let's go, champ!
[ALZO] Ain't no treadmills.
There ain't no bench press.
It's just rocks, snow, and grit.
[BOTH GRUNTING]
[LAUGHS]
This guy good. He is not joke.
[BOTH LAUGH]
♪♪♪
We've seen hundreds of kids training.
- Yes. - Eight, nine, ten years old.
- Yeah. - Right?
That want to be Olympic wrestlers.
They want to be champions, and they see Khabib,
and they think about mixed martial arts.
Yes.
What does it say about wrestling
as a foundation for fighting in Dagestan?
♪♪♪
[ALZO] We're in the town of Gergebil',
where over 150 boys are competing
from 16 mountainous regions of Dagestan.
The winner goes on to compete at the republican level
with the hopes of fighting
in the Russian national competition.
Basically, this is the tournament
to determine who is the best
teenage wrestler from the mountains.
♪♪♪
It's kind of chaotic right now.
We got fathers, we got coaches here.
You got kids coming in overweight.
And these mountain men are not having it.
[YELLS]
[ALZO] Unfortunately, today won't be that day for Magomed.
Because of an ongoing injury,
he was flagged as being unable to compete
in today's tournament.
But one of his teammates, Gusein, has a chance.
How you feeling?
[SPEAKING NATIVE LANGUAGE]
[ALZO] Are you worried about your competition?
♪♪♪
[ALZO] Do you think this loss today
will make him a better fighter?
Yeah!
So everybody around the world
is afraid of Dagestani fighters.
Not everybody, but some people.
[TIMUR CHUCKLES]
[ELECTRONIC MUSIC]
♪♪♪
- Synced and corrected by chamallow - - www.addic7ed.com -