Fakir Mohamed was born in 1945 in his home in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, two years before India got freedom from British rule.
Over the decades, he has seen his neighbourhood of Bijalpur transform from large swathes of agricultural fields into a bustling urban space.
The 81-year-old can reel off names of Members of Parliament who have represented Indore over the past few decades. He has cast his vote in all the Lok Sabha elections held since he came of age. “I have not missed even one in 60 years,” he said.
Imagine his surprise, then, when he found that an application had been filed, seeking to strike his name off the electoral roll on the grounds that he was not an Indian citizen.
Initially, he was amused. “I have never once stepped out of India in my whole life,” Mohamed said.
But when he realised that at least 53 people from his colony had objections against their name, his concern grew.
They were all Muslim.
This story was originally published in scroll.in. Read the full story here.