Citizenship

Citizenship means full and equal membership of a political community. A citizen belongs to a state, and the state gives them an identity and a set of rights. This is why we call ourselves Indians or Japanese or Germans.

The value of this membership becomes clear when we think of people who lack it. Refugees and stateless people are not guaranteed rights by any state. They often live in great insecurity. Citizenship is also more than the bond between a state and a person. It is about how citizens treat one another. It carries duties towards society as well.

Citizenship is full and equal membership of a state. The state gives a citizen a shared political identity and certain rights. In most democracies these rights have three parts. Political rights include the right to vote. Civil rights include free speech and freedom of belief. Social rights include the right to education and a minimum wage.

None of these rights came easily. Each one was won through long struggle. People fought powerful monarchies in Europe. The French Revolution of 1789 is one example. In Asia and Africa the demand for equal citizenship was part of the struggle against colonial rule. In India the women's movement and the dalit movement still carry this struggle forward.

Think of a crowded railway compartment. The people who fought to get in soon join together to keep new people out. A divide grows between insiders and outsiders. The same thing happens in cities and regions. When jobs, housing or water are scarce, people may demand that outsiders be kept away even when those outsiders are fellow citizens. The slogan "Mumbai for Mumbaikars" captured this feeling.

This raises a hard question. Does full and equal membership mean that a citizen can live and work in any part of the country? Workers often migrate in search of jobs. Local people sometimes resent the competition. They may ask that certain jobs be kept for those who belong to the state. A democracy settles such disputes through discussion and the right to protest, not through force.

The British thinker T. H. Marshall studied citizenship closely. He saw it as three kinds of rights that work together. Civil rights protect a person's life, liberty and property. Political rights let a person take part in government. Social rights give a person access to education and work. Together these rights let a citizen live a life of dignity. Marshall argued that citizenship reduces the divisions of social class. It builds a more united community.

The modern nation-state ties citizenship to a shared political identity. A flag, an anthem and a common history all express this identity. Most countries hold people of many religions and languages. A democratic state tries to make its identity broad enough for everyone to share.

In practice this is hard. France, for example, treats culture and language as central. It asks citizens to keep religion in their private lives. This led to disputes such as the ban on the turban and the head scarf in schools. India chose a different path. Its Constitution built a secular and inclusive idea of citizenship. Citizenship here can be gained by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation or the inclusion of new territory. The Constitution also forbids the state from discriminating against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth. Struggles still continue. Democratic citizenship is best seen as an ideal to work towards.

Many people support the idea that citizenship should be open to all who live and work in a country. Yet every state fixes its own rules for granting it. People are displaced by war, famine or persecution. If no state will accept them and they cannot go home, they become stateless. They may live in camps or as illegal migrants. They often cannot work, study or own property. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) was set up to protect and assist refugees and the stateless. India has given refuge to many groups even though it is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention (the UN treaty that defines refugee rights and state obligations). The Dalai Lama and his followers arrived in 1959 after fleeing Tibet. Statelessness remains one of the hardest problems in the world today.

We live in an interconnected world. The internet, television and the mobile phone bring distant events into our homes at once. This shared awareness showed itself in the help that poured in from across the world after the Asian tsunami of 2004. Supporters of global citizenship say that we already feel linked to people beyond our borders. Some problems cross national boundaries and need cooperation between states. Refugees, disease and climate change are examples. National citizenship still matters most. Only a person's own state can secure their rights. But global citizenship reminds us to work with people across the world as well.

Part II (Articles 5–11) of the Constitution deals with citizenship. India follows single citizenship: a person is a citizen of India alone, not separately of a state. This is unlike the United States and Switzerland. They have dual citizenship (national plus state), with distinct rights at each level. In India the same civic and political rights flow to every citizen regardless of where in the country they were born or live.

Articles 5–8 did not lay down a permanent code of citizenship. They only fixed who was a citizen at the commencement of the Constitution on 26 January 1950:

• Article 5: citizenship by domicile: a person domiciled in India who (a) was born in India, or (b) had a parent born in India, or (c) had ordinarily resided in India for at least five years immediately before commencement. The nationality of the parents was immaterial in each case.
• Article 6: citizenship of persons who migrated from Pakistan to India before 26 January 1950, subject to conditions on birth in undivided India and on registration/residence.
• Article 7: persons who migrated to Pakistan after 1 March 1947 but later returned to India under a permit for resettlement. (Migration here means movement between 1 March 1947 and 26 January 1950. Later movement is governed by the 1955 Act.)
• Article 8: citizenship of persons of Indian origin residing abroad, on registration with an Indian diplomatic or consular mission.
• Article 9: a person who has voluntarily acquired the citizenship of a foreign state shall not be a citizen of India. This is the constitutional root of India's bar on dual citizenship.
• Article 10: every person who is a citizen under Articles 5–8 continues to be one, subject to any law made by Parliament.

Article 11 is the key empowering clause. It lets Parliament make any provision on the acquisition and termination of citizenship and all other matters relating to it. Parliament used this power to enact the Citizenship Act, 1955. That Act governs everything after 1950 and must be read together with Part II.

The Citizenship Act, 1955 lays down five routes. The "by birth" rule has been tightened twice, so the cut-off dates matter for exams:

• By birth: the test depends on when you were born in India:
  • Born between 26 January 1950 and 1 July 1987: a citizen by birth, whatever the parents' nationality (pure jus soli).
  • Born between 1 July 1987 and 3 December 2004: a citizen only if at least one parent was an Indian citizen at the time of birth.
  • Born on or after 3 December 2004: a citizen only if both parents are Indian, or one parent is Indian and the other is not an illegal migrant.
• By descent: born outside India to an Indian-citizen parent. For births on or after 10 December 1992, it is enough that either parent is Indian. Before that date, the father had to be Indian. Such births now usually require registration with an Indian mission.
• By registration: for persons of Indian origin, spouses of Indian citizens, and minor children, who satisfy the prescribed residence conditions.
• By naturalisation: for a foreigner (not an illegal migrant) of good character. The person must renounce other citizenship, know a language in the Eighth Schedule (the list of 22 officially recognised Indian languages), and take the oath of allegiance. They must also have resided in India for the qualifying period (broadly twelve years) before applying.
• By incorporation of territory: when new territory becomes part of India, the government specifies who among its people become citizens.

• Renunciation: a citizen of full age and capacity voluntarily declares renunciation. The declaration is registered and citizenship ends. Every minor child of that person also loses citizenship (but may resume it on attaining majority).
• Termination: automatic loss the moment an Indian citizen voluntarily acquires the citizenship of another country. This rule mirrors Article 9 of the Constitution. It is why India does not permit dual citizenship.
• Deprivation: compulsory cancellation by the Central Government, on grounds such as obtaining citizenship by fraud, disloyalty to the Constitution, trading with an enemy during war, or a long unbroken stay abroad.

• India does not allow dual citizenship. The Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) scheme was introduced by amending the 1955 Act in 2003–2005. It is often loosely called "dual citizenship" but is really a lifelong visa. An OCI gets many economic and residence benefits but no political rights: no vote, no constitutional office, no government employment, and no right to acquire agricultural land. The older Person of Indian Origin (PIO) card was merged into the OCI scheme in 2015.
• Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are Indian citizens living abroad. Since 2010 they may register as overseas electors.
• Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (9 January) honours the contribution of the overseas Indian community.