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Citizenship (Amendment) ActSubscribe to Citizenship (Amendment) Act

Citizenship, Nationality, Discord, Accord, and Assam

Vol. 58, Issue No. 23, 10 Jun, 2023
Prarthana Saikia

The appearance of the Assam Accord in the recent citizenship debates in India has a historical significance. Providing a critique of liberal citizenship, Assam’s journey shows how citizenship in a culturally diverse nation state like India evolved distinctively along with different identity questions. Assam, through a popular movement against “illegal” migrants, under the leadership of the educated (middle) class, asserted this identity question and tangled the Assamese nationality in the legal framework of Indian citizenship. The accord, which ended the protest, led to the first amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955 in 1985, specifically addressing Assam’s case. Drawing from vernacular literature and archival records, this paper offers a fresh perspective on the political history of citizenship in Assam from pre-independence until the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985 and its immediate implementation.

What Can the Shifting Meaning of Refugees Tell Us about Nationhood, Belonging and Citizenship in India?

Vol. 57, Issue No. 38, 17 Sep, 2022
Noel George

Making Refugees in India by Ria Kapoor, Oxford University Press, 2021; pp 272, price not mentioned.

Assam Evictions: A Travesty of Justice and Human Rights

Vol. 56, Issue No. 40, 02 Oct, 2021

Systemic discrimination and prejudice against a community has led to dehumanising violence.

 

Citizenship (Amendment) Act: The Pitfalls of Homogenising Identities in Resistance Narratives

Vol. 55, Issue No. 25, 20 Jun, 2020
While a number of sections of the Indian citizenry have risen against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, the dominant discourse of resistance is still largely framed in terms of the issues raised by the state and its agents, including Hindu upper-caste supporters of CAA. However, there is a need for greater reflection on the sociological reality of hierarchical and iniquitous social structure of the Indian subcontinent in resistance narratives.

Citizenship as Participation

Vol. 55, Issue No. 4, 25 Jan, 2020
Irfanullah Farooqi

The peaceful indefinite sit-in by Muslim women at Shaheen Bagh has become the epicentre of nationwide protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act–National Population Register–National Register of Citizens, as the protestors have brought to the fore a protest performative that is to be comprehended beyond the physical protest site. As a people’s protest in the true sense, it contests the state’s excessive urge to define and dominate, and flags pressing concerns vis-à-vis discrimination in the face of a consumerism-driven argument of inconvenience. In doing so, the protestors help us understand resistance as an expression of belonging and citizenship as a participatory tool, rather than a status granted by the state on the basis of select documents.

 

Citizenship (Amendment) Act: Enforcement Is Fraught with Legal Hurdles

Vol. 55, Issue No. 4, 25 Jan, 2020
The union government expended considerable political capital to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. But, the implementation process is likely to lay bare the inherent contradictions of the Act, and could throw up unforeseen challenges for the government.
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