The Many Faces Of Citizenship
A dissemination of the true idea of Indian citizenship, dispelling myths and illogical interpretations
On 11th December, 2019, the Indian Parliament passed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 (popularized now as the CAA). Since then, a number of people have risen in protest against this act and at some places, these protests have taken a violent turn causing harm to public property, governance infrastructure and overall harmony.
In these violent protests, policemen and civilians have been beaten and injured alike. In some cases there has been loss of lives as well. The question is — why are people protesting? Is the idea of citizenship (as amended by a democratic process) so new and so complex for the masses to understand? Is this all because of misinterpretations of an otherwise clearly stated act of law? How aware are we, as citizens of this country, about the laws of the land? How easy is it to rabble-rouse people and to use them as instruments of violence and disruption in our democratic nation?
As responsible citizens of this country, it is our duty to make sure that when in chaos we make all efforts to spread knowledge, awareness and logic in order to establish an environment of peace, trust and respect in this country. Let us try to clear the air of mistrust and misinterpretation by answering some tough questions about the act and about citizenship in general.
Who is an Indian citizen?
And how can someone become an Indian citizen? Let’s answer this basic question first and also dissipate some misunderstandings concerning the idea of citizenship.
Citizenship of any person is decided on the basis of The Citizenship Rules, 2009. These rules are based on the Citizenship Act of 1955. There are five ways for any person to become a citizen of India (eliminating technicalities, very simplified definitions presented)—
By birth — A person born in India is a citizen of India given both the parents are Indian citizens or at least one of the parents in an Indian citizen and the other is not an illegal migrant.
By descent — A person born outside of India is a citizen of India if at least one of the parents is a citizen of India by birth.
By registration — A person of Indian origin or a person married to an Indian citizen and who has lived in India for 7 years before applying for Indian citizenship. This also applies to people who are OCI cardholders for at least 5 years.
By naturalization — A person can acquire Indian citizenship if he/she has lived in India for 12 years (throughout 12 months preceding the date of application and 11 years in aggregate from the last 14 years).
By incorporation — If any new territory becomes a part of India, then the citizens of that territory can become citizens of India.
The key facts — Dual citizenship is not allowed in India and being a secular state, Indian citizenship is not subject to the religion one practices. Any person, irrespective of their religion, caste, creed, color or sex are eligible to apply for an Indian citizenship given they meet all the requirements of the citizenship rules.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019
With that background, let’s talk about the current issue. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act of 2019 amends the Citizenship Act of 1955 and introduces certain rules to grant citizenship to religious minorities who have faced persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan. In particular, Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians who fled religious persecution from these three countries and entered India before 31st December, 2014 became eligible to Indian citizenship.
Now, there have been two categories of concerns that this act has raised. First, cultural concerns among the north eastern states and second, concerns about the constitutional validity of this act.
Let’s take the north-eastern states first. The government of India recognized the validity of concerns raised by these states about the preservation and vulnerability of their unique and tribal culture. Hence, a few relaxations were made to meet their demands. The tribal areas of Assam, Megahalaya, Tripura and Mizoram (as listed in the sixth schedule of the constitution of India) have been exempted from this act. Moreover, the areas covered by the Inner Line Permit — Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Nagaland and (now) Manipur will also be exempted from this act.
Now, coming to the constitutionality of this act, several concerns were raised about the communal nature of this act (for not including the Muslim community) and about the violation of Article 14 of the Indian constitution (right to equality before law).
First, this act is not against the secular fabric of India. That is because neither any Indian is being deprived of their citizenship based on religion nor is this act preventing Muslims (or any other community worldwide) from applying for an Indian citizenship.
Second, the Supreme Court of India has interpreted Article 14 as — equality before law is applicable for a group of equals (not only for citizens but everyone in the territory of India). Hence, the doctrine of reasonable classification has been upheld by the highest judicial authority. (That is one of the reasons why reservation is possible in this country). In this case, the reasonable classification is the minorities who fled religious persecution from the three Islamic countries. And that’s exactly why the Ahmadiyas, Shias etc of Pakistan have been left out (they never faced religious persecution and hence form a different class).
Whatever the validity of the concerns are (and the courts will decide that), let’s keep a few logical facts in mind and then reach our own conclusions aided by reasoning.
Logical Facts
A lot of fear-mongering and rabble-rousing has been done to make a general opinion against this act. Why? Mainly for political gains. And the glaring problem is not the act but the lack of political awareness, lack of awareness of democratic processes and lack of understanding of the act itself. It seems very easy to exploit the mob mentality especially when the exploiters are shrewd politicians and the mob is not aware, prejudiced and not interested to know. Here are a few facts and truths issued in general interest —
Fact #1 — This act doesn’t take anyone’s citizenship no matter which community they belong to.
Fact #2 — The people who will become eligible for citizenship by this act are already living in India. Hence, the myth of crores of immigrants coming to India for citizenship and changing the demography and economy is busted.
Fact #3 — This act is merely relaxing the naturalization period for these minorities from 12 years to 5 years (and hence the 2014 cutoff date). These people will gain citizenship by naturalization. Its just an amendment. That’s what it is.
Fact #4 — Members of all religious communities (including Muslims) are still eligible to naturalize their stay in India and become citizens as per Citizenship Rules. The secular nature of our democracy is sustained.
Fact #5 — CAA in combination with NRC is not dangerous for anybody who is legally living in India. Let’s understand the idea of NRIC to know how.
National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC)
Every country has its own set of rules to define who is a citizen and who is an alien. No country in the world will ever open their boundaries for people all over the world to come, work and live freely. That’s just not logical. India has its own right to determine and establish its own citizens. According to Section 14A of the Citizenship Act, 1955 (which was inserted in 2004), the Central Government may compulsorily register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card to him; and it may maintain a National Register of Indian Citizens.
National Register of Citizens (NRC) is a recently completed, Supreme Court monitored exercise to prepare a list of Indian citizens in Assam. The National Register of Indian Citizens (NRIC) is a proposed country-wide exercise to meet the same goal under Section 14A.
In this context, let’s also talk about the National Population Register (NPR). The NPR is a database that contains a list of ‘usual residents’ of India. NPR is be prepared during the house-listing phase of the census. A usual resident is a person who has resided in a place for six months or more, and intends to reside there for another six months or more. The NRIC may be a subset of the NPR. All the residents established as citizens will make it to the NRIC.
For NRIC, the burden of proof lies on the residents no matter which community they belong to. The government, in all probability, will ask for any basic proof for place/date of birth to establish citizenship. Anyone who has been voting in this country (rich or poor, Hindu or Muslim or Sikh) already has this proof. What if someone is unable to furnish such a proof?
There can multiple possibilities. The government, in all probability, will look at old voters’ lists and see if such a person descends from a citizen of India. And this proof will be enough. The government can also look at ways like getting recommendations from another citizen (who can be family or employer or neighbour) as proof. The exact modalities remain yet to be known as the NRIC is still to be announced.
Myths and shedding light
Myths cloud our thoughts and force us to act in illogical and unreasonable ways. And such clouds can be dispelled only with the light of logic and knowledge. Let’s shed some more light on some of the myths and open questions.
First, we should understand that people eligible under CAA are not going to gain citizenship automatically. What we have seen is just the act being passed in the Parliament. The bigger task is for the Executive to come up with modalities of implementing this law. Once again, the onus is on these eligible people to show up, provide proofs and then gain citizenships under CAA. I repeat, this is not an automatic process.
Second, even after CAA, a Hindu doesn’t automatically get citizenship if he/she doesn’t make it to the NRIC. Why? Because CAA gives citizenship only to a pre-defined group. Either you prove that you are an Indian citizen or you prove that you fled from Pakistan et al. facing religious persecution. Only if you can prove this can you obtain citizenship under CAA. Even though there may be some loopholes, proving religious persecution will be a task in itself (more so when that’s not the case). If you are out of NRIC, Hindu or Muslim, you will unequivocally be out of this country.
Third, and it is important to emphasize this, the gates of naturalization remain open to everyone irrespective of what religion they belong to. India has always been a secular state and will remain so.
Fourth, the CAA targets and solves one particular problem. There have been many such instances in the past as well. We can’t solve all the problems in a go. This is not the final, immutable law of the land. We might see more amendments as and when relevant problems arise.
Fifth, most of the people who are up in arms and who are protesting strongly fall in two categories. Ones who don’t even know what the act is and what it entails (but have given away to doubts, fears and brain-washing) and others who might have read the act but are politically motivated. The protests are largely results of political rabble-rousing and the only solution is spreading awareness.
There are many problems in this country and we can’t afford to blindly make a non-issue into a national issue. Let’s be focused and act responsibly.
Protest but in a democratic way
We see that some students are also protesting against this act. First of all, education is useless if we don’t know how to express ourselves in a way that is consistent with the values that we have learnt to abide by. We are all part of one of the biggest democracies in the world and if we don’t understand the responsibility it entails, we have no right to call ourselves students or even Indians.
What are the democratic ways of protest? I must go back to the Gandhian ideology. Satyagraha. Protest but in a non-violent way and always seek truth. Nothing less, nothing more. When I see students getting mislead, it hurts and pains me to the very core of my being. Mere airy theories and anticipations (hint : misuse of CAA for NRC) should not become grounds of protests.
Protest on solid and visible grounds. If the government is doing something wrong, it has to be opposed. But, no political agenda should be enough to outwit the brilliance of our education. If our students are so gullible, they need to become more mature and it is for the whole nation to impart rationality, inquisitiveness and scientific attitude to these young minds.
Disruption of public life and destruction of public property by any internal or external agents are not to be tolerated in any democracy. Because we must remember that is is called public property for a reason. The very people who are participating in arsons have, directly or indirectly, paid for that property. It is our collective responsibility and heritage.
We live in a modern world. Our Satyagraha should also be modern. Democratic protests should not be of the ancient and animalistic kind. Especially for students, if you are in disagreement with the government, why don’t you use your education to express your thoughts. Why not use technology as a springboard to launch your ideas? Is technology only for trivial pursuits of socializing, gaming and spreading fake news? All protestors and the youth of this country (who seem a lot misguided right now) need to introspect and get back to the path of logic and truth.
(Pseudo) Saviors of democracy
Let me now catch some people red-handed. There are people (politicians) who act as saviors of our democracy (with ulterior motive of securing votes), a democracy that has lasted for more than 70 years now (because of its strong fundamentals). They misguide the masses by spreading false narratives about government policies and they always go back to the same cliche — that democracy is in danger. Well, let me ask some democratic questions to these people.
How does any law get enacted in India? Or specifically, in the CAA context, how did this act pass? What was the process? A parliamentary committee was formed that drafted a proposal (the bill), it was approved by the cabinet of ministers, it got tabled in both the houses of the Parliament, won a simple majority, was sent for the President’s approval, was published in the gazzette of India and hence became an act of Parliament.
This is the constitutional process. And the people who approved the bill have all been democratically elected by the people of this country. By questioning the intent of the act, these people are not only questioning the wit of the people of India but are also putting a question mark on the democratic processes and institutions of this country that they claim to represent. Yes, you have the right to protest but you have no right to become (pseudo) saviors of democracy when your very actions are in contradiction to that idea (which shows in your demagogic and primal ways of protest).
We, as the people of India, need to learn to differentiate the lie from the truth. It is a must that we do not allow ourselves to be misguided and misled. Before acting as a mob, we must act as individuals. Only then can we be called truly civilized and truly educated Indians.
Our responsibility
The current time is a call for action as many (true as well as false) faces of citizenship are being presented to the masses. No matter what lies ahead, the immediate priority is to re-establish peace and harmony in areas where it is disturbed by anti-social and political elements.
For that, we must do everything in our capacity to spread knowledge about this act as well as the provisions of citizenship in general to the masses. People around us who are not literate are easy targets who can be engaged in disruptive activities. We must educate them about the current situation. Whether or not we agree with this act of government, we must all agree and come together for the overall good of our immediate society.
Only knowledge is true power and that’s what we need to spread for the amelioration of the present circumstances that we find oursleves in. I must appreciate the fact that there are a lot of us who are organizing peaceful gatherings to spread the truth and to spread ideas of peace and progress. There are people among us who are trying their best that all fake facts and propagandas are belied so that truth prevails. We can all be a part of this in any way we deem fit.
