India’s citizenship issues pointing to nation-making challenges

What needs to be constantly guarded against by governments in this connection is a sense of alienation on the part of communities living particularly within pluralistic societies. It is the perception by communities that all is not well for them within a country that eventually ignites the flames of disaffection and violence.

January 2, 2020, 7:56 am

Since independence India has weathered many a storm on the nation-building front and there is no doubt that she would quite ably manage the current citizenship-linked violence raging within her. What the world is witnessing in India at present could by no stretch of the imagination be described as a species of implosive violence or turbulence of the ‘nation breaking’ kind. Rather, it points to the lesson that there could be no complacency on the part of governments in our part of the world in particular over seemingly enduring achievements on the nation-making frontier.

Unless continually strengthened by governments, achievements in the nation-making field could unravel within a country. The world is cautioned on this score by the current ‘troubles’ within India. On the issue of national integration, it is India who leads in South Asia and quite easily. But even India cannot afford to be complacent on this question and the present violence within her reminds us of this requirement.

This has come to pass in India and in the current situation the perception on the part of sections of the Muslim community that the central administration is in a concerted attempt to deprive them of the possibility of their achieving citizenship status or is in the process of relegating them to the position of stateless persons through discriminatory laws and arbitrary acts, is compelling them to revolt. Put briefly, a new citizenship law is being seen by the relevant disaffected sections, who are mainly Muslim migrants in India’s North-East from countries such as, Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan, as standing in their way of attaining Indian citizenship while facilitating the achieving of the same status by fellow migrants belonging to non-Muslim minorities from the same neighbouring states.

However, as pointed out by commentators, the disaffection in Assam should be considered as being in a category by itself on account of the perception among some ethnic Assamese that their traditional culture is being undermined by migrants from Bangladesh. But the disaffection in general stems from the perception among the disaffected sections that they are being discriminated against by the state and that their futures are bleak in the veritable land of their birth, since some of them have been resident in India for decades.

Thus, even India should consider it obligatory on its part to have a searching look at its nation-making process with a view to rectifying any deficiencies and pitfalls in this project. Nation-making is very often misunderstood to mean the material advancement of a country, but it is not quite so. Essentially, nation-making denotes the facilitation of peaceful co-existence among a country’s communities or reconciliation. Development, as generally understood, could help out in this task but it is the bringing into being of equality in all its main dimensions that could lay the basis for peaceful living among communities. Equality of rights, opportunities and condition is an essential condition for development, correctly conceived.

It would be relevant to point out that equality is the proverbial ‘Elephant in the room’ that most governments of the South would choose to ignore. They calculate that it is possible to bring peace and stability to their societies without taking into consideration the crucial importance of equality to domestic peace. This is a dangerous act of omission which is bound backfire on the countries concerned. In countries such as Sri Lanka, the ‘Elephant’, constantly ignored, is growing increasingly and dangerously huge by the day.

Accordingly, if even advanced democracies of the South, such as India, are facing citizenship issues decades into independence, it is because they have slipped in some respects in the prime task of nation-making, which is national reconciliation by another name. In the current context, the state is being seen as discriminatory by some sections and the message the state needs to be receptive to is that it must revisit the process of national reconciliation and look into the possibility of erasing from the minds of the disaffected the sense of alienation from the state that they are experiencing.

However, India scores above most other countries in this region in the current crisis on account of the secular opposition and other democratic actors coming together to champion the cause of those sections that are disaffected. This is the glowingly positive dimension in the current ‘troubles’. The progressives are making common cause with those who see themselves as being victimized by the state and this trend alone points to the fact that democracy in the truer sense is strongly present in India. We have heard of the instance where some secular and democratic forces came together and formed a human chain around a well known mosque to protect it and this is an example that shouldn’t be allowed to pass off unnoticed.

However, in contrast to most states of South Asia who have, to a greater or lesser extent, made compromises with the chauvinism of majority communities, India has seen to it that her Constitution has strong safeguards for the protection of minority rights. The fundamental rights chapter of the India Constitution, for example, is a model to be emulated. If one reads Articles 14, 15 and 16, for instance, one will discover why this has to be so. For example, there are here unambiguous, clear and cogent pledges by the state to protect minority rights.

The merit of such constitutional provisions is that they enable the disaffected to seek judicial remedies for their grievances. Since India’s superior courts are usually unbiased, the disaffected stand a good chance of having redressed wrongs done to them. Besides, India’s secular credentials are strong. This factor too will ensure religious minorities a fair share of justice in their contentions with the state or other quarters. But this does not mean that India will forever be free of problems of the kind she is currently up against.