How does one become an Indian citizen? I wonder if any one of us who identify as such have ever given it a thought. If you are not an Indian citizen by birth, you should have an aggregate of 11 years stay in India and you should have been a resident in India for the 11 months preceding the application. But how does a person who has no other citizenship, an ordinary person, prove that they are Indian citizens?
According to Nyaaya, under the law, you are considered an Indian citizen if you are born in India and fall in one of the 3 categories below:
· If you were born between 26th January 1950 to 1st July 1987: You are a citizen irrespective of the nationality of your parents.
· If you were born between 1st July 1987 to 3rd December 2004: One of your parents should have been an Indian citizen when you are born
· If you were born on or after 3rd December 2004: Both your parents must be Indian citizens; or if only one of your parents is a citizen, then the other is not an illegal immigrant
Why is this important? Because the current government intends to create a register of Indian citizens. This puts at risk the citizenship of anyone who cannot furnish the required proof. We have already run a test in Assam to very unexpected results. The history of migration into Assam is interesting by itself, so a little detour is in order. When the British were still our rulers, they wanted to populate Assam and incentivize people to move there. They promised land to anyone ready to move to the hilly state and take up tea farming. This led to an influx of migrants from Bengal which changed the demography of the state. To understand why this is a problem today, we need to remember that the Bengal from which the migrants came was not the West Bengal of today but from the unified Bengal that included what is today Bangladesh. To the Assamese fighting for more say in the running of their state, these migrants were just Bengalis. But to the right-wing government, this translated to Muslims from Bangladesh.
Interestingly, irrespective of the party in power, the politicians have never really understood the problem or its extent. When queried about how many foreigners were in Assam, the answers from various Home Ministers have varied from 2.3 million to 20 million. Economists have long held that the migration from Bangladesh to India has been primarily a Hindu migration. But who reads economists? So, the right-wing government in power decided this would be a good time to throw out the invaders.
In 2019, our Home Minister, Amit Shah, famously announced "A Bharatiya Janata Party government will pick up infiltrators one by one and throw them into the Bay of Bengal".
A docile, unthinking public went along with this narrative. But all the anti-migrant rhetoric came to a halt when the BJP government realized that most of the illegal migrants were Hindus. This required a hastily drummed up Citizen Amendment Act (CAA) which allowed legalization of migrants except those of the Islamic faith. This was needed for the BJP to not be seen as sending Hindus back to a Muslim country. But this was not what the Assamese wanted, they wanted all illegal immigrants gone.
Without a formal agreement with Bangladesh with regard to taking back illegal migrants from that country, India has no other option but to hold these people in detention camps. Now with the CAA in force, any non-Muslim can fast track their request for Indian citizenship. On receiving the citizenship, they can be let out of the camp. But for Muslim detainees, there is no end in sight. There is no hope for parole. They are considered stateless and hence can, possibly, never be released.
According to The Wire, 195 detainees are being held in camps in Assam.
Now we have the really hilarious situation, if it wasn’t so tragic, where the Indian taxpayers’ money is being used to house, clothe, and feed Muslims. These are people who were quietly living out productive lives; an act that contributed to the Indian GDP. But we’ve gone and taken them out of the equation.
Families separated. Livelihoods taken away. Uncertainty and fear.
These are the only outcomes of a path created from hate and bigotry.
I want to laugh so hard, but only tears come out.
I started a joke
Which started the whole world crying
But I didn't see
That the joke was on me, oh no
I started to cry
Which started the whole world laughing
Oh, if I'd only seen
That the joke was on me
- The Beegees, 1968
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