Fighting Imagined Invasions with Administrative Violence Indian citizenship was further codified through the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955. 140 Such law enshrined jus soli through art 3, whereby any person born in India, regardless of descent would normally acquire citizenship. 141 This article was, however, amended twice: in 1985 in connection with the Assam conflict and the ‘Assam Accord’ and later on in 2003, in a move towards a more jus sanguinisinclined framework. 142 The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1986 motivated by the Assam Accord eroded jus soli by preventing access to citizenship for children of parents who were both illegal aliens, as will be explained in the section below. 143 Then, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003 introduced and defined the notion of illegal migrant, subject to detention and deportation, making this category ineligible for citizenship by registration and naturalisation. 144 It restricted even further access to citizenship by disallowing citizenship acquisition if either parent was an illegal migrant. The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003 created the legal basis for the National Register of Indian Citizens as well as a National Population Register, a registry of all usual residents of India, which was not initiated until 2010. 145 More recently, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019 to the Indian Citizenship Act, 1955 signify another turn of the screw, facilitating the naturalisation of refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan provided that they are of Hindu, Parsi, Jain, Sikh, Christian or Buddhist (ie not Muslim) religious backgrounds and entered India before December 2014. 146 Such an explicit mention of concrete religious (and ethnic) groups in the legislation is comparable to the prominence given in Myanmar to the Taingyintha, as particular groups are openly mentioned in law. As in the Dominican Republic and Myanmar, gender considerations have intersected with nativist policies since India’s independence. Some of the most salient features of such aspects are found in the Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act, 1949 passed by the Constituent Assembly, which was meant as a tool to ‘restore’ Hindu women to India and Muslim women to Pakistan after partition. 147 The impact of restrictive measures concerning access to citizenship, as in Myanmar, has disproportionately affected women. For example, wives of Assamese men born in other states and wives who married before reaching 18 years of age often have difficulties in proving their identity and descent 140 Act No 57 of 1955 (India) (‘Indian Citizenship Act, 1955’). 141 ibid art 3. 142 ‘Assam Accord’ (1985) 20(33) Economic and Political Weekly 1369, 1369–70, discussing 143 144 145 146 147 Accord between AASU, AAGSP and the Central Government on the Foreign National Issue (Assam Accord), signed 15 August 1985 (Memorandum of Settlement) <https://peacemaker.un.org/sites/peacemaker.un.org/files/IN_850815_Assam%20Accord.pd f> (‘Assam Accord’); Citizenship Amendment Act 1986, Act No 51 of 1986 (India) (‘Citizenship Amendment Act 1986’); Anupama Roy, Mapping Citizenship in India (Oxford 2010). Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 1986 (n 142). Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2003, Act No 6 of 2004 (India). Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003, GSR 937(E) (India) rr 2, 4, 7. Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019, Law No 27 of 2019 (India). Abducted Persons (Recovery and Restoration) Act, 1949, Act No 65 of 1949 (India), Report on Citizenship Law: India (n 135) 8; Niraja Gopal Jayal, Citizenship and Its Discontents: An Indian History (Harvard University Press 2013). 215