2021 STATELESSNESS AND THE CITIZENSHIP AMENDMENT ACT, 2019 167 discriminatory denationalising acts by States in the future, the UN drafted two conventions on statelessness – the 1954 Convention and the Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness, 1961 (“1961 Convention”).60 However, as many unfortunate instances have illustrated since,61 states continue to denationalise groups based on race or religion till date.62 Today, the1954 Convention and the 1961 Convention provide a guide for countries to mould their policies in favour of the stateless populations they house.63 B. Historical background to Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in India Sri Lankan Tamil refugees fled religious persecution at the hands of the Sinhalese before and during the Sri Lankan civil war, and live as stateless individuals in Indian refugee camps. However, since they are a heterogeneous community, they have a variety of claims to Indian citizenship. Sri Lanka’s population has historically consisted of the Sinhalese community as the majority, and the Tamils as a minority.64 The Sinhalese community is primarily Buddhist and speak Sinhalese, whereas the Tamils are mostly Hindu and speak Tamil.65 Within the Tamils, most are the indigenous “Jaffna Tamils”.66 On the other hand, the smaller subset is the “Estate Tamils”, whose forefathers were brought to Ceylon from India to work in the British 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 1954 Convention; 1961 Convention; see generally Alice Edwards and Laura van Waas (ed) Nationality and Statelessness under International Law (Cambridge University Press 2014). James Minahan, Encyclopedia of Stateless Nations: Ethnic and National Groups Around the World (Greenwood Press 2016). The Statelessness Convention recognises that states have the right to denationalise those who have obtained nationality through fraud or misrepresentation as in 1954 Convention, art 8. Amrita Ghosh, ‘Evaluating the State of Statelessness – The Curious Case of no Nationality’ [2018] 2 Indian Journal of Law and International Affairs 104; Tendayi Bloom, ‘Problematizing the Convention on Statelessness’ United Nations University Institute on Globalization, Culture and Mobility (2013) <https://gcm.unu.edu/publications/policy-reports/problematizing-the-conventions-on-statelessness.html> accessed 28 July 2021. Nasreen Chowdhory, ‘State Formation, Marginality and Belonging: Contextualizing Rights of Refugees in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka’ in Nasreen Chowdhory (ed), Refugees, Citizenship and Belonging in South Asia: Contested Terrains (Springer 2018); Nasreen Chowdhory, ‘The Politics of Accommodation and the Rights of Tamils in Sri Lanka’ in Nasreen Chowdhory (ed), Refugees, Citizenship and Belonging in South Asia: Contested Terrains (Springer 2018); Partha Ghosh, Migrants, Refugees, and the Stateless in South Asia (Sage Publications 2016); Robert Rotberg, Creating Peace in Sri Lanka: Civil War and Reconciliation (Brookings Institution 1999); Christine Fair, Urban Battle fields of South Asia: Lessons Learned from Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan (Rand Corporation 2005); Nasreen Chowdhory, ‘Citizenship and Membership: Placing Refugees in India’ in Nasir Uddin and Nasreen Chowdhory (ed) Deterritorialised Identity and Transborder Movement in South Asia (2019). Wolozin (n 6). ibid.