Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies (2021)
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of the gestures of the 'disturbed zones of citizenship within.' In brief, two legislations define India's
citizenship. First, Part II of India's Constitution (ranged from Article 5 to 11), titled "citizenship," deals
with the question of citizenship. Second, the Citizenship Act, 1955 with consecutive amendments in
1986, 1992, 2003, 2005, and 2019.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, one of the amendments of the Citizenship Act, 1955, was
proposed in Parliament in July 2016. The lower house of the Parliament of India (Lok Sabha) passed
the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on January 8, 2019, despite the intense dissent and resistance
from the opposition, including social, educational, and political organizations (Government of India,
2019). The Bill was also passed by the Parliament's upper house (Rajya Sabha) of India on
December 11, 2019. The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, an Act to amend the Citizenship Act of
1955, was enacted by the Parliament in the seventieth year of the Republic of India.
The proviso shall be inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955, in section 2 (1) (b):
"Provided that any person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or Christian
community from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, who entered into India on or
before the 31st day of December 2014 and who has been exempted by the Central
Government by or under clause (c) of sub-section (2) of section 3 of the Passport
(Entry into India) Act, 1920 or from the application of the provisions of the Foreigners
Act, 1946 or any rule or order made 19 thereunder, shall not be treated as an illegal
migrant* for the purposes of this Act" (Government of India, 2019).
Another, the proviso shall be inserted in the Citizenship Act, 1955, in section 6 (d):
"Provided that for the person belonging to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Parsi or
Christian community in Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan, the aggregate period of
residence or service of Government in India as required under this clause shall be
read as 'not less than five years' in place of 'not less than eleven years" (Government
of India, 2019).
The Act is not only under controversy for allegedly undermining the secular foundations of the Indian
Constitution by making a classification based on religion or religion-based discrimination by
excluding other communities (for instance, Muslim Rohingyas from Buddhist-majority Myanmar,
Buddhist Tibetan, Muslim Uighurs from China, Jews, Muslim minorities (Shias particularly, Hazaras
and Ahmadiyya's)) but also violating the principle of equality enshrined in article 14 of the
Constitution of India (Poddar, 2018).
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Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3898542