Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies (2021) 2709-5479 Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019: The Pernicious Outcomes of the Altering Equation of Citizenship in India Monika Verma Institute of Social Research and Cultural Studies National Yang Ming Chiao Tung University Citizenship has played an essential role in addressing societal alteration and defining the relationship between the nation-state and the individuals in the contemporary world. Citizenship law establishes not only legal but also constitutional recognition of citizens of a nation-state. This essay briefly focuses on the recently amended Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 of the Citizenship Act, 1955. On the one hand, it grants Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants from six religious minorities (Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis, and Christians) living in India; who had escaped religious persecution or the possibility of religious persecution in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan before December 2014. On the other hand, this Act is considered by some as unfair or unjustifiable as it not only violates the Indian Constitution but it also excludes other illegal immigrants (such as Rohingyas or Buddhist Tibetan). As a result, this controversial Act led to outrage and protests not only across India but also overseas. In India, political organizations, educational institutions, civil society, and Muslim organizations are among the institutions that dogmatically opposing the Act. This Act faced several criticisms and its dissatisfaction was explicitly seen among the people at the national and international levels. The passage of the Act forthwith provokes the question, is it promoting discrimination based on religion? This article briefly argues that the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, is unconstitutional and unjustified under religious grounds. Keywords: Citizenship, India, Discrimination, Religion, Protests Introduction Citizenship has been a significant factor in understanding societal alteration in nation-states in the contemporary period (Roy, 2010). In India, the legal and constitutional terminology and citizenship conundrum indicate that citizenship ambiguously oscillates between the notion of inclusion and exclusion in the sphere of legal, social, political institutions, which is referred to as 'crisis in citizenship' (Roy, 2010) or as 'disturbed zones of citizenship within' (Chatterjee, 1997). The multidimensionality of inequality and the various poles of disadvantages must be determined and calculated in the process of democratic citizenship. On the one hand, the state's inability to act for the people's benefit (including citizens and non-citizens) and the subsequent crisis of legitimacy reflects one of the aspects of the 'disturbed zones of citizenship within' (Chatterjee, 1997). On the other hand, the mentioned issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 in India also reflects one © 2021 Conflict, Justice, Decolonization: Critical Studies of Inter-Asian Societies 1 Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3898542