The Transnational Human Rights Review, Vol. 8, Iss. 1 [2021], Art. 1 to employment and basic services in the absence of which individuals can be forcibly displaced, restricted or detained, or face substantial risks to their livelihood. 97 Despite the now growing body of literature on nationality rights and statelessness, there still exists drawbacks to state evaluations of persecution. For one, Foster and Lambert note that there is a general reluctance amongst scholars to discuss the historical and socio-political backgrounds to conferment or withdrawal of nationality, despite the overwhelming number of stateless people belonging to the minority community. 98 As an example, they observe how UK tribunals have rejected asylum applications from members of the Bidoon community – a minority in Kuwait – on the grounds that the state has already set up a review committee to evaluate whether the members of the community are eligible for citizenship, without assessing further if the committee’s analysis is effective, and decision independently arrived at. 99 In India, citizenship has largely been a function of communal, casteist, linguistic and sectarian tendencies, post-partition. However, religious antagonism seems to have overshadowed them all. Thus, to understand the dynamics of citizenship conferral and withdrawal that started with Assam and is now threatening to take effect over the rest of India, it would be necessary to examine the socio-political contexts within these entities. (b) A Brief Account of Muslim Citizenship in A Majoritarian State Several scholarly works, mostly within the context of politics and ethics of the Indian Constitution, have highlighted the construction of Muslim identities through citizenship in postpartition India. In fact, whether (or not) citizenship should be conferred on the basis of religious identities without anything further, formed an essential part of the Constituent Assembly Debates during the framing of the Constitution. Prior to the enactment of the Citizenship Act, 1955, the Constitution followed a unique combination of jus soli and jus sanguinis principles for acquisition of nationality – with all those born and resident in undivided India entitled to citizenship – unless they migrated to the newly created state of Pakistan. 97 For ICL cases, see, Prosecutor v Milorad Krnojelac, IT-97-25-A, Appeal Judgment (17 September 2003) at paras 221-222 (over forced displacement of civilian population); Prosecutor v Kordic & Cerkez, IT-95-14/2-A, Appeal Judgment (17 December 2004) at paras 1039-1043 (over deprivation of liberty). See, Ming Dai v Sessions, 884 F.3d 858, 870 (9th Cir. 2018) for decision on economic deprivation rising to the level of persecution. Such deprivation must not be generalized, and is usually at least state-sponsored. 98 Lambert & Foster, supra note 79 at 150. 99 Ibid at 151. https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/thr/vol8/iss1/1 DOI: 10.60082/2563-4631.1096 16