170 E. L. RHOADS AND R. DAS The Indian Independence Act of 1947 ended prohibitions against Indian legislators enacting laws that impacted British nationality and sovereignty, which had been put in place by the Government of India Act of 1935.127 However, this occurred in the context of the partition of the subcontinent, during which approximately fourteen million people were displaced.128 The Constituent Assembly of India was “suddenly confronted with the importance of arbitrating the various claims to citizenship that would arise as a consequence of these large-scale movements of people … a topic that was barely significant earlier now became contentious and divisive.”129 Not surprisingly, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru observed that drafting the articles related to citizenship had “probably received far more thought and consideration … than any other article contained in this Constitution.”130 Between independence in 1947 and passage of the Constitution in November 1949 by the Constituent Assembly, there existed no way to ascertain who was and who was not an Indian citizen.131 In fact, given the aftermath of partition, the Constituent Assembly refrained from outlining Indian citizenship requirements, instead providing a framework in Articles 5–11 of the Constitution only for the immediate purpose of defining citizenship when the Constitution came into force in January 1950. The task of legislating for ordinary times was left to parliament, which subsequently passed the Citizenship Act in 1955. The scholarly consensus is that citizenship status began on a relatively civic note with an inclusive birthright concept, but has shifted to a more exclusionary descent-based system in the last few decades, especially since passage of the Citizenship Amendment Bill of 1985.132 However, while the 1985 law is indeed a key moment in the history of Indian citizenship, this is a considerably more complicated history than a linear narrative from a virtuous birthright to a less virtuous descent-based principle. Instead, the tension between these two concepts has been present from independence. While the Constitutional Assembly adopted birth as the primary basis of citizenship – persuaded by both its ostensible lineage in the antecedent colonial law as well as its presumed “enlightened modern civilized” character133 – proponents faced intense opposition from advocates of a descent-based principle on account of returning Muslim migrants from Pakistan.134 In fact, it was primarily due to this question that the constitutional provisions relating to technical and legal aspects of citizenship took two years to be finalized.135 Accordingly, the dilution of birthright as the legal basis for citizenship began with the 1947 Constitution, with a: … relatively concise specification giving way to a[n] … increasingly detailed account of Indian citizenship, constantly refined with more qualifications yielding new classifications and exceptions, each of these reflecting the primary fault line of religious difference in India, that between the Hindus and the Muslims.136 127 Ashesh and Thiruvengadam, 2017. Khan 2017. See Gilmartin (2015) for further details. Jayal 2013, 57. 130 CAD Volume IX, 398. 131 Sinha 1962. 132 Rodrigues 2008; Roy 2010; Sadiq 2009. 133 CAD Volume I, 424. 134 Chatterji 2012 135 Jayal 2013. 136 Jayal 2013, 52. 128 129