THE EVOLVING IDEA OF BELONGING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CITIZENSHIP LAWS IN GLOBAL AND INDIAN CONTEXTS
AUTHOR – PRIYANSHU KUMAR, STUDENT AT AMITY LAW SCHOOL, AMITY UNIVERSITY, PATNA
BEST CITATION – PRIYANSHU KUMAR, THE EVOLVING IDEA OF BELONGING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CITIZENSHIP LAWS IN GLOBAL AND INDIAN CONTEXTS, INDIAN JOURNAL OF LEGAL REVIEW (IJLR), 5 (13) OF 2025, PG. 274-281, APIS – 3920 – 0001 & ISSN – 2583-2344.
ABSTRACT
Citizenship, the fundamental “right to have rights”, is undergoing a profound global re-examination, caught between traditions of jus soli (right of soil) and jus sanguinis (right of blood) and the modern tensions of globalization and national security. This article provides a critical analysis of the evolution of citizenship law in India, arguing that its foundational, inclusive jus soli framework has been “significantly altered” by decades of political, demographic, and judicial pressures, moving toward a more “complex, contested, and restrictive framework”.
The analysis traces this legal and ideological lineage, demonstrating how the unique political history of Assam has become the primary driver of national citizenship jurisprudence. The article examines a series of interconnected developments, beginning with the Supreme Court’s “watershed” Sarbananda Sonowal (2005) judgment, which re-centered the “burden of proof” and framed large-scale illegal migration as a form of “external aggression”. This decision created the “judicial mandate” for the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, a process that culminated in the exclusion of 1.9 million people and a “massive crisis of statelessness”.
The article then analyzes the “fundamental ideological shift” signaled by the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which introduced religion as an explicit criterion for naturalization for the first time and faces constitutional challenges for allegedly violating Article 14 and the basic structure of secularism. This is contrasted with the Supreme Court’s recent 2024 validation of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, which upheld the Assam-specific cut-off dates as a “legislative solution” to a unique “political problem”. Finally, the article incorporates the 2025 Rofiqul Hoque ruling, which affirmed the supremacy of judicial declarations by Foreigners Tribunals over administrative inclusions in the NRC.
The article concludes that this evolution has resulted in a “fragmented and deeply uncertain” legal landscape, caught in a “fundamental conflict” between region-specific compromises and a new, national-level ideological debate on religious identity and belonging..
Keywords: Indian Citizenship Law, Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA), 2019, National Register of Citizens (NRC), Assam Accord, Section 6A, Sarbananda Sonowal v. Union of India, Jus Soli, Jus Sanguinis