Chapter 6 — Citizenship

The chapter defines citizenship as 'full and equal membership of a political community.' In the contemporary world, states provide members with a collective political identity — such as being Indian, Japanese, or German — as well as certain rights. Citizens also expect help and protection from their state wherever they may travel.

British sociologist T.H. Marshall (1893–1981), in his book Citizenship and Social Class (1950), identified three kinds of rights. Civil rights protect the individual's life, liberty, and property. Political rights enable the individual to participate in the process of governance. Social rights give the individual access to education and employment. Together, these rights make it possible for citizens to lead a life of dignity.

The chapter uses the 'Mumbai for Mumbaikars' slogan to illustrate tensions around 'full and equal membership.' When jobs, facilities like medical care or education, and natural resources are limited, demands may be made to restrict entry to 'outsiders' even if those outsiders are fellow citizens. The example raises the question of whether the right to freedom of movement includes the right to live or work in any part of the country.

Social activist Olga Tellis filed a Public Interest Litigation against the Bombay Municipal Corporation in 1985, claiming the right of pavement dwellers to live where they did because no alternative accommodation near their place of work was available and eviction would mean loss of livelihood. The Supreme Court ruled that Article 21 of the Constitution, which guarantees the right to life, includes the right to livelihood, and that if pavement dwellers were to be evicted, they should first be provided with alternative accommodation under the right to shelter.

Martin Luther King Jr. was a Black leader of the Civil Rights Movement in the USA during the 1950s, which fought against Segregation Laws in many southern states that denied Black people civil and political rights. King argued that every human being is equal in self-worth and dignity regardless of race or colour. He called segregation a 'social leprosy' that inflicts deep psychological wounds, and argued that segregation laws create artificial boundaries preventing cooperation for the overall benefit of the country. He called for peaceful and non-violent resistance against these laws.

India defines itself as a secular, democratic nation state and the Constitution adopted an essentially democratic and inclusive notion of citizenship. Citizenship in India can be acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, or inclusion of territory. The Constitution provides that the state should not discriminate against citizens on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, or place of birth, and the rights of religious and linguistic minorities are also protected.

Stateless people — those displaced by wars, persecution, famine, or border disputes whom no state is willing to accept — may be forced to live in camps or as illegal migrants. The chapter notes that such people often cannot legally work, educate their children, or acquire property. The problem is considered so severe that the United Nations has appointed a High Commissioner for Refugees to try to help them.

Global citizenship is the idea that people feel linked to each other across national boundaries and that this shared sense of belonging should be formalised. The chapter cites the worldwide outpouring of help for victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami as evidence of an emerging global society. Supporters argue that global citizenship could make it easier to find cooperative solutions to problems that cross national boundaries, such as the rights of migrants and stateless peoples.

The chapter uses South Africa as a case study in denied citizenship. White citizens could vote, contest elections, purchase property, and move freely, while Black people were denied these rights, required passes to work in white areas, and kept in separate colonies. The Black African population had to undertake a long struggle against the ruling white minority for equal citizenship, which continued until the early 1990s. This illustrates that citizenship without full and equal membership is incomplete.

France considers itself secular and inclusive but expects all citizens to assimilate into its culture and language in the public aspects of their lives, while permitting personal beliefs in private. This created controversies: Sikh schoolboys' requests to wear turbans and Muslim girls' wishes to wear headscarves with school uniforms were disallowed by some schools on the ground that religious symbols were being brought into the public sphere of state education. The chapter notes that assimilation into the national culture is easier for some groups than for others.

The chapter draws this distinction when discussing the urban poor. While all citizens may formally be granted equal rights, not all can exercise them equally. For instance, even a basic political right like the right to vote may be difficult for squatters and pavement dwellers to use, because voter registration requires a fixed address which such people may be unable to provide.

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