Rahul Varman: Citizenship and the Nation of the Rich in India
The following piece was initially drafted before the nationwide alarm and
lockdown over Covid-19. However, the description it provides here of the
‘nation of the rich’ complements the description and pictures we now see of the
nation of destituted labourers struggling to reach their homes in the villages.
— Editor
see also
I. Introduction: The idea of being a
citizen perhaps has never in the short history of this nation been so much
debated and discussed as the present times; from parks, to streets, to academic
institutions, to the news rooms and drawing rooms, the ideas of citizenship and
the Constitution are being contested everyday and almost everywhere.
In the wake of the
devastation of World War II, the Bengal famine and the catastrophe of
Partition, and as the culmination of the long striving and struggle of the
Indian people against colonial rule, the Indian republic and a constitutional
democracy came into being some 70 years back. They came with a promise to
wipe out the memory of colonial rule, in which most Indians were rendered as
lesser beings in their own land. The new republic and its Constitution promised
welfare and freedom for all, respect for life, liberty, dignity and
opportunities for every individual to realise his/her potential without any
discrimination based on the chance of birth. It promised the citizens equality,
freedom to conduct their own affairs and speak their minds, as well as
protection from discrimination and exploitation. In the form of ‘directive
principles’, the Constitution proclaimed a vision of justice, development,
welfare and prosperity for each individual, for which the new nation-state was
supposed to strive after the war, famine, partition and the long period of
colonial rule. It also provided for an elaborate structure of State machinery
to achieve these objectives.
We will not discuss
here the efficacy of the Constitution in light of our lived experiences of 70
years. Nor will we discuss the recent amendments regarding who can be awarded
the citizenship of the country and how this will be done, or not done, through
the National Population Register (NPR) and the National Register of Citizens
(NRC). We will also not get into the debate about the prognosis for those whose
names may not figure in the right lists.
While skipping the
present contested socio-political terrain on citizenship, we will look for an
answer to a question that is relevant for our immediate future (and perhaps the
present too) once we get our certificates to the Promised Land. In the present
debate on citizenship and the alleged proliferation of illegal immigrants,
there appears to be a whispering campaign that economic benefits are not
reaching the right people, not because there is any slackening on the part of
the State, but as ‘there are too many people’[1],
especially since undeserving, illegal infiltrators are (it is claimed)
cornering much of those efforts and resources. After all, what else could
justify the rulers’ extraordinary focus on this question, at the cost of all
other material questions facing the nation? In which case, we need to examine
how resources are distributed in the country and how that distribution is
changing over the years. We take up that question below... read more:
see also
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American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
American capitalism has dropped the mask — and its face is cruel and selfish
