This lecture will cover the Constitutional provisions concerned with Citizenship.
Just before the pandemic, India had witnessed protests led by people of all religions and communities who opposed the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act. This law put into question, the very idea of being a citizen, or in a larger sense, the idea of who is an Indian. Let us try to understand these questions in a historical context as well as in the context of the Constitution. Because we think that this will lead us to another extremely important – Do we want India to be a society that recognises differences, respects diversity and treats all as equal? What kind of society do we want our country to be?
READING MATERIAL
In the reading given material, you will find the bare provisions of the Indian Constitution along with the:
(i) Summary of the Constituent Assembly Debates for each Article, with the relevant URLs so that the reader can go to the discussions on the specific date. (We have separately provided a word document of extracts of the Debates).
(ii) For the more energetic and eager reader, we have also provided a reference of key dates of debates and also some case laws in which the relevant Article is discussed as depicted in `indiankanoon.org’.
(iii) The PPT for this lecture – Click here