Citizenship Law
The Indian Constitution that was
implemented in 1950 guaranteed citizenship to all of the country's residents at
the commencement of the constitution, and made no distinction on the basis of
religion. The Indian government passed the Citizenship Act in 1955. The
Act provided two means for foreigners to acquire Indian citizenship. People
from "undivided India" were given a means of registration after
seven years of residency in India. Those from other countries were given a
means of naturalization after twelve years of residency in India. Political
developments in the 1980's, particularly those related to the violent Assam movement against
all migrants from Bangladesh, triggered revisions to the Citizenship Act of
1955. The Citizenship Act was first amended in 1985 after the Assam Accord was
signed, wherein the Indian government of Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi agreed
to identify foreign citizens, remove them from the electoral roles, and expel
them from the country.
The Citizenship Act was further amended in 1992, 2003, 2005 and 2015. In
December 2003, the National Democratic Alliance government,
led by the Hindu
nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), passed
the Citizenship
(Amendment) Act, 2003 with
far-reaching revisions of the Citizenship Act. It added the notion of
"illegal immigrants" to the Act, making them ineligible to apply for
citizenship (by registration or naturalization), and declaring their children
also as illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants were defined as citizens of
other countries who entered India without valid travel documents, or who
remained in the country beyond the period permitted by their travel documents.
They can be deported or jailed.
Immigrants and refugees:
A very large number of illegal immigrants, the
largest numbers of whom are from Bangladesh, live in India. The Task Force on
Border Management quoted the figure of 15 million illegal migrants in 2001. In
2004, the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government stated in
Parliament that there were 12 million illegal Bangladeshi migrants in
India. The reasons for the scale of migration include a porous border,
historical migration patterns, economic reasons, and cultural and linguistic
ties. Many illegal migrants from Bangladesh had eventually received the
right to vote. According to Niraja Jayal, this enfranchisement was widely
described as an attempt to win elections using the votes of the illegal
migrants from Bangladesh. An unknown number of Pakistani Hindu refugees
live in India. An estimated 5,000 refugees arrive per year, citing religious
persecution and forced conversion. A much larger number of refugees,
estimated at 5–13 million, have arrived from Bangladesh over the decades due to
a variety of complex factors.
India is not a signatory to either the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or the 1967 Protocol. It
does not have a national policy on refugees. All refugees are classed as
"illegal migrants". While India has been willing to host refugees,
its traditional position formulated by Jawaharlal Nehru is
that such refugees must return to their home countries after the situation
returns to normal. According to the US Committee for Refugees and
Immigrants, India hosts refugees in excess of 456,000, with about 200,000
from "non-neighboring" countries hosted via the UNHCR. According
to Shuvro Sarker, since the 1950's and particularly since the 1990's, the Indian
governments under various political parties have studied and drafted laws for
the naturalisation of refugees and asylum seekers. These drafts have struggled
with issues relating to a mass influx of refugees, urban planning, cost of
basic services, the obligations to protected tribes, the impact on pre-existing
regional poverty levels within India.
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