Shukla, Anshuman and Ray, Ipsita (2024) Citizenship and transformative constitutionalism: The evolution of political participation from colonial India to the citizenship amendment act 2019. In: Recent Trends and Challenges in Law. Cambridge Scholars. ISBN 9781036409098
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Abstract
Transformative constitutionalism is the defining feature of postcolonial constitutions, which were born in the mid-20th century. Its dominant constitutional paradigms are grounded in welfare, affirmative action and activism in judicial review. These qualitative features are geared towards enhancing the quotient of citizenship through effective political participation in public policy. This paper explores the iterative and dialectic nature of the Indian constitutional identity as dictated by the project of transformative constitutionalism. It analyses the dual nature of citizenship as adopted under the Indian Constitution. Canonical citizenship is generalist in scope, with minimal qualifications of birth, descent, and naturalisation. Welfarist citizenship is more particularistic across religion, caste, and gender. The essay traces the origins, sources, and evolution of these two paradigms of citizenship, beginning from their politico-legal modes of historical evolution since British colonialism. Classical citizenship was the mark of city republics in Greco-Roman Antiquity, who proudly distinguished their free “citizens” from the unfree “subjects” of the surrounding despotic regimes. “Citizen proper” was an active participant in public affairs. The Enlightenment and Liberalism, since the 18th century onwards, have fused these two concepts of “citizen” and “subject”, leading to the notions of the modern citizen as an active voter but also the beneficiary of government largesse. This dualistic framework of “citizen proper” and “citizen beneficiary” collided in the recent controversy of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act 2019. The prevailing conflict intersects the traditional grounds of birth and descent with the emerging crisis of migration, refugee rights and religious minorities.
Item Type: | Book Section |
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Keywords: | Citizenship Amendment Act | colonialism | postcolonia constitutions | transformative constitutionalism |
Subjects: | Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Social Sciences (General) Social Sciences and humanities > Social Sciences > Law and Legal Studies |
JGU School/Centre: | Jindal Global Law School |
Depositing User: | Dharmveer Modi |
Date Deposited: | 10 Jan 2025 09:14 |
Last Modified: | 10 Jan 2025 09:14 |
URI: | https://pure.jgu.edu.in/id/eprint/8988 |
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