Talk on Hindutva, CAA and Citizenship

‘If Hindustan will not care for Hindus, where will they go?’: imagined territory and constructions of Indian citizenship in othering Muslims.

Abstract

How do constructions of social polity inform constructions of nation? In this paper, we examine constructions of citizenship in India to examine how this accomplishes exclusion of Muslims and informs the (re)constitution of the Indian nation as Hindu Rashtra. While much research in social psychology has examined nations, in terms of social categories or territory, and their consequences for belonging or citizenship, what has not been fully taken-up is treating nations as ‘in the forming’. In this paper, we foreground nations as ‘in the forming’ to examine how citizenship policies, which construct various versions of the national polity, inform constructions of nations. We do so through a discursive and rhetorical examination of debates on citizenship at two momentous occasions for India: the drafting of India’s constitution (1946-50) and the Citizen Amendment Act 2019. Analysis shows that constructions of Indian citizenship were treated as informing distinct forms of territorializing India – as secular or Hindu Rashtra. The latter alternative is an imagined territory of Hindu Rasthra where those who are Hindus and other non-Muslims have privileged citizenship and claims over Indian territory over Muslim others. We then argue that constructions of citizenship can contribute to exclusion of other through offering alternative versions of nations themselves.