Citizenship is acquired under legal systems.

Understanding Citizenship

• Citizenship is defined as full and equal membership of a country.

• Hannah Arendt’s concept of citizenship is the ‘right to have rights’.

• Two legal systems determine citizenship: ‘jus soli’ (right of soil) and ‘jus sanguinis’ (right of blood).

U.S. Citizenship Grant

• The 14th amendment to the U.S. Constitution, adopted in 1868, grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S.

• The U.S. Supreme Court reaffirmed this in 1898.

Citizenship in India

• Citizenship in India is governed by the Citizenship Act, 1955.

• The law was amended to introduce the ‘jus sanguinis’ principle in 2004.

• The Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA) provides accelerated citizenship to Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, and Parsis from neighboring countries.

• The government differentiates on the basis of religion, excluding Muslims, for the first time through CAA, 2019.

• Critics argue this is against the basic structure of secularism under the Indian Constitution.