Citizenship: Theories and Contemporary Concerns

Semester and Year Offered: Monsoon semester 2019

Course Coordinator and Team: Dr. Pooja Satyogi

Email of course coordinator:psatyogi[at]aud[dot]ac[dot]in

Pre-requisites: None

Aim: This is an elective course to be offered to all students of the new BA Programmes offered by both the School of Law, Governance and Citizenship and the School of Global Affairs. Located in the contemporary context of debates on citizenship, this course aims to teach students about the conflicted and fraught history of citizenship in modern times. The course will equip the students to understand contemporary themes—globalisation, immigration, securitisation, claim refugee status, documentary exercises of identifying citizens—and how they connect with debates on citizenship.

Course Outcomes:

On the successful completion of the course, the students would be able

1. To theorise key debates on citizenship
2. Understand contemporary issues like Globalisation, Immigration and various forms of Claims of inclusion
3. Become better citizens and would have a democratic spirit of participation in a democracy, upholding the principles of equality and social justice.

Brief description of modules

This course will involve a theorisation of the key debates on citizenship. It is propelled by the still unfolding concern around citizenship in India. It introduces students to an understanding of how citizenship works simultaneously towards inclusion and exclusion in the contemporary world. The modules delineate historical development of the concept, Indian debates on citizenship and end with what citizenship means in a context of globalisation. With the current year being an election year, and with much controversy on electoral rolls and the NRC, this course becomes an ideal way in which students can be familiarised with key historical and contemporary debates on citizenship. It seeks to instil in students a democratic spirit of participation in democracy and uphold principles of equality and social justice.

The first module introduces the students to what is meant by citizenship and how it differs from other forms of belonging. It lays the background for understanding why we must study citizenship. The Second module takes a student through a historical understanding of the development of citizenship. It introduces the students to liberal, Marxist, civic republican, plural and differentiated and feminist understanding of citizenship. The third module introduces the students to debates on citizenship in India. The fourth module introduces the students to contemporary debates on globalisation and how they intersect with concerns raised by citizenship.

First Module (2 Weeks)

What is Citizenship, who are the citizens and why does it matter?

• What is citizenship?
• What renders citizenship different from other forms of belonging
• Why must we study citizenship?

1. Bellamy, Richard. 2008. Citizenship: A very short introduction, pp: 1-27. Oxford University Press
2. Isin, Engin F. and Peter Nyers. 2014. “Introduction: Globalizing citizenship studies.” In Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies, pp. 1-1 Routledge
3. O'byrne, D.J., 2004. The dimensions of global citizenship: Political identity beyond the nation-state, pp: 1-26. Routledge

Second Module (4 Weeks)

Models of Citizenship: Forms and Histories

• Forms of membership in Classical Times
• Marshall’s theory of citizenship
• Marxist critique of liberal citizenship
• Civic Republican models of citizenship
• Multiculturalism and Differentiated Citizenship

Republican Citizenship: The Ancient world

• J.G.A. Pocock, “The Ideal of Citizenship since Classical Times,” p. 29-40

Citizenship and the Nation State: Liberalism, Civic Republican, Marxist and Communitarian Models

• Bellamy, Richard. 2008. “Theories of Citizenship”. In Citizenship: A very short introduction, pp- 27-52. Oxford University Press
• Hall, Stuart, and David Held. 1989. “Citizens and citizenship.” New times: The changing face of politics in the 1990s, pp. 173-88.
• Heater, Derek. What is citizenship?. John Wiley & Sons, 2013, Chapters 1 and 2
• Held, David. 2000. “Citizenship and Autonomy”. In Political Theory and the Modern State. Polity Press.
• Mahajan, Gurpreet. The multicultural path: Issues of diversity and discrimination in democracy. SAGE Publications Pvt. Limited, 2002.

Third Module ( 4 Weeks)

• Citizenship in India: Debates and Controversies
• Citizenship debates in the Indian Constitution
• Migrants and Refugees in India
• Forms of citizens’ mobilisations since 2004
• Caste and the question of citizenship
• Indian Feminism and Citizenship
• NRC and Citizenship

Weeks 7-10

• Jayal, Niraja Gopal. 2014. “Indian citizenship: A Century of Disagreement.” Routledge Handbook of Global Citizenship Studies, pp. 397-406. Routledge
• Chimni, B. S. 2005. “Outside the Bounds of Citizenship: The Status of Aliens, Illegal Migrants and Refugees in India.” Rajeev Bhargava and Helmut Reifeld (eds.) Civil Society, Public Sphere and Citizenship, pp. 277-313.New Delhi: Sage Publications.
• Guru, Gopal. 2005. “Citizenship in exile: A Dalit case.” Rajiv Bhargava and Helmut Reifeld (eds.), Civil Society, Public Sphere and Citizenship: Dialogues and Perspectives, pp. 260-276. New Delhi: Sage
• Rodrigues, Valerian. 2005. “Citizenship and the Indian constitution.” Rajiv Bhargava and Helmut Reifeld (eds.) Civil Society, Public Sphere and Citizenship: Dialogues and Perceptions, pp. 209-235. New Delhi: Sage
• Roy, Anupama. 2016. “Becoming Citizens”. In Citizenship in India, pp 155-199. Oxford University Press 155-199
• Chandoke, Neera. “Transcending Categories: The Private, the Public, and the Search for Home.” In Gurpreet Mahajan (ed.) The Public and the Private: Issues of Democratic Citizenship, pp. 181-204.

Sage Publications.

• https://www.livemint.com/Politics/q9a4WgZptGXE64r8jghD0L/Explainer-What-is-National-Register-of-Citizens-NRC-of-As.html
• https://thewire.in/rights/the-spectre-of-statelessness-in-india
• https://thewire.in/law/nrc-supreme-court-crisis
• https://www.livemint.com/Politics/8s04csNIIp4FDDhKoMGPcP/Why-citizenship-amendment-bill-has-created-a-row.html

Fourth Module (2 Weeks)

The non-citizen, the Global citizen and amid increasing securitization

• Global citizenship: Does it exist?
• Statelessness and Homelessness: What does it mean to be a refugee in contemporary times?
• O'byrne, D.J., 2004. The dimensions of global citizenship: Political identity beyond the nation-state. Routledge, Chapter 2
• Cheesman, Nick. 20 “How in Myanmar “National Races” came to surpass citizenship and exclude Rohingya.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 47, no. 3: 461-483.
• Kyaw, Nyi Nyi. 2017. “Unpacking the presumed statelessness of Rohingyas.” Journal of Immigrant & Refugee Studies 15, no. 3: 269-286.
• Heater, Derek. What is citizenship?. John Wiley & Sons, 2013, 4th Chapter: Multiple Citizenship
• Nail, Thomas., 2015. The figure of the migrant. Stanford University Press: 1-21

Assessment Details with weights:

Reading List:

Provided above with module descriptions