NRC, Assam, and What Makes a Citizen: Navigate Our Snakes-and-Ladders Citizenship Guide

Citizenship in Assam is currently in a crisis. The final draft of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) excluded 19,06,657 people. The Assam government’s strategy is simple—call them a “doubtful (D) voter.”

Can you successfully claim your right to Indian citizenship? Follow our guide to see how the state is able to arbitrarily deprive Indians of their fundamental rights, and imprison them with no recourse.

Note: If you are viewing this feature on a handheld device, please pinch the screen to make use of the zoom feature.

While Home Minister Amit Shah has called for people left out of the NRC to be deported, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called the NRC an “internal process,” and has also ensured Bangladesh that they would not be forced to accept anyone deemed an illegal immigrant.

This feature is based on Nazimuddin Siddique’s article “Discourse of Doubt: Understanding the Crisis of Citizenship in Assam,” which looks at the many insidious ways in which people are stripped of their Indian citizenship in Assam, rendering them stateless.

Curated by Kieran Lobo [kieran@epw.in], with inputs from Vishnupriya Bhandaram [vishnupriya@epw.in]

Designed by Gulal Salil [gulal@epw.in]

Disclaimer: This feature has been created independently by the Economic and Political Weekly, and is based entirely on Nazimuddin Siddique's article which was published in EPW on 9 March 2019. A similar feature, published by the Centre for Justice and Peace, can be viewed here.

To know more on the NRC process in Assam, read our articles here:

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