Citizenship — Class 11 Political Science

This chapter examines citizenship as full and equal membership of a political community, which gives members a collective political identity and certain rights, along with obligations to one another and to society. It contrasts this with the plight of refugees and stateless people who no state will accept. Each right of citizenship has been won through struggle, from the French Revolution to anti-colonial movements, the South African anti-apartheid struggle and the women's and dalit movements in India. The chapter probes the meaning of "full and equal membership" through tensions between "insiders" and "outsiders", freedom of movement and the rights of migrants, and the conditions of the urban poor, slum-dwellers, tribal and forest-dwellers. It cites the Olga Tellis case, where the Supreme Court held that the right to life includes the right to livelihood. T.H. Marshall's view sees citizenship as involving civil, political and social rights that counter class inequality. The chapter discusses the relationship between citizen and nation, how nation-states define inclusive identities (France, Germany, Israel and India's secular, inclusive citizenship), the problem of universal citizenship and stateless peoples, and finally the idea of global citizenship in an interconnected world, arguing national citizenship needs to be supplemented by awareness of our links with people everywhere.