Citizens, domicile, migrants: Why should we worry about Provincial Citizenship?, Pg13

Key Highlights:

• The article discusses the concept of "provincial citizenship" and its implications for inter-state migration in India.
• "Provincial citizenship" is rooted in nativist politics and emotional belonging to a state, influencing regional electoral politics.
• States like Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), and Assam are examined to understand how domicile becomes a political instrument.
• The concept challenges the ideal of "one nation, one citizenship" and raises concerns about discrimination against internal migrants.

Detailed Insights:

• The idea of "provincial citizenship" highlights the importance of states as sites of citizenship, potentially undermining a unified national identity.
• In J&K, domicile policies were implemented post-2019 to protect minorities, while in Jharkhand, domicile was used to express majoritarian grievances.
• Jharkhand's domicile politics challenge the federal structure and raise questions about national citizenship rights guaranteed by Article 16(2) of the Indian Constitution.
• The States Reorganisation Commission (SRC) of 1955 had foreseen the problems of discrimination arising from domicile policies, deeming them inconsistent with the Constitution.
• Conflicts between internal migrants and provincial citizenship concerns often require the Supreme Court's intervention due to inadequacies in the existing political structure.
• Terms like 'native', 'indigenous', 'Adivasi', 'local', or 'son of the soil' are contested alongside the identity of an Indian citizen, complicating the definition of citizenship.

Key Concepts Involved:

• Domicile: The status or attribution of being a permanent resident in a particular jurisdiction.
• Inter-state Migration: The movement of people from one state to another within a country for various reasons, including employment and education.
• Article 16(2): Guarantees that no citizen shall be discriminated against in respect of any employment or office under the State on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex, descent, place of birth, residence or any of them.