Citizenship Beyond Legal Status: Reconsidering Law, Belonging and Constitutionalism in Contemporary India

This research paper critically reviews Anupama Roy’s Citizenship Regimes, Law, and Belonging: The CAA and the NRC and examines the changing relationship between citizenship, law, belonging, and constitutionalism in contemporary India. The paper evaluates Roy’s concept of “citizenship regimes” and its application to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) 2019, the experience of returnees following the 2015 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary Agreement, and the anti-CAA/NRC protests. It highlights how citizenship extends beyond formal legal status and is shaped by documentation, administrative practices, political narratives, territorial membership, and lived experiences of inclusion and exclusion. The review also critically assesses the strengths and limitations of Roy’s approach, particularly its treatment of constitutional equality, secularism, implementation practices, competing arguments concerning the CAA, and the diversity of protest movements. In light of the Citizenship (Amendment) Rules, 2024 and the continuing constitutional scrutiny of the CAA, the paper argues that Roy’s framework remains useful for understanding citizenship as an interaction between legal rules, institutions, democratic participation, and social belonging. At the same time, a balanced legal analysis requires greater attention to administrative implementation and competing constitutional interpretations.