Citizen and Nation

The concept of the nation-state evolved during the modern period. One of the earliest assertions of the idea that a nation-state's sovereignty rests with its citizens, who also hold democratic rights, was made by the revolutionaries in France in 1789. Nation-states claim that their boundaries define not merely a territory but also a unique culture and a shared history, and this national identity is often expressed through symbols such as a flag, a national anthem, a national language, or particular ceremonial practices.

Most modern states include people of many different religions, languages, and cultural traditions. A democratic state's national identity is supposed to provide citizens with a shared political identity all members can identify with, so democratic states usually try to define this identity as inclusively as possible. In practice, however, most countries tend to define their identity in ways that make it easier for some citizens to identify with the state than for others — which can also make it easier for the state to extend citizenship to some people rather than others. This is as true of the United States, which prides itself on being a country of immigrants, as of any other country.

France offers a useful example. It claims to be both secular and inclusive, and includes not only people of European origin but also citizens who originally came from areas such as North Africa. Culture and language are important parts of French national identity, and citizens are expected to assimilate into it in the public aspects of their lives, while being free to retain their personal beliefs and practices privately. This sounds like a reasonable policy, but it is not always simple to say what counts as public and what counts as private, and this has produced real controversy — religious belief is supposed to belong to the private sphere, yet religious symbols and practices can spill into public life. France, for example, saw demands from Sikh schoolboys to wear the turban to school, and from Muslim girls to wear the headscarf with their school uniform; some schools disallowed this on the ground that it brought religious symbols into the public sphere of state education. Citizens whose religion made no such demand naturally never faced this problem — showing that assimilation into a shared national culture is easier for some groups than for others. (A related debate closer to home asks whether it is right for schools, or public agencies like the army, to insist on a common uniform that bans religious symbols such as the turban.)

Countries also differ in the criteria they use for granting citizenship to new applicants. In countries such as Israel or Germany, factors like religion or ethnic origin have historically been given weight in granting citizenship. In Germany, there has been a long-running and still unresolved demand from Turkish workers — who were once encouraged to come and work in Germany — that their children, who were born and brought up in Germany, should automatically be granted German citizenship. These are only a few examples of the kinds of restrictions that can be placed on citizenship even in democratic countries that pride themselves on being inclusive.

India defines itself as a secular, democratic nation-state. The movement for independence was broad-based, and deliberate attempts were made to bind together people of different religions, regions, and cultures. It is true that Partition took place in 1947, when differences with the Muslim League could not be resolved — but this only strengthened the resolve of India's national leaders to build and maintain a secular and inclusive nation-state, a resolve that was embodied in the Constitution.

The Indian Constitution attempted to accommodate a remarkably diverse society. To name just a few of these diversities, it attempted to provide full and equal citizenship to groups as different as the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, to many women who had not previously enjoyed equal rights, and to remote communities such as those in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands who had had little contact with modern civilisation, among many others. It also tried to find a place for the different languages, religions, and practices found across the country. It had to provide equal rights to all without at the same time forcing people to give up their personal beliefs, languages, or cultural practices — a genuinely unique experiment undertaken through the Constitution. The Republic Day parade in Delhi is meant to symbolise this attempt by the state to include people of every region, culture, and religion. …