Introduction

In general terms, citizenship is a relationship between an individual and state. It is seen in the context of complementary rights and responsibilities. According to TH Marshall, citizenship is ‘full and equal membership‘ in a political community. The earliest forms of citizenship were limited and exclusionary in nature as only those who had property were given citizenship rights. Women and slaves were excluded from these rights. It was with the advent of modern liberal states that the demand for equality gained momentum and for the socio-economic inclusion of the marginalized sections, the citizenship rights were extended to them. For a democracy to improve itself, the citizens should take active part in governance which ensures accountability. Passive citizenship can lead to stagnation in any democracy and could further alienate the representatives from the people. A number of factors like state backlash against welfare policies, increasing defence budgets, increased digital surveillance by the state, marginalization of weaker sections, environmental concerns and multicultural pressures in the West due to globalization have reignited the debate around the concept of citizenship.

Concept of Citizenship

Citizenship is the status of a person recognized under the custom or law as being a legal member of a sovereign state or part of a nation. A person may have multiple citizenships and a person who does not have citizenship of any state is said to be stateless. The term ‘citizen‘ can be understood in a narrow or in a broad sense. In a narrow sense, it means the resident of a city or one who enjoys the privilege of living in a city. While in a broad sense, citizen means a person who resides within the territorial limits of the state. Citizenship and nationality are the same in a legal sense. Conceptually, citizenship is focused on the internal political life of the state and nationality is a matter of international dealings. In the modern era, the concept of full citizenship encompasses not only active political rights, but full civil and social rights. Historically, the most significant difference between a national and a citizen is that the citizen has the right to vote for elected officials, and to be elected. This distinction between full citizenship and other, lesser relationships goes back to antiquity. Until the 19th and 20th centuries, it was typical for only a small percentage of people who belonged to a city or state to be full citizens. In the past, most people were excluded from citizenship on the basis of gender, class, ethnicity, religion or other factors.

There are three types of rights associated with citizenship — civil, political, and social. The civil rights are related to individual freedoms like liberty, freedom of speech and expression etc. These rights can be seen as power against the state as they safeguard dissent in a democracy. The political dimension includes political rights through which an individual takes part in political life of his country like the right to vote; right to form or join any political party etc. These rights are associated with parliamentary institutions in a democracy. The social dimension refers to the right to share social and cultural heritage. The welfare state idea gained ground after the Second World War and it is the state’s duty to guarantee a minimum living standard in order to iron out inequalities between its citizens. There has been a tension between civil and social rights where social rights have been losing out to civil rights.