Constitutional moments and resurgent citizenship

ABSTRACT

Citizenship can be seen as successive moments of heightened consciousness about belonging. Contests over citizenship in the contemporary world may be construed in terms of a constitutional moment which has transformed the Constitution into an ‘insurgent’ text – recasting the constitutional order from a fetter on democracy to one of re-iteration of the principles that were adopted by ‘We, the people’. The resurgent ‘people’ have claimed the power to ‘launch something unprecedented’ by recalling the constitutional moment. A range of innovative protests in India have inserted new idioms of constitutional citizenship through rallies and sit-ins, street art, and theatre, asking for a democratic conversation on the constitution and law. These iterations have led to a resurgence of citizenship by making the Constitution popular.

KEYWORDS:

• Citizenship Amendment Act
• Preamble
• anthropological sites
• constitution of India
• resurgent citizenship
• constitutional moments

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anupama Roy

Anupama Roy is a Professor at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India. Her research is in the areas of citizenship studies, political anthropology of public institutions, law and democracy, and gender studies. Her recent publications are Election Commission of India: Institutionalising Democratic Uncertainties (OUP, 2019) and Citizenship Regimes, Law and Belonging: The CAA and the NRC (OUP, 2022).