Entangled contestations: transnational dynamics of contesting liberal citizenship in South Asia

Abstract

This paper investigates contemporary transformations of citizenship in India, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar in their historical trajectories. More specifically, we focus on the contestation of liberal aspects of the respective citizenship regimes, in particular principles of non-discrimination on the basis of caste, race, gender, religion, or ethnic belonging as well as a high degree of legal certainty about one’s citizenship status. We advance two central arguments. Firstly, we argue that while often studied in isolation, the processes by which liberal citizenship is contested across the three countries bear remarkable similarities. We therefore develop a transnational comparative perspective to highlight the legal mechanisms and social logics by which citizenship regimes across the region are being transformed. Secondly, we argue that to capture these transformations, we need to complement the analyses of legislative changes with an investigation of socio-legal practices. This dual focus reveals how the interplay between seemingly innocent legislative changes and particular bureaucratic practices across all three countries produces zones of liminality, in which entire population groups experience increasingly precarious citizenship status. We theorise this production of liminal citizenship by focusing on the social lives of official documents and the proliferation of rules and regulations governing the respective citizenship regimes.