What citizenship means

Citizenship is full and equal membership of a political community. Today, states give their members a collective political identity (we think of ourselves as Indians, Japanese or Germans) and certain rights, along with help and protection wherever they travel.

Rights of citizens. The exact rights differ from state to state, but most democracies include:

• political rights, such as the right to vote;
• civil rights, such as freedom of speech or belief;
• socio-economic rights, such as a minimum wage or the right to education.
• Equality of rights and status is itself one of the basic rights of citizenship.

Every right was won by struggle.

• Early struggles were against powerful monarchies, some violent, like the French Revolution of 1789.
• In the colonies of Asia and Africa, demands for equal citizenship were part of the struggle for independence.
• In South Africa, the Black majority struggled against the ruling white minority for equal citizenship until the early 1990s. Under apartheid, whites alone could vote and buy property anywhere; Black people needed passes to work in white areas, could not keep their families there, and went to separate schools.
• Struggles continue: in India, the women's movement and the dalit movement try to change public opinion and government policy to win equal rights and opportunities.

Obligations of citizens. Citizenship is also about citizen-to-citizen relations. Citizens have legal obligations imposed by the state and a moral obligation to participate in and contribute to the shared life of the community. They are also inheritors and trustees of the country's culture and natural resources.

Example (new): students who organise a clean-up of their local lake, and then ask the municipality to stop sewage flowing into it, are acting on both the rights and the duties of citizenship.