Citizen and nation

The nation state developed in the modern period. Among the earliest assertions of national sovereignty and citizens' democratic rights were those of the French revolutionaries in 1789.

• Nation states claim that their borders mark not just a territory but a shared culture and history, expressed through symbols like a flag, national anthem, national language and ceremonies.
• Most modern states contain people of different religions, languages and cultures. A democratic state's national identity is meant to be a political identity shared by all citizens, and democracies try to make it inclusive. In practice, most countries define their identity in ways that make it easier for some citizens than others to identify with the state, or to gain citizenship.

Different countries, different criteria:

• France claims to be secular and inclusive, with citizens of European and other origins. All citizens are expected to assimilate into its culture and language in public life, while keeping personal beliefs in private life. But the line between public and private is not always clear, and school rules on religious symbols in state schools have caused controversy.
• In countries such as Israel or Germany, factors like religion or ethnic origin have been given priority in granting citizenship. In Germany, Turkish workers, once invited to work there, have long demanded that their children born and raised in Germany be granted citizenship automatically.

India defines itself as a secular, democratic nation state. The broad-based independence movement deliberately brought together people of different religions, regions and cultures, and the Constitution embodied this inclusive resolve.

• It tried to give full and equal citizenship to groups as different as the Scheduled Castes and Tribes, women who had not had equal rights, and remote communities of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, while respecting different languages, religions and practices, without forcing people to give up their beliefs or cultures. The Republic Day parade symbolises this inclusion.
• Citizenship provisions are in Part Two of the Constitution and later laws. Citizenship can be acquired by birth, descent, registration, naturalisation, or inclusion of territory.
• The state must not discriminate on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, and the rights of religious and linguistic minorities are protected.
• Even so, the women's movement, the dalit movement and people displaced by development projects show that democratic citizenship is a project, an ideal to work towards, with new demands negotiated as society changes.

Example (new): a school assembly where students take turns singing songs in different Indian languages is a small picture of the inclusive national identity the Constitution aims for.