All six exercise questions from the NCERT textbook Political Theory, Chapter 6 «Citizenship», in the English edition’s own wording, each with a full model answer. The questions and activities printed inside the chapter (Let’s Think, Let’s Do It, Let’s Debate, the cartoon and the global-citizenship statements) are answered at the end. Try to answer each one yourself first, then check.
1 Rights and obligations of citizens
Q. Citizenship as full and equal membership of a political community involves both rights and obligations. Which rights could citizens expect to enjoy in most democratic states today? What kind of obligation will they have to their state and fellow citizens?
Answer: In most democratic countries, citizens can expect three kinds of rights: some political rights, such as the right to vote; some civil rights, such as freedom of speech and belief; and some socio-economic rights, such as the right to a minimum wage or to education. T.H. Marshall called these political, civil and social rights respectively, and together they make it possible for a citizen to live a life of dignity.
Citizens’ obligations are of two kinds. First, the legal obligations imposed by the state, such as obeying the law and paying taxes. Second, a moral obligation, which includes taking part in and contributing to the shared life of the community, settling disputes through negotiation and discussion rather than force, and acting as the inheritors and trustees of the country’s cultural and natural resources.
2 Equal rights, unequal exercise
Q. All citizens may be granted equal rights but all may not be able to equally exercise them. Explain.
Answer: This statement is correct. For example, the right to vote is formally equal for all citizens, but it becomes difficult to exercise for slum and pavement dwellers, since being on the voters’ list requires a fixed address, which is hard to provide from an unauthorised settlement. Similarly, freedom of movement and occupation is equally available to all citizens, but poor and unskilled migrants are not welcomed the way skilled, well-off workers are. The right to education, too, belongs to everyone, but the children of daily-wage workers are often unable to attend school because of economic hardship. This shows there is a real difference between formal equality (equality on paper) and substantive equality (equality actually exercised in practice), and it is economic and social circumstances that create this gap.
3 Struggles for citizen rights in India
Q. Write a short note on any two struggles for full enjoyment of citizen rights which have taken place in India in recent years. Which rights were being claimed in each case?
Answer: The first example is Olga Tellis vs Bombay Municipal Corporation (1985). Social activist Olga Tellis filed a Public Interest Litigation on behalf of slum and pavement dwellers in Mumbai, who had no alternative accommodation close to their place of work. The Supreme Court held that the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution includes the right to livelihood, so pavement dwellers could not be evicted without first being offered alternative accommodation. Here, the rights being claimed were the right to shelter and the right to livelihood.
The second example is the women’s movement and the dalit movement, whose purpose has been to change public opinion and influence government policy to secure equal rights and opportunities. These movements claimed equal social status, freedom from discrimination, and full citizenship rights.
4 Problems of refugees and global citizenship
Q. What are some of the problems faced by refugees? In what ways could the concept of global citizenship benefit them?
Answer: Refugees are often displaced by war, persecution or famine, and are forced to take refuge in their own or a neighbouring country (as with refugees from the Darfur region of Sudan, or Palestinian, Burmese or Bangladeshi refugees). If no state is willing to grant them citizenship and they cannot return home, they become stateless and are forced to live in camps or as illegal migrants. In this condition they often cannot legally work, educate their children, or acquire property, and their security remains uncertain.
The concept of global citizenship could help because it can make cooperation between the governments and people of different countries easier when dealing with problems that cross national borders, such as the refugee crisis. This could make it easier to guarantee refugees at least basic human rights and protection wherever they are, even if a full alternative to national citizenship is not immediately available.
5 Migrants’ contribution to the local economy
Q. Migration of people to different regions within the country is often resisted by the local inhabitants. What are some of the contributions that the migrants could make to the local economy?
Answer: Migrant workers often take up work that local people are unwilling or unable to do, such as construction, domestic work, street vending, plumbing, or skilled technical work (such as IT professionals or nurses from Kerala). They provide the labour for infrastructure projects such as roads and buildings, run small businesses (such as cane weaving, textile printing or tailoring), and often do essential low-wage work that keeps a city’s economy running. In this way they bridge gaps in local demand and supply and add to overall production and services, even though local residents sometimes resist them out of fear of competition for limited jobs.
6 Democratic citizenship : a project
Q. “Democratic citizenship is a project rather than an accomplished fact even in countries like India which grant equal citizenship.” Discuss some of the issues regarding citizenship being raised in India today.
Answer: The Indian Constitution adopted an inclusive, democratic notion of citizenship, attempting to give full and equal citizenship to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, women, and remote communities alike. Yet these inclusive provisions have themselves given rise to struggles and controversies. Some of the major issues being raised in India today are: the women’s movement (against gender discrimination and unequal exercise of rights), the dalit movement (against caste discrimination and social exclusion), the struggles of people displaced by development projects (for resettlement and fair compensation), disputes between local residents and migrant workers over freedom of movement and employment, and the right to shelter and livelihood of slum and pavement dwellers (as raised in the Olga Tellis case). India’s experience therefore shows that democratic citizenship is an ongoing project: as society changes, new groups keep raising fresh demands, and a democratic state has to listen to them with an open mind.
7 In-text Questions
The chapter also asks questions inside the text: in its Let’s Think, Let’s Do It and Let’s Debate boxes, in a full-page cartoon, and at the start of the section on global citizenship. They are answered below in the order in which they appear in the book, in the English edition’s own wording. Activities and debates have no single right answer; the model answers show what a good response contains.
Q. During seventeenth to twentieth century, white people of Europe established their rule over the black people in South Africa. Read the following description about the policy practices in South Africa till 1994. The whites had the right to vote, contest elections and elect government; they were free to purchase property and go to any place in the country. Blacks did not have such rights. Separate colonies for whites and blacks were established. The blacks had to take ‘passes’ to work in white neighbourhoods. They were not allowed to keep their families in the white areas. The schools were also separate for the people of different colour.
- Do you think the Blacks had full and equal membership in South Africa? Give reasons. No. Citizenship means full and equal membership of a political community, and equality of rights and status is one of its basic rights. Blacks had no right to vote, contest elections or elect the government (political rights), could not purchase property or move freely (civil rights), needed passes to work in white neighbourhoods, could not keep their families there, and had separate schools. They were members only in name.
- What does the above description tell us about the relationship of different groups in South Africa? It was a relationship of domination and segregation: a white minority ruled, kept all rights for itself and kept the black majority apart and subordinate in residence, work and education. This is why the black African population had to undertake a long struggle against the ruling white minority for equal citizenship, which continued until the early 1990s.
Q. Think of some examples of activities of citizens in your area intended to help others, or improve the area, or protect the environment. List some of the activities which could be undertaken by young people of your age-group.
Answer. This is a classroom activity. Examples you may see: residents’ welfare groups cleaning parks and drains, blood donation and health camps, collecting clothes and books for the needy, tree plantation and rain-water harvesting, campaigns against plastic. Activities for young people: cleanliness and plantation drives in the school and neighbourhood, teaching younger children or adults to read, helping the elderly, spreading awareness about saving water and electricity, segregating waste at home. These show the chapter’s point that citizenship involves not only legal obligations but a moral obligation to participate in, and contribute to, the shared life of the community, and that citizens are the inheritors and trustees of the culture and natural resources of the country.
Q. The cartoon prints no question. What does it show?
Answer. It shows middle-class city people struggling with everything that migrant workers usually do for them: cooking and washing dishes, cleaning, carrying loads, looking after children, repairing things, washing the car and the house. The point is that migrants do necessary and useful work, often at low wages, and the city cannot run without them, even though local people sometimes resist them as ‘outsiders’. It is linked to exercise question 5 on the contributions migrants make to the local economy.
Q. Examine the arguments for and against freedom of movement and occupation throughout the country for citizens. Should the long-term inhabitants of a region enjoy preference for jobs and facilities? Or, should states be allowed to fix quotas for admissions to professional colleges for students who do not belong to that state?
Answer. For freedom of movement: it is one of the rights granted to citizens and is of particular importance for workers, who migrate in search of jobs; full and equal membership suggests citizens should enjoy equal rights and opportunities wherever in the country they decide to live, study or work; migrants contribute to the economy of the places they go to. Against, or for limits: if jobs, facilities and resources are limited, local residents may resent competition from ‘outsiders’, sometimes at lower wages, and may demand that certain jobs go to those who belong to the state or know the local language. On preference for long-term inhabitants: a reasonable preference can be argued where local people have been left behind, but a total bar on other citizens would deny them full and equal membership. On state quotas in professional colleges: a quota for the state’s own students may be defended, but it should not shut out other citizens altogether. The chapter’s guiding principle is that such disputes should be settled by negotiation and discussion rather than force, keeping full and equal membership for all citizens in mind.
Q. Survey three families of workers working close to, or in, your homes or school. Find out details about their life. Where is their ancestral place? When and why did they come here? Where do they live? How many people share the accommodation? What kinds of facilities are available to them? Do their children attend school?
Answer. This is a survey activity; record the answers family by family in a table with these columns. Compare what you find with the chapter’s account of the urban poor: many people crammed into small rooms with no private toilets, running water or sanitation, and life and property insecure, even though they make a significant contribution to the economy through their labour. Note whether they can exercise rights like voting, which needs a fixed address, and whether their children go to school, since rights granted equally may not be equally exercised.
Q. According to the official figures published about the land distribution in Zimbabwe, some 4,400 white families owned 32 per cent of agricultural land that is about 10m hectares. About one million black peasant families own just 16m hectares that is the 38 per cent of the land. While the land that is with the white families is fertile and irrigated, the land in the hands of black population is less fertile and unirrigated. While tracing the history of land ownership, it is very obvious that a century ago the whites had taken the fertile land from the native people. Whites have now been in Zimbabwe for generations and consider themselves as Zimbabweans. The total population of whites in Zimbabwe is just 0.06 per cent of the population. In the year 1997, the President of Zimbabwe, Mugabe announced the plans to take over around 1500 farms. What ideas from citizenship would you use to support or oppose the claims of Black and White Citizens of Zimbabwe?
Answer. To support the claims of Black citizens: equal citizenship means full and equal membership, and equal rights need not mean uniform policies when groups have different needs; the black majority holds less fertile, unirrigated land because the fertile land was taken from the native people a century ago, so a fairer distribution of land would make citizens more equal, just as land reforms redistribute land. To support the claims of White citizens: they have lived in Zimbabwe for generations and consider themselves Zimbabweans, so they too are full and equal members, entitled to the protection of their rights, including property; taking over farms without a fair process would treat them as ‘outsiders’. A balanced view: the dispute should be settled by negotiation and discussion, through law and fair compensation, rather than by force, keeping the principle of full and equal membership for all citizens in mind.
Q. Find out about the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
Answer. This is a research activity. The Act, passed by Parliament in 2014, gives legal backing to the protection of the livelihood of street vendors and regulates street vending in towns: vendors are surveyed and given certificates of vending, vending zones are planned, and committees with vendors’ representatives are set up, so that vendors are not evicted or harassed at will. Connect it to the chapter: there are lakhs of street vendors in big cities who often face harassment from the police and town authorities, and the national policy on urban street vendors of January 2004 was intended to give them recognition and regulation so that they could carry on their profession without harassment. The Act is an example of the rights of citizenship being extended to the urban poor.
Q. It is not appropriate for schools, or any other public agencies like the army, to insist on a common uniform and to ban the display of religious symbols such as the turban.
Answer. For the motion: India’s Constitution provides equal rights to all without forcing people to give up their personal beliefs, languages or cultural practices; banning religious symbols makes assimilation easier for some groups than for others, as the French controversy over Sikh boys’ turbans and Muslim girls’ head scarves showed, since those whose religions did not demand such practices faced no problem. Against the motion: a common uniform expresses equality and a shared public identity, and public institutions may need uniform rules for discipline and safety. A balanced answer can argue that a common uniform is acceptable, but the display of a religious symbol like the turban should be accommodated wherever it does not harm others, since democratic citizenship should be as inclusive as possible. Give your own view with reasons.
Q. List some of the stateless people living in India today. Write a short note on any of them.
Answer. This is a research activity. The chapter notes that entry of people from neighbouring countries has taken place along all the borders of the Indian state, and many of them remain stateless for years or generations, living in camps or as illegal migrants, with only a relatively few eventually granted citizenship; India also gave refuge to the Dalai Lama and his followers in 1959. Groups you may write about include Tibetan refugees, Sri Lankan Tamil refugees, and refugees from Myanmar and Bangladesh. A good short note covers: where they came from and why, where they live, which rights they lack (often they cannot legally work, educate their children or acquire property), and what help they get, for example from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.
Q. There was an outpouring of sympathy and help for the victims of the tsunami which affected a number of countries in South Asia in 2004. International networks link terrorists today. The United Nations is working with different states to try and prevent the spread of bird flu and the possible emergence of a human viral pandemic. What is common to the statements given above? What do they tell us about the world in which we live today?
Answer. All three describe events and problems that cross national boundaries: help for disaster victims came from many countries, terrorist networks are international, and a disease can spread across borders, so states have to act together. They tell us that we live today in an interconnected world, where new means of communication like the internet, television and cell phones put us in immediate contact with developments in different parts of the globe and develop shared concerns among people of different countries. This is the starting point of the argument for global citizenship.
Q. Find out about Global Citizenship Education (GCED) from https://en.unesco.org/themes/gced and https://www.gcedclearinghouse.org
Answer. This is a research activity. Global Citizenship Education is promoted by UNESCO; it aims to help learners understand global issues and see themselves as members of a wider human community, with respect for human rights, diversity and peace, and a readiness to act on problems that cross borders. Link it to the chapter: global citizenship does not replace national citizenship, but reminds us that national citizenship might need to be supplemented by an awareness that we live in an interconnected world, and a readiness to work with people and governments across national boundaries.