Unmaking Citizens: The Architecture of Rights Violations and Exclusion in India’s Citizenship Trials

Co-authored by: Mohsin Alam Bhat (Queen Mary University of London), and researchers Arushi Gupta, and Shardul Gopujkar, with the support of researchers and law students from NLSIU

Based on 1,193 High Court cases, landmark Supreme Court rulings, and in-depth field interviews, the Unmaking Citizens report offers the most comprehensive study yet of Assam’s Foreigners Tribunals. It reveals a legal system in deep crisis: over 165,000 people have already been declared “foreigners,” with 85,000+ cases pending and more than 1 million NRC appeals potentially headed to these opaque tribunals. The report documents widespread arbitrariness in decision-making, including the wholesale rejection of documentary and oral evidence, and the absence of legal norms to protect individuals from wrongful targeting. These are not isolated failures—they reflect an institutionalised machinery of exclusion, with severe regional and national implications.

Views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not reflect the opinion or stand of the University.