What is Citizenship ? Explained in Detail

Citizenship implies full and equal members of a political community. The theories given by different liberal political thinkers suggest that citizenship should be universal. This means that every member of the community should be given citizenship. It also means that every person irrespective of his caste, color, sex, and status should be considered worthy of giving rights and duties.

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In fact, cit­i­zen­ship is a qual­i­fi­ca­tion that makes a man wor­thy of get­ting the rights and dis­charg­ing of duties and responsibilities.

The cri­te­ri­on for grant­i­ng cit­i­zen­ship to new appli­cants vary from coun­try to country. 

India itself is a demo­c­ra­t­ic, sec­u­lar state with a diverse soci­ety with dif­fer­ent reli­gions, regions, and cultures.

The Indi­an Con­sti­tu­tion attempt­ed to accom­mo­date every sec­tion of this diverse society. 

It has attempt­ed to give full and equal cit­i­zen­ship to such sec­tions as sched­uled castes and women who ear­li­er did not join equal rights and the peo­ple of remote areas who had lit­tle con­tact with modem civilization. 

In India cit­i­zen­ship can be acquired by birth, descent, reg­is­tra­tion, and naturalization.

Idea of Fall and Membership

The con­cept of full and equal mem­ber­ship means that all cit­i­zens rich or poor should be guar­an­teed cer­tain basic rights and a min­i­mum stan­dard of liv­ing by the state. 

In the wake of the right of move­ment peo­ple of dif­fer­ent stra­ta and dif­fer­ent occu­pa­tions move from one place to anoth­er, from one region to anoth­er region in search of bet­ter job oppor­tu­ni­ties make the com­bi­na­tion of insid­er and out­sider pop­u­la­tion which like­ly cre­ates the feel­ing of hard­ness and conflict.

T.H Marshall view of citizenship

T.H. Mar­shall a British soci­ol­o­gist has giv­en a new dimen­sion to the def­i­n­i­tion of cit­i­zen­ship. He defines cit­i­zen­ship as a “Sta­tus bestowed on those who are full mem­bers of a community.

All who pos­sess the sta­tus are equal with respect to the rights and duties with – which the sta­tus is endowed.”Equality is the key con­cept of the idea of cit­i­zen­ship as giv­en by T.H. Marshall.

Mar­shall sees cit­i­zen­ship in terms of three rights i.e. civ­il rights, polit­i­cal rights, and social rights who are nec­es­sary for a cit­i­zen to lead a dig­ni­fied life.

Importance of Citizenship

Cit­i­zen­ship is a dec­o­ra­tion, it is trust, it is recog­ni­tion of one’s abil­i­ty and capac­i­ties and on that basis, it is respectable involve­ment of the peo­ple in col­lec­tive affairs of the soci­ety and polit­i­cal community.

It ensures the inte­gra­tion of the var­i­ous hier­ar­chic socio-eco­nom­ic groups of the society. 

Thus it helps in build­ing the har­mo­nious rela­tions of the com­mu­ni­ty. Cit­i­zen­ship is not mere­ly a legal concept. 

It is also close­ly relat­ed to the ide­al con­cepts of equal­i­ty and rights. It helps the peo­ple in lead­ing a dig­ni­fied life.

Idea of Global Citizenship

Today, with new means of com­mu­ni­ca­tion such as the inter­net, tele­vi­sion, and cell phones and with the increas­ing inter­de­pen­dence of states on each oth­er and also with the pro­mo­tion of inter­na­tion­al­ism, the world is shrink­ing to a glob­al village.

In such a sce­nario, the nation­al bound­aries are dilut­ed. People’s approach has become glob­al and humane. 

We have now become more inter­na­tion­al. In such a sit­u­a­tion, the idea of glob­al cit­i­zen­ship is gain­ing ground with wide support.

Characteristics of Citizenship

• Cit­i­zen­ship is mem­ber­ship of the polit­i­cal community.
• Cit­i­zen­ship is a qualification.
• Cit­i­zen­ship is based on equal­i­ty and freedom.
• Cit­i­zen­ship involves rights and facilities.
• Cit­i­zen­ship also involves duties and obligations.
• Cit­i­zen­ship cre­ates trust and con­fi­dence among the mem­bers of the community.
• The con­tents and idea is expand­ing as per the demo­c­ra­t­ic development.