Post by Saifuddin Patel

Dear Connections, Delighted to share that my paper titled ‘Open Secret of the Term Illegal Migrants and Its Manifest Dangers on Citizenship in India’ is published in the Manchester Journal of Transnational Islamic Law & Practice (Scopus Q2) (Volume 21, Issue 3, 2025). The paper drawing on the established scholarship and archival research from Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali Zamindar, Niraja Gopal Jayal and Abhinav Chandrachud, explicates how the term ‘migrant’, which generally should not have a religious taint, developed over time to become ‘illegal migrants’, entailing a special negative category only reserved for Muslims. The religious taint is perceptible again in the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and the manifest dangers (administrative and jurisprudential) of the obfuscating term ‘illegal migrants’ pose serious challenges. Contributing to the foregoing debate on illegal migrants, I argue that there are two manifest dangers in the new legislation. First, illegal migration is now no longer an issue specific to one state. Any person, living in any part of India, may be categorised as an illegal migrant (primarily based on their religious identity) and made vulnerable to the grievous consequences of deportation or statelessness. Second, as Citizenship Rules suggest, no one document is proof of Indian citizenship. A person may be declared an illegal migrant despite having both factum and intention to stay in India, (essentials for citizenship based on judicial interpretation) jeopardising not just their citizenship and rights but also those of the forthcoming generations. The link to the article: https://lnkd.in/dCuF6ppR I would like to thank Dr. Ahmad Ghouri and Prof. Mohammad Umar for their patient valuable editorial support, without which, this publication was almost impossible. Also, thanks is due to Dr. Nizamuddin Ahmad Siddiqui for pushing me to write on this topic and his scholarly inputs. Lastly, many thanks to BITS Law School, Mumbai for fostering an environment that makes scholarly writing not only conducive but a pleasurable experience.