Union, States and Citizenship

Part I of the Constitution is only four articles long, yet it answers the most basic question: what exactly is India, and who can change its map? Article 1 says, "India, that is Bharat, shall be a Union of States." It then says that the territory of India has three parts: the territories of the States, the Union Territories, and any other territory that may be acquired later. The States and Union Territories are listed in the First Schedule.

Why "Union" and not "Federation"? Dr Ambedkar explained two reasons in the Constituent Assembly. First, the Indian Union is not the result of an agreement among the States, so no State can ever walk out of it. Second, the States have no right to secede. A federation is a deal between partners; India is one country divided into units for administrative convenience. That is why the Union is often called an "indestructible Union of destructible States": Parliament can change the boundaries or even the names of States, but the Union itself cannot be broken.

The next two articles give Parliament the power to grow the Union and to redraw its internal map. Article 2 deals with territory that is not yet part of India: Parliament may, by law, admit into the Union or establish new States on such terms as it thinks fit. Sikkim is the classic example. It became an Associate State by the 35th Amendment (1974) and a full State by the 36th Amendment (1975). Article 3 deals with States that already exist inside India: Parliament may form a new State, increase or reduce the area of a State, alter its boundaries, or change its name.

How Article 3 works. A Bill under Article 3 can be introduced in Parliament only on the recommendation of the President. If it affects a State, the President refers it to that State's legislature to give its views within a fixed time. These views are not binding, and Parliament need not accept them. The Bill is then passed by a simple majority in each House, like an ordinary law. In Article 3, the word "State" also includes a Union Territory, so Parliament can create a Union Territory out of a State too, as it did with Ladakh in 2019.

Article 4 removes a possible worry. Laws made under Articles 2 and 3 are not treated as amendments of the Constitution under Article 368. They may change the First Schedule (the list of States) and the Fourth Schedule (Rajya Sabha seats) and carry supplementary provisions, yet they need no special majority and no ratification by the States. This is why the map of India could be redrawn so many times without a constitutional crisis.

At Independence, India's map was a patchwork: provinces of British India, hundreds of princely states, and a few French and Portuguese pockets. Sardar Patel and V. P. Menon brought the princely states into the Union, and in 1950 the Constitution grouped everything into Part A (former governors' provinces, 9), Part B (former princely states or unions, 8), Part C (chief commissioners' provinces and some princely states, 10) and Part D (the Andaman and Nicobar Islands). This arrangement had no logic of language or culture, and people soon began to demand States based on language.

The 1956 reorganisation was the big one. The 7th Amendment (1956) did two things: it ended the old A/B/C/D categories, and it created just two kinds of units, States and Union Territories. The six Union Territories were Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Manipur, Tripura, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and the Laccadive, Minicoy and Amindivi Islands (later Lakshadweep). Every later change, from Gujarat in 1960 to Telangana in 2014, was done by Parliament under Article 3.

A Union Territory (UT) is a unit of India that is administered directly by the Union, through the President. UTs exist for good reasons: some are too small to be States (Lakshadweep), some are strategic islands or border regions (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Ladakh), some are capitals shared by two States (Chandigarh), and some are old colonial pockets that kept their own cultural identity (Puducherry, Daman and Diu). The Constitution deals with them in Part VIII (Articles 239 to 241).

Three UTs have their own legislature and council of ministers: Delhi, Puducherry and Jammu and Kashmir. They are partial-State-like, but the Union keeps the final say. The rest are run by an Administrator (Lieutenant Governor in Andaman and Nicobar, Ladakh, Puducherry, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir; an Administrator in the others). Delhi is a special case: Article 239AA calls it the National Capital Territory (NCT), and its Assembly cannot make laws on public order, police and land.

Neighbouring States also need a forum to talk to each other. The States Reorganisation Act, 1956 created five Zonal Councils to promote cooperation among States in a zone. They are statutory bodies, not constitutional ones, and they are only advisory: they discuss common problems such as water, power, transport and border disputes. The Union Home Minister is the ex-officio Chairman of all five, and the Chief Ministers of the member States act as Vice-Chairman by rotation (one year each).

Who is an Indian? The Constitution answers this only for the moment it came into force, 26 January 1950, and leaves the rest to Parliament. Part II (Articles 5 to 11) tells us who became a citizen on that day and, in Article 11, hands Parliament the power to make all future rules. It does not define citizenship in general, and it does not say how citizenship is acquired or lost afterwards. That job was done by the Citizenship Act, 1955, which we study in the next topic.

India follows single citizenship: every Indian is a citizen of India only, whichever State they live in. There is no separate "State citizenship". This idea was borrowed from Britain. The United States, by contrast, has dual citizenship: a person is a citizen of the US and also of the State where they live. Single citizenship fits India because the Constitution wants to build one nation, so a person from Bihar and a person from Kerala have the same rights anywhere in the country. The only partial exceptions are things like domicile rules for State government jobs, which Parliament may allow under Article 16(3).

Why does citizenship matter? Some rights belong to citizens only, and not to foreigners: Article 15 (no discrimination), Article 16 (equal opportunity in public jobs), Article 19 (six freedoms), Articles 29 and 30 (cultural and educational rights); the right to vote (Article 326); and eligibility for the offices of President, Vice-President, Governor, Judges of the Supreme Court and High Courts, and Attorney General. Foreigners get the rest of the Fundamental Rights, such as Article 14 and Article 21. Citizenship itself is a Union subject: "Citizenship, naturalisation and aliens" is entry 17 of the Union List.

The law also separates citizens from aliens. An alien is a person who is not a citizen of India. Aliens are of two kinds: friendly aliens (citizens of countries with which India has normal relations) and enemy aliens (citizens of a country that is at war with India). Enemy aliens enjoy fewer rights; for example, the protection against arrest and detention in Article 22 is not available to them.

Article 11 gave Parliament the power, and in 1955 it used it by passing the Citizenship Act, 1955. This Act tells us how a person can become an Indian citizen after 26 January 1950, and how a citizen can cease to be one. The Act has been amended several times; the main amendments are in the next topic. Here, we first learn the permanent skeleton: five ways to gain and three ways to lose citizenship.

Citizenship can end in three ways: by renunciation (the citizen gives it up), by termination (it ends automatically when the citizen takes another country's citizenship), and by deprivation (the Central Government takes it away). Notice that only the third is forced upon the person by the State.

Parliament has changed the Citizenship Act again and again to answer problems of its time: illegal migration in Assam, the Indian diaspora, and refugees from neighbouring countries. If you remember the problem behind each amendment, the year and the content will follow.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA) changed the definition of "illegal migrant". It says that Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan who entered India on or before 31 December 2014 will not be treated as illegal migrants. For them, the naturalisation residence requirement falls from 11 years to 5 years. Muslims are not among the listed communities, and the law is only for those three countries. The Act does not apply to the tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura covered by the Sixth Schedule, or to areas under the Inner Line Permit system. The Rules to implement the Act were notified in March 2024; challenges to the Act were before the Supreme Court as of 2025.

Finally, the Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) card. It is for people of Indian origin who live abroad and hold a foreign passport. It is not citizenship and not dual citizenship. Think of it as a lifelong, multiple-entry visa with extra economic privileges. OCI holders cannot vote, cannot hold constitutional posts such as President, Vice-President, or Judge of the Supreme Court or a High Court, and cannot buy agricultural or plantation land. Persons whose country is Pakistan or Bangladesh are not eligible. On 9 January the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas is observed, marking Mahatma Gandhi's return from South Africa in 1915.