| In India, internal migration among multiethnic states raises many of the same citizenship issues as international migration does in the West. Many of India's states are territorial homelands for the country's various cultural and linguistic groups, forming a federal system that accommodates minorities by offering opportunities for self-determination. In this system, large-scale internal migration points to a particular irony of Indian politics: as the national government strives to accommodate minority nationalisms through the creation of new states, minorities often leave these areas and settle elsewhere within India. All have juridical Indian citizenship and are entitled to rights such as food rations, shelter and suffrage. However, in practice, many face diminished citizenship rights in the locality in which they have settled.;This dissertation compares the politics of internal migration in Mumbai and Kolkata, investigating how Indian multicultural policies are practiced in two different local political systems given the presence of migrants who are minorities, and what factors explain each system's varied outcomes. I argue that national multicultural policies, particularly the Indian laws that protect the country's linguistic minorities often unexpectedly engender local practices that deny citizenship rights to legal citizens based on their status as migrants.;My research engages with several theoretical approaches within political science. It contributes to scholarship on the theory and practice of citizenship, elaborating the distinctions between juridical national political membership and local-level practices and outcomes. The project also contributes to our understanding of citizenship regimes. Specifically, it shows the limits of legal protection, which is necessary but not sufficient for guaranteeing political rights to minorities and will offer insight into how groups, even when disadvantaged, act to secure those rights. |
