6 - ‘Hidden Citizens’ in 1940s and 1950s India and Pakistan

Summary

Chapter 6 explores issues connected with citizenship and belonging during the late 1940s and 1950s, and in particular focuses on the differentiated realities involved for particular marginalized groups – religious minorities, and economically disadvantaged peoples such as Dalits, tribal communities and haris (share-cropper peasants) – who were excluded, in a range of ways, from the ‘mainstream’ benefits of what being a citizen came to mean in both UP and Sindh during the early post-Independence years. Not only were certain communities excluded from typical frameworks of citizenship rights in postcolonial India and Pakistan but also the latter were sometimes established to marginalize them deliberately, requiring them to seek out alternative methods for lobbying government