What happens if one day you wake up and suddenly, an announcement is made that you are no longer a citizen of your country. You would probably be speechless. Well, strictly speaking, only the four million people in India who have just been stripped of their citizenship will know how it feels to suddenly lose one's citizenship.
The news is that about 4 million people who live in the Indian border state of Assam have been excluded from a draft list of citizens. Knowing that the move could lead to unrest, the state government has wisely put stringent security measures in place.
However, Assam's chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, told Indian media that those who found themselves stateless overnight should not worry, that they would be given a chance to prove their claim of citizenship. It is not known if these assurances will allay the fears of those affected.
It is a historical fact that hundreds of thousands of people fled to India during Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan in the early 1970s. Most of these people settled in Assam, which has a near-165-mile (270km) border with Bangladesh.
The purpose of the list then is to identify every resident who can demonstrate roots in the state before March 1971. The mammoth three-year-long exercise to prove the identities of 33 million people across the hills, valleys and plains of this verdant state began two years ago. It was overseen by the supreme court.
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