State Gender Community-Citizenship in Contemporary India

Citizenship in Contemporary India THIS paper engages with some of the debates taking place globally around notions of citizenship, using as the point of entry a particular configuration of state, community and gender in India. The interconnections among these three terms could help to make sense of diverse strands of Indian politics depending on the key concept which is used to animate them. However, the political conjuncture at this moment is such that the concept which invariably acts as the master key is that of 'secularism' and its introduction into the discussion immediately maps the three terms on to the terrain of the Uniform Civil Code (UCC). In other words, through the lens of secularism, the issue is delimited to that of the 'secular' Indian state's policy towards 'religious' communities. Gender is the invisible value in this configuration, the 'supplement' in the double sense suggested by Derrida that which appears to be merely an addition, an optional extra; but also, that which supplements, or fulfils a lack [Derrida