Justice for those without rights : 'illegal' migrants and marginalized citizens in India

Individuals at the margins of class, race, caste and gender hierarchy all over the globe struggle on an everyday basis to lay claim to citizenship rights. They are at once citizens and ‘not citizens’. The status of an ‘illegal’ foreigner in a country comes close to that of this set of citizens. In several large metropolises in India these groups of people inhabit the same slums and ghettos. Their inability to lay claim to citizenship rights either in their own country of origin or in India binds them in a similar jeopardy. This chapter focuses on two groups of people: the Bangladeshi woman prisoner who has no claim to rights and no way to establish legitimacy in India or Bangladesh; and the marginalized Indian citizen who is a citizen with or without documents. The chapter seeks to explore how these groups of people who lack citizenship rights may be brought under the arc of justice.