INDIA AND . . . . . . . . . COMMONWEALTH 367
third defect. Does the proposal make any change in this system ? As I see it, it makes no change. The Dominions will still continue to have the same right of defining who is and who is not their citizen which have today and will in future as in the past continue to exclude Indians resident in them from the rights of citizenship.
- Thus India does not stand to gain or lose from this change vis-a-vis the Dominions. But India need not consider the case of the other Dominions for it may be taken for granted that they will never confer their citizenship on Indians and India, therefore, will never be called upon to admit them to her citizenship. But the case of India and United Kingdom is different. For under her Nationality Act she is prepared to recognize Indians as her citizens. She expects India to recognize her nationals to be the citizens of India. Can India afford to do so ? I am sure India cannot. The reason is obvious. Once a common citizenship is established between India and Great Britain, we shall not be able to discriminate between British and Indian for both will be citizens. We shall be going back to the provisions contained in sections 111 to 121 of the old Government of India Act,
1935, which prevented any such discrimination between British and Indian citizens, from which we have been trying to escape. It is, therefore, quite clear that Commonwealth citizenship is a dangerous method of making India a member of the Commonwealth.
- Apart from the dangers involved in the proposal, can India accept it as a link between herself and the Commonwealth consistently with the provisions contained in the Draft Constitution to which I have already made a reference ? This solution of having a Commonwealth citizenship is recommended on the ground that it avoids reference to the King and this enables even Republics to remain members of the Commonwealth. But does it ? To dertermine this issue one must know what is meant by a Commonwealth citizen. Now citizenship is a matter of rights and duties. If a question is asked what are the rights of a citizen of a Commonwealth, one can easily answer it. The rights of a citizen of a Commonwealth are those that are conferred upon him by the