When Citizens Move

Bihar’s Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls, which flagged sixty lakh names for deletion, poses a severe threat to internal migrants. This article argues the SIR is not a mere administrative clean-up but a de facto citizenship test, functioning as an "NRC by proxy" that punishes economic mobility. By shifting the burden of proof onto the voter, the exercise transforms administrative absence into political exclusion, rendering mobile citizens suspect. Integrating critiques with the lived realities of migrants, the paper calls for a rethinking of electoral citizenship to protect vulnerable workers.

Citizenship · De facto · Politics · Rendering (computer graphics) · Anthropological Studies and Insights · South Asian Studies and Conflicts · South Asian Studies and Diaspora