According to the data, the highest number of people gave up their Indian citizenship in 2019, whereas the lowest did in 2020. The latter’s low rate can be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic. 2021 saw the steepest spike in Indians giving up their citizenship as worldwide travel and outdoor restrictions started to ease.
About 40% of the citizenship renunciation requests come from the United States, followed by Australia and Canada, which amount to a chunk of around 30% of such requests.
Over six lakh Indians have given up their citizenship in the past five years, Union Minister of State for Home Nityanand Rai informed the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. This data was supported the information available with the Ministry of External Affairs.
In fact, according to data available with the government, Pakistani and Bangladeshi nationals had formed the bulk of over 21,211 foreigners who acquired Indian citizenship in the past 10 years (till 2020)
Bangladesh topped the list with 15,176 people, followed by 4,085 Pakistanis, who became Indian citizen between 2011 and March 2020.
The high numbers of Bangladeshis as compared to individuals from Pakistan was due to India granting citizenship to 14,864 Bangladesh nationals following the signing of the Land Boundary Agreement between India and Bangladesh, the data stated.
Under the swap agreement signed in June 2015, 111 enclaves spanning across 17,160.63 acres was transferred by India to Bangladesh, while India got 51 enclaves and around 7,110.02 acres from Dhaka.
