Debating Citizenship and Seeking Political Solidarity in Mumbai’s Urban Margins

This article explores how the meaning of citizenship is articulated and debated in the aftermath of the legal prohibition of the slaughter of cow progeny and making the sale or possession of beef a punishable offense in the western Indian state of Maharashtra. The prohibition illuminated contradictions between the cultural roots of nationalism as opposed to democratic citizenship and how the two are increasingly in friction with the rising popularity of the Hindu right. Public action and debate in the aftermath of the beef ban (as it came to be popularly known) bestowed multiple conceptions of citizenship in the light of profound social divisions providing for the space to seek political solidarity with other marginalized groups. Here, I suggest that paying attention to the subtler nuances of political action through a framework of solidarity as opposed to that of resistance can bring to light ways in which citizenship is debated and shaped in urban India.