Grassroots Mobilization of ‘Citizenship Right’ of the Bihari Minority in Bangladesh

Opportunities, Constraints and Collaboration

Abstract

The Bihari minority in Bangladesh has consistently demanded the substantive „right to citizenship‟, which has been steadfastly rejected because of long-standing political and historical disputes over Bangladesh‟s independence. As a result, the community‟s continued marginalization and denial of basic requirements has reached a breaking point, necessitating a major intervention to guarantee them a legitimate right to citizenship in Bangladesh. In response to this, a group led by the young people in this Urdu-speaking community has attempted to prove their citizenship claim through legal mobilization, demonstrating a bottom-up approach to the realization of human rights, even though workable answers to this issue are yet to be found. Hence, this essay aims to investigate the process of grassroots legal mobilization experience of this particular group, paying specific attention to their legal and political aspirations, obstacles encountered, and future prospects for these efforts.