A "stateless" man, born in India but not considered Indian, battles for citizenship. Learn about his personal journey and the comp...
A "stateless" man, born in India but not considered Indian, battles for citizenship. Learn about his personal journey and the complexities of his legal situation. Bahison Ravindran claims he has always thought of himself as Indian.
The 34-year-old software engineer was born to Sri Lankan refugee parents in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. He had educated and worked there and had many government-issued identification documents, such as an Indian passport.
But in April, he got a nasty awakening when police detained him and said his passport was not genuine.
Officials stated he was not an Indian "citizen by birth" since both of his parents were Sri Lankans who fled to India in 1990 because of the civil strife there.
For a long time, anybody born in India could become an Indian citizen. But in 1987, the law changed such that a kid born after July 1 of that year had to have at least one parent who was an Indian citizen.
Last week, Mr. Ravindran, who was born in 1991 just a few months after his parents moved to India, told the Madras High Court in Chennai that he didn't know about the restriction and had never disguised his origin from the authorities.
He also told the court that as soon as he found out that "citizenship by birth" wasn't automatic in India, he sought for "citizenship through naturalization" right away.
But for now, he is "stateless."
His particular circumstance brings attention to the problems faced by thousands of Tamil refugees from Sri Lanka who fled the island nation during its protracted conflict in the 1980s.
The Tamil Nadu government says that more than 90,000 of them dwell in the southern state, both in refugee camps and outside of them.
Because of historical links, language and culture commonalities, and being close to Sri Lanka, many people picked the state as a safe place to stay.
And today there are more than 22,000 people like Mr. Ravindran who were born in India after 1987 to Tamil parents from Sri Lanka.
But their citizenship status is still up in the air decades later.
One issue is because India doesn't ratify the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol and sees Sri Lankan refugees as unlawful immigrants.
The 2019 Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) speeds up applications from persecuted non-Muslim minorities from India's neighboring nations. It also leaves out Tamils from Sri Lanka.
The status of Sri Lankan Tamils is a hot topic in the state, and several political parties have promised to aid them with their citizenship problems. But for most people, it's still a long way off.
In 2022, India finally gave citizenship to the first Sri Lankan Tamil. K. Nalini was born a year before the 1987 rule that said at least one parent had to be Indian. Since then, at least 13 additional Tamils have been given citizenship.
Mr. Ravindran expects that his case will be heard shortly. He promises to be loyal to India and swears he would never go back to Sri Lanka.
He told the BBC lately that he had only been to the island nation once, in September 2024, to marry a Sri Lankan lady.
He adds that things went wrong after he filed for a new passport this year that included his wife's name.
Lawyer Sandesh Saravanan, who is defending Mr. Ravindran in court, told the BBC that the police checked his Sri Lankan ancestry and gave him a new passport.
But he added that the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), which is in charge of registering foreigners in India, later told the police where his parents were from.
Last month, Mr. Ravindran was arrested on allegations of cheating, forgery, and fraudulently carrying an Indian passport. He spent 15 days in jail before being released on bond.
He went to the Madras High Court last week because he was afraid of more punishment. The court told the authorities not to do anything forceful until the next hearing on October 8. Mr. Ravindran told the BBC, "No one has ever told me I wasn't Indian in all these years."
"I couldn't believe it when someone told me for the first time that I am a 'stateless person.'"
And now Mr. Ravindran is hoping that the court will agree with him.