Hukou and Caste : The Right to Have Rights in Modern India and China

Hannah Arendt's famous use of ‘The Right to Have Rights' is well studied and expanded by various scholars. In this paper, authors make an attempt to expand this concept to apply this concept to the processes of policy enactment. Participation in the policy processes is proportionately arranged with the scheme of “the right to have rights” for different groups in a State. The right to have rights is the right to belong to a community. The first right in the phrase refers the right to inclusion, while the second right refers to further rights that comes when a person is included. Paper identifies that Hukou (determining spatial mobility) in China and Caste (determining social mobility) in India act as institutions of inclusion and thus determine ‘the right to have rights'. Both these institutions provide a framework to comparatively examine how the State recognizes social rights of specific groups. What has been the orientation of different political regimes to make changes to Hukou and Caste system? We answer these questions by analyzing comparative citizenship status of those who hold Hukou and those who does not hold Hukou in a city (in China) and those who possess higher caste identity and lower caste identity in India. The paper begins with two cases to demonstrate what Hukou and Caste is. Then, paper elaborates how these institutions recognize (or not) citizenship principles to integrate members to include them in the policy processes. The review shows two types of responses to these institutions from the political regimes. In China, the political regime, in a context of limited political competition, that is increasingly seeking its legitimacy from neo-liberal economic policies, aims to reform Hukou. On the other hand, in India, where political competition is at a higher level due to vibrant democracy, Caste is emerging as social differentiation and as a route towards inclusion of citizens in the policy processes