The politics of national identity and citizenship have emerged as central battlegrounds in 2026, reflecting deeper anxieties about demographic change, security, and cultural continuity. In India, Union Home Minister Amit Shah used a March public event to sharply criticize the opposition Congress party for what he termed the “politics of appeasement,” accusing it of denying citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan . Addressing the opposition directly, Shah declared, “Rahul Baba, protest as much as you want. We will grant citizenship; you cannot stop us,” framing the Citizenship Amendment Act as a fulfillment of religious minorities’ rightful claim to Indian belonging . The event, which saw 162 refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan receive citizenship certificates, illustrated how the politics of inclusion and exclusion continues to animate electoral mobilization.
In the United States, meanwhile, immigration and citizenship have become flashpoints in the run-up to November’s midterms. Recent polling indicates that voters increasingly view border security and immigration enforcement through the lens of economic anxiety, with inflation and cost-of-living concerns dominating electoral decision-making . Protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement tactics have spread across multiple states, what analysts describe as a “cross-regional, decentralized” movement that threatens to translate street-level discontent into electoral resistance against Republican incumbents . The convergence of cultural and economic grievances has created a volatile political cocktail, with President Trump’s push for voting legislation containing new citizenship verification requirements adding further fuel to partisan fires .
The globalization of identity politics extends well beyond India and America. Across Europe, the far right continues to consolidate electoral gains by exploiting “social grievances linked to cost of living, unemployment, overstretched social services, and anti-immigration sentiment” . In Africa, elections scheduled across multiple countries—including Somalia, Uganda, and South Sudan—carry significant risks of violence and repression, particularly where ethnic and religious identities map onto political competition . The Saferworld analysis warns that “the de-facto acceptance of state violence against local people by the international community” has become normalized, as “perceived state security and transactional alliances have increasingly become the primary goal over human security” . In this environment, the struggle over who belongs—and who decides—has become the defining political question of our time.