India’s Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan recently informed the parliament that more than one hundred thousand Indians have renounced their citizenship.
Mr Murleedharan was replying to opposition leader Abdul Khaleque (INC) who has asked details of the number of people who had renounced their Indian citizenship since January 2015.
The following figures from January to October 2022 were presented: 131,489 people gave up their Indian citizenship in 2015, 141,603 in 2016, 133,049 in 2017, 134,561 in 2018, 144,017 in 2019, 85,256 in 2020, 163,370 in 2021 and 1,83,741 till 31 October 2022.
In 2021, 78,284 Indians became citizens of the USA; 23,533 of Australia; 21,597 of Canada; and 14,637 of the UK.
The Union minister further informed that the number of foreign nationals who had taken Indian citizenship was 93 in 2015, 153 in 2016, 175 in 2017, 129 in 2018, 113 in 2019, 27 in 2020, 42 in 2021 and 60 in 2022.
These numbers do not include citizens of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Mr Murleedharan also added that almost 32 million Indians or People of Indian origin live abroad.
