1.6 Million Indians Renounced Citizenship Since 2011

More than 1.6 million Indians have renounced their citizenship since 2011, including 183,741 this year, minister of state for external affairs V Muraleedharan told the Lok Sabha on Friday.

Muraleedharan provided the figure in a written reply to a question from Congress lawmaker Abdul Khaleque, who sought details of the number of people who renounced their Indian citizenship since January 2015.

Citing information available with the external affairs ministry, Muraleedharan said 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 October 31 this year.

For reference purposes, he said, the figure was 1,22,819 for 2011, 120,923 for 2012, 131,405 for 2013 and 129,328 for 2014.

According to data provided by the minister , the total number of Indians who have given up their Indian citizenship since 2011 adds up to 1.6 million people.

To Khaleque's request for an estimate of the wealth taken away from India by those who renounce their citizenship, Muraleedharan said the external affairs ministry does not maintain the data.