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Introduction Contemporary democratic states have mostly emerged out of liberal revolution with an idea of freedom and empowerment for the people. The idea of freedom and empowerment in democratic states has been informed by a notion of 'rights' which are guaranteed by the state, secured within a citizenship framework, protected from the state encroachment, and even applied against the state. This idea has however largely been defined within the conceptual vocabulary of universalism-of equal moral worth, of equal citizenship status, and of equal protection of the law, by the modern political theory. The universality of law and equal moral worth before the law were juxtaposed within the idea of citizenship for all which although implies an idea of the universality of citizenship but does not ensure the equal impact of law on all the individuals. The idea of neutrality that is embedded in the universalist idea of citizenship not only constrains the equal exercise of citizenship rights but even denies the opportunities for equal participation in the political processes for the minority communities against whom the power structures like religion, ethnicity, language, and caste may effectively operate. Therefore, what becomes important and interesting to ask is whether the rights of all the people are secured and protected, even of minorities? The renewed interest of political theorists in citizenship studies have highlighted new power structures which operate in a majority-minority framework, of which the culture remains the most important structure vying for recognition and pushing for a the shift in the universal citizenship framework from transcending the cultural particularity and differences to recognizing them. In the last two to three decades when the contemporary liberal democratic states have become increasingly multicultural, a wider shift has been allowed to be introduced in the polity of these states which not only allow a wider basis for the recognition of the minority claims but considers it more appropriate. As a result, a new school of theorists has come up who assume the citizenship framework to be culture and difference sensitive rather than difference-blind, popularly referred to as minority rights theorists or multicultural theorists.

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