According to Bahison Ravindran, he always thought he was Indian.
The 34-year-old software developer, who was born to Sri Lankan refugees in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, had educated and worked there and possessed a number of official credentials, including an Indian passport.
However, he was rudely shocked in April when he was arrested by authorities on the grounds that his passport was invalid.
According to authorities, he was not an Indian “citizen by birth” because both of his parents were Sri Lankans who had fled to India in 1990 during the country’s civil conflict.
Anyone born in India was eligible for Indian citizenship for a long time, but a 1987 legislation change mandated that a kid born after July 1st of that year must have at least one Indian citizen parent.
