Gandhinagar: As many as 22,300 persons from Gujarat surrendered their citizenship of India by handing over their passports during the 2014 to 2022 period.

As per the details shared by the Government of India in reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, the highest 60,414 people from Delhi surrendered their passports during this period, followed by 28,117 in Punjab, 22,300 in Gujarat, 18,610 in Goa, and 17,171 in Maharashtra.

Though the population of Punjab is around half compared to that of Gujarat, the number of persons surrendering their passports of India after getting citizenship from other countries is higher than in Gujarat.

Other places with high numbers of passports being surrendered included Goa (18,610) Kerala (16,247), Tamil Nadu (14,046), Karnataka (10,245), Andhra Pradesh (9,235), Telangana (7,256), Daman and Diu (4,722) and Rajasthan (3,940).

As per the figures for 2019-2022 shared by the Govt of India in the same reply, the highest number of 13,044 persons shifted to the United States of America, followed by 7,472 to Canada, 1,711 to U.K. 1686 to Australia, and 190 to New Zealand.

Other countries where Indians had surrendered their passports included Austria, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, and Sweden.

A total of 122,819 Indian renounced their citizenship in 2011, followed by 120,923 in 2012, 131,405 in 2013, 129,328 in 2014, 131,489 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 225,620 in 2022.

Between 2018 and June 2023, the countries where notable numbers of Indians renounced their citizenship were the US (328,619), Canada (161,917), Australia (131,883), the UK (83,468), Italy (23,817), New Zealand (23,088), Germany (13,363), Singapore (13,211), the Netherlands (8,642), Sweden (8,531), Spain (7,282), and Ireland (3840).