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Abstract
When Afghans started fleeing abroad in the aftermath of the Saur Revolution of April 1978, Pakistan and Iran were the main countries of destination, but some Afghans also fled to India. This article offers new insights into one under-studied aspect of Indo-Afghan relations: population movements. What place have Afghan refugees occupied in Indo-Afghan relations (both formal and informal) from the Saur Revolution to the present? This article examines the specific situation of Afghan refugees in India, the general context of Indo-Afghan relations and India's ad hoc policy towards Afghan refugees, which all help explain the place occupied by Afghan refugees in Indo-Afghan relations.
Notes
1 See < http://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/page?page = 49e486eb6andsubmit = GO#>. The category of ‘refugees’ also includes people in a refugee-like situation whose status has not yet been verified. Asylum-seekers are those people whose application for asylum or refugee status is pending at any stage in the procedure.
2 These interviews are part of a larger project to study Indian policies towards various refugee groups. Afghans considered here regard themselves as refugees, but can belong to any of the following legal categories: refugee, asylum-seeker, rejected asylum-seeker and recently naturalized refugee. This is a qualitative survey based on an open-ended questionnaire that often led to more personal interviews. Fieldwork was conducted in New Delhi in the neighbourhoods of Lajpat Nagar and Malviya Nagar, where most of the Afghan Muslims stay or work, and in Mahavir Nagar, New Mahavir Nagar and Tilak Nagar, where the majority of the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs are to be found. This research has no pretension to either exhaustiveness or representativeness of the Afghan refugee population in India. That said, I have tried to keep some balance between the two distinct groups made up of Afghan refugees of Muslim faith (17 interviews) and Afghan refugees of Hindu and Sikh faiths (13 interviews). It also happens that I have a wide spectrum of informants in terms of age (from 16 to 92), place of origin in Afghanistan (Bamyan, Jalalabad, Kabul, Kandahar, Laghman, Mazar and Sultanpur), and ethnic origin of Afghan Muslims (Pashtun and Hazara). It was, however, impossible to get the gender balance right (six women interviewed compared with 24 men). All 30 interviews but one were held with the help of an Afghan translator who spoke Dari, Pashto and Hindi. The answers appear here in proper English. All names have been changed.
8 According to the UNHCR, in 2005 more than 8000 Afghan refugees in India—close to 88 per cent of the Afghan refugee population in the country—were of Hindu or Sikh faith; in 2007, there were 9200 Afghan refugees in India, among whom 8500 were Hindus and Sikhs (Baujard Citation2009; Naujoks Citation2009). See also the following UNHCR News Stories: ‘Afghan refugees in search of Indian identity’ (19 May 2005, < http://www.unhcr.org/428c967e4.html>); ‘Afghan minority seeks home in India’ (13 December 2007, < http://www.unhcr.org/4761579f4.html>).
9 See, for instance, the explanation given by Manohar Singh, founding member of the Khalsa Diwan Welfare Society for Afghan Hindus and Sikhs in New Delhi, in ‘Afghan minority seeks home in India’, News Stories, UNHCR, 13 December 2007, < http://www.unhcr.org/4761579f4.html>.
10 Interviews with India-based Afghanistan specialists Gulshan Sachdeva (19 December 2011) and Ambrish Dhaka, (19 December 2011).
11 Hinduism and Sikhism are two religions that are primarily found in India, but most of the Afghan refugees I met consider the Hindu or Sikh faith to be part of a larger ethnic identity.
12 For example, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Declaration on Territorial Asylum, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
13 India signed the Bangkok Principles in 1966, like most South Asian countries at the time. Though not binding, these principles are similar in spirit to the provisions contained in the 1951 Geneva Convention and the 1967 Additional Protocol. See < http://www.aalco.int/Final%20text%20of%20Bangkok%20Principles.pdf>.
14 Recent examples of private initiatives to help refugees in India include that taken by the student chapter of Students in Free Enterprise (SIFE) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)—Delhi to work with the Burmese community in New Delhi. See ‘IIT students’ initiative for Burmese refugees', The Hindu, 5 June 2011. There are three small non-governmental organizations cum research centres in India that try to improve the situation of refugees in India through various means, such as legal help and awareness-raising campaigns: the Public Interest Legal Support and Research Centre (PILSARC), the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre (SAHRDC) and the Calcutta Research Group (CRG). For more information on their various activities, see < http://pilsarc.org/>, < http://www.hrdc.net/sahrdc/about.htm> and < http://www.mcrg.ac.in/>.
15 The Refugees and Asylum Seekers (Protection) Bill, 2006: a revised proposal for the Model National Law on Refugee Protection (2006) (PILSARC, New Delhi).
17 ‘UNHCR distributes pioneering smart ID cards to refugees in India’, News Stories, UNHCR, 17 August 2011, < http://www.unhcr.org/4e4bd1506.html>.
19 ‘UNHCR and India hold key meeting to strengthen cooperation’, News Stories, UNHCR, 31 January 2008, < http://www.unhcr.org/47a204ba2.html>.
20 ‘Afghan refugees in search of Indian identity’, News Stories, UNHCR, 19 May 2005, < http://www.unhcr.org/428c967e4.html>; ‘Afghan refugees in India become Indian, at last’, News Stories, UNHCR, 10 March 2006, < http://www.unhcr.org/441190254.html>.
21 ‘Afghan refugees worried about their future’, The Hindu, 15 May 2007; ‘Leaving India as Indian-Afghanis’, The Hindu, 21 June 2008; ‘Kerala police detain 3 Afghans’, The Hindu, 8 August 2008; ‘Travel agent held offering bribe’, The Hindu, 18 August 2008; ‘Refugees in Delhi: “Fewer chances of subsistence jobs”’, Indian Express, 18 October 2008; ‘Afghan national arrested’, The Hindu, 20 May 2009; ‘Delay in Indian citizenship affecting Afghan refugees’, The Hindu, 20 June 2009.
22 Interviews with Gulshan Sachdeva (19 December 2011), Ambrish Dhaka (19 December 2011), Ashok K Behuria (20 December 2011), Vishal Chandra (20 December 2011) and D Suba Chandran (9 January 2012).
23 Interview with D Suba Chandran (9 January 2012).
24 For more information on the Afghanistan–India–Pakistan Trialogue, see < http://www.delhipolicygroup.com/afgan.html>.
25 To these spillover effects specifically induced by refugee flows, one can also add the general costs of immigration in social, political, cultural and economic terms which developing countries may simultaneously be facing (see for example Weiner Citation1990).
26 India was the only country not belonging to the Soviet camp to adopt officially a pro-Soviet line on the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan, prompting analysts to speak of very good Indo-Soviet relations, even though India's initial endorsement of the Soviet intervention in Afghanistan was later counter-balanced by profound disagreement over the extended occupation of Afghanistan (Horn Citation1983; Ministry of External Affairs, Annual Report, 1979–1980, < http://mealib.nic.in>).
27 Interview with Vishal Chandra (20 December 2011).
28 Ministry of External Affairs, Annual Report, 2001–2002.
29 See Ministry of External Affairs, Annual Report, 1979–1980 to 2007–2008.
30 Interview with D Suba Chandran (9 January 2012).