‘No Afghan Refugees in India’: Refugees and Cold War Politics in the 1980s

Abstract

This article locates the Government of India’s refusal to grant refugee status to Afghans in Delhi in the aftermath of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 within the Cold War politics of the era. I trace this history through internal communications of the Ministry of External Affairs of the Government of India from 1979 to 1983. I argue that the Indian government’s response to Afghan arrivals was shaped by geopolitical and diplomatic contingencies rather than humanitarian ones. I also examine the intertwined history of Afghan refugees and the establishment of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees’ office in Delhi, India.

Keywords:

• Afghan refugees
• Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019
• Cold War
• Government of India
• Ministry of External Affairs
• UNDP
• UNHCR

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the two anonymous South Asia reviewers who provided substantial critical feedback on the first draft of the paper and gave me valuable ideas on how to theorise the important archival material that I had found. I would also like to thank the archivists and staff at the National Archives of India, Delhi, who helped me locate this material. Dr. Archana Venkatesh (Clemson University) provided valuable feedback on an early draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. ‘Extracts from File no. 18016/127/78 F 5 Regarding Grant Of Refugee Status to Afghan National’, 1978, File no. U2/352/22/80, National Archives of India, Delhi (henceforth, NAI). All materials from the NAI referenced in this article are compiled in three volumes in File no. U2/352/22/80 in the Ministry of External Affairs section.

2. Memo from Pak-Iraf Division, 1978, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

3. Memo from Nigam Prakash, 31 May 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

4. Response from K. Mahadevan, 8 June 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

5. The Protocol relating to the status of refugees which expanded the scope of the Refugee Convention of 1951 came into effect in 1967.

6. The Non-Aligned Movement was a forum of 120 developing nations formed in 1961, brought together by their commitment to remain neutral and not align with any superpower bloc.

7. Ria Kapoor, ‘Nehru’s Non-Alignment Dilemma: Tibetan Refugees in India’, in South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies, Vol. 42, no. 4 (July 2019), pp. 675–93 [678].

8. Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947–2000 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), p. 24.

9. Ibid., p. 43.

10. Ibid., p. 27.

11. Urvashi Butalia, The Other Side of Silence: Voices from the Partition of India (Gurgaon: Penguin Random House India, 1998), p. 3.

12. UNC Division’s summary of UN conventions, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

13. Samaddar, Refugees and the State, p. 27.

14. Gil Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics: A Perilous Path (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 57.

15. Ibid.

16. Ibid., p. 91.

17. Ibid., p. 96.

18. Ibid., p. 110.

19. Kapoor, ‘Nehru’s Non-Alignment Dilemma’, p. 675.

20. There are conflicting reports about the dates and nature of the UNHCR’s work in India relating to Tibetan refugees. Some scholars report 1964 to 1969 as the dates that the UNHCR operated in Delhi with the Tibetans, others state that 1969 was when it set up its office.

21. K.C. Saha, ‘The Genocide of 1971 and the Refugee Influx in the East’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum Care in India, 1947–2000 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 211–48.

22. Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics, p. 159.

23. Saha, ‘The Genocide of 1971 and the Refugee Influx in the East’, pp. 240–1.

24. Loescher, The UNHCR and World Politics, p. 159.

25. Pia Oberoi, ‘Developments: Regional Initiatives on Refugee Protection in South Asia’, in International Journal of Refugee Law, Vol. XI, no. 1 (Jan. 1999), pp. 193–201 [193].

26. Miloon Kothari, ‘Remembering India’s Contributions to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights’, The Wire (20 Dec. 2018) [https://thewire.in/rights/indias-important-contributions-to-the-universal-declaration-of-human-rights, accessed 20 June 2020].

27. Minutes of meeting between Chinmaya Gharekhan, Erling Dessau and Shamshul Bari on 30 Oct. 1980, UN and Conference Division, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

28. ‘Afghanistan’s Refugees: Forty Years of Dispossession’, Amnesty International (20 June 2019) [https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2019/06/afghanistan-refugees-forty-years/, accessed 6 July 2020].

29. Minutes of meeting between Gharekhan, Dessau and Bari on 30 Oct. 1980.

30. Ibid.

31. ‘What is a Refugee?’, UNHCR [https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/what-is-a-refugee.html, accessed 1 June 2020].

32. Sarbani Sen, ‘Paradoxes of the International Regime of Care: The Role of UNHCR in India’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947–2000 (New Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp. 396–442 [398].

33. ‘India in the Mid-1980s: Goals and Challenges’, Director of Central Intelligence (14 Jan. 1983) [https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP86T00302R000300520006-9.pdf, accessed 20 June 2020], p. 15.

34. ‘Afghanistan’s Refugees’.

35. Letter from Erling Dessau to Chinmaya Gharekhan, 3 Nov. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

36. Memo from Pak-Iraf Division, 5 Nov. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

37. Response from Swashpawan Singh, 24 Nov. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

38. Ibid.

39. Oberoi, ‘Regional Initiatives on Refugee Protection in South Asia’, p. 193.

40. Many scholars trace the beginning of Cold War politics in the region to the United States’ military and economic support for Pakistan, beginning in 1954. US aid to Pakistan, despite India’s objection, fractured the Indo–US relationship for many decades: see Robert J. McMahon, ‘United States Cold War Strategy in South Asia: Making a Military Commitment to Pakistan, 1947–1954’, in The Journal of American History, Vol. 75, no. 3 (1988), pp. 812–40.

41. Ramesh Thakur, ‘The Impact of the Soviet Collapse on Military Relations with India’, in Europe–Asia Studies, Vol. 45, no. 5 (1993), pp. 831–50.

42. Avinash Paliwal, ‘India’s Taliban Dilemma: To Contain or to Engage?’, in Journal of Strategic Studies, Vol. 40, nos. 1–2 (2017), pp. 35–67.

43. Letter from Jan Huyser to Chinmaya Gharekhan, 28 Nov. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

44. Ibid.

45. Chinmaya Gharekhan to joint secretary (Pakistan-Iraf), 28 Jan. 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

46. Cited in letter from R.N. Mulye to A.P. Venkateshwaran, 8 July 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

47. Arvind Paliwal, My Enemy’s Enemy: India in Afghanistan from the Soviet Invasion to the US Withdrawal (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017), p. 56.

48. Manu Bhagavan, India and the Cold War: New Cold War History (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2019), p. 7.

49. Ibid., p. 50; at the time of the Soviet invasion, India was under an interim government headed by Charan Singh, who issued a statement expressing concern at the military intervention in Afghanistan.

50. Ibid., p. 52.

51. Ibid., p. 50. See also Partha S. Ghosh and Rajaram Panda, ‘Domestic Support for Mrs. Gandhi’s Afghan Policy: The Soviet Factor in Indian Politics’, in Asian Survey, Vol. 23, no. 3 (1983), pp. 261–79.

52. Bhagavan, India and the Cold War, p. 1.

53. Ibid., p. 56.

54. ‘PM Fears Afghanistan Situation May Escalate’, Indian Express (21 Jan. 1980) [https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/forty-years-ago-january-21-1980-pm-on-afghanistan-6226829/, accessed 1 Aug. 2021].

55. I.K. Gujral, ‘Oral History: India’s Response to the Soviet Military Intervention in Afghanistan’, Indian Foreign Affairs Journal, Vol. 1, no. 1 (2006), pp. 123–31 [128].

56. Ibid.

57. Arundhati Roy, The Soviet Intervention in Afghanistan: Causes, Consequences and India’s Response (New Delhi: Associated Publishing House, 1987), p. 61.

58. Ibid.

59. Shaista Wahab and Barry Youngerman, A Brief History of Afghanistan (New York: Infobase Publishing, 2007), p. 157.

60. Chinmaya Gharekhan, Summary of meeting with Sampat Kumar, 23 Feb. 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

61. Memo from S.K. Singh, 27 July 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

62. Chinmaya Gharekhan to joint secretary (Pak-Iraf), 1 Nov. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

63. Memo from S.K. Singh, 27 July 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

64. Chinmaya Gharekhan, Summary of meeting with Sampat Kumar, 23 Feb 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

65. Ibid.

66. Ibid.

67. Memo from R.N. Mulye, 10 April 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

68. ‘Afghans Push Up Rents in Capital’, The Times of India (19 June 1981), File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

69. Memo by R.N. Mulye, 15 June 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

70. Minutes of meeting between Gharekhan, Dessau and Bari on 30 Oct. 1980.

71. Memo by director, UN (Political) Division, 29 Sept. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

72. ‘Young Afghans Hold Embassy in New Delhi Briefly’, The New York Times (2 Jan. 1980) [https://search.proquest.com/docview/121155284/abstract/7CBF36EB7CF64F1CPQ/1, accessed 2 Jan. 2020].

73. ‘Afghan Refugees in India Protest against Soviet’, The New York Times (28 April 1981) [www.nytimes.com/1981/04/28/world/around-the-world-afghan-refugees-in-india-protest-against-soviet.html, accessed 4 Jan. 2020].

74. Sampath Kumar told Chinmaya Gharekhan in February 1981 that one thousand Afghans were receiving a subsistence allowance from the UNHCR.

75. Memo by R.D. Sathe, 1 July 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

76. Ibid.

77. ‘UNHCR Activities in India’, United Nations (Economic) Division, 27 July 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

78. Memo from Santosh Kumar, 28 July 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

79. Paliwal, My Enemy’s Enemy, p. 52.

80. Memo from S.K. Lambah, 17 Nov. 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

81. Ibid.

82. Letter from Savitri Kunadi to Shyam Saran, 21 Dec. 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.; and Letter from A.J.F. Simmance to R.N. Mulye, 20 Jan. 1983, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

83. Memo from Sushil Dubey, 30 Oct. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

84. Telegram from A.P. Venkateshwaran to J.N. Dixit, 15 Dec. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

85. Letter from Chinmaya Gharekhan to A.P. Venkateshwaran, 19 Dec. 1980, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

86. Telegram from A.P. Venkateshwaran to joint secretary (UN Division), 7 Jan. 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

87. Ibid.

88. Rajesh Basrur, ‘India–Pakistan Relations: Between War and Peace’, in Sumit Ganguly (ed.), Engaging the World: Indian Foreign Policy since 1947 (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2015), pp. 21–48 [24].

89. Memo from S.K. Singh, 27 July 1982, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

90. Memo from R.N. Mulye, 10 April 1981, File no. U2/352/22/80, NAI.

91. Ibid.

92. ‘UNHCR India Factsheet’, UNHCR (Feb. 2016), p. 1 [https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/protection/operations/50001ec69/india-fact-sheet.html, accessed 10 Mar. 2020].

93. Vidhi Doshi, ‘India Deports Rohingya Muslims, Drawing UN Ire’, The Washington Post (4 Oct. 2018) [https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-deports-rohingya-muslims-drawing-un-ire/2018/10/04/a033de20-c7cb-11e8-9158-09630a6d8725_story.html, accessed 10 July 2020].