India has not signed the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees—the primary instrument setting international norms for the treatment of refugees. As a result, its treatment of refugees remains outside the purview of a congenitally pusillanimous Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). For the most part, India’s treatment of Tibetan refugees has been generous, providing them with political exile as well as shelter and the opportunity to secure an economic livelihood, but the limitations to this generosity are becoming increasingly apparent. 

Contrary to the usual practice of releasing peaceful demonstrators after a few days of judicial custody with an admonition, 365 Tibetan demonstrators, including 64 women, continue to be held in Delhi’s Tihar Jail, nearly two weeks after the Beijing Olympic torch arrived and departed. The stifling of the right to peaceful protest around the recent farcical torch run is only the tip of the iceberg, not merely for refugee rights but for wider democratic freedoms. 

According to the most recent estimates, India is host to approximately 110,000 refugees from Tibet.[1] While the practice of Tibetan refugee hosting has, thus far, been generous and lenient, the legal framework directing the actions of the government afford the Indian government great powers of control and restriction over foreigners, including Tibetan refugees. Tibetan leaders in India consistently state that the government of India has treated them extremely well, but these understandably sincere statements of gratitude fail to testify to a changing reality—both practical and political—under which Tibetan refugees in India must live. Tibetans, as one of the only refugee groups to be officially recognised by the Indian government and thus legally permitted to stay in India, are often considered to be in a more advantageous position than other refugees in India.[2] It is, however, necessary to recognize that the proximity and strategic importance of their country of origin, China, makes their situation politically delicate. As political pressure continues to mount on India from China, human rights observers fear that the practice of tolerance and permissive freedom will give way to subtle and even overt forms of repression, which are technically supported under Indian law.  

Tibetan Communities in India 

More than 80 percent of Tibetans in exile live in scattered camps and settlement communities in India. There were two large waves of Tibetan migration to India. The first wave was in 1959 when over 80,000 refugees followed the Dalai Lama and established a community in the town of Dharamsala in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh.[3] Dharamsala is also home to the Tibetan government-in-exile, known as the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA). Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, India granted Tibetans privileged status among refugees and helped establish nearly 40 agricultural-based refugee settlements in order to allow Tibetans to preserve their culture, their traditions, and to enjoy self-sufficiency.[4] 

The experience of the second wave of refugees from Tibet was vastly different and revealed a withdrawal, on the part of India, of preferential status enjoyed by the first arrivals. The second wave began arriving in India in late 1979-80, after China liberalised its emigration policy.  

The Legal Status of Tibetans in India 

As India has no separate refugee legislation, the laws governing the entry, stay and exit of refugees is subsumed under the laws governing all foreigners. The primary legislative instrument of this foreigner’s regime is the Foreigners Act, 1946. The Act gives the Government of India the power to make orders “prohibiting, regulating or restricting the entry of foreigners into India or their departure therefrom or their presence or continued presence therein.”[5] By law, Tibetans are can be detained or arrested for contravening any part of the Foreigners Act or Orders and may be subject to further penalty.[6] Although the general practice of India is not to exercise its control to this extent in regard to Tibetan refugees, it would be well within its powers, if it chose to do so. 

Tibetans who arrived in India before 1979 or who can prove that they were born in India prior to 1979 are given residence permits issued by the Indian Home Ministry which must be renewed yearly. [7] Some sources refer to these documents as residence permits, while others as residential certificates. Residence permits are necessary in order to obtain work, to rent an apartment or to open a bank account.[8] These residence permits also allow Tibetan refugees to obtain identity certificates which are necessary for international travel. Until 2003, the CTA issued birth certificates to Indian-born Tibetans.[9] These were accepted by the Indian government as proof of Tibetan identity in the application of residence permits.  

Tibetans who arrived in India after 1979 face a different situation. After 1979, the Government of India stopped issuing residence permits to Tibetan refugees. A number of sources including the International Campaign for Tibet point out that in recent years, the Government of India has only been issuing residence permits to children of Tibetans who arrived in India before 1979.[10] New arrivals, part of the ‘second wave’ are, for all effective purposes, not officially recognised by the Indian government.[11] According to UNHCR, new arrivals are tolerated by the Indian government and are allowed to remain in India as long as they do not become involved in political activities.[12] 

Citizenship 

As the Tibetan refugee community in India has existed for over 50 years and many Tibetans have been born in India. However, conflicting information exists about whether or not Tibetan refugees living in India are able to acquire Indian citizenship. Further, a number of sources indicate that only 1-3% of Tibetans who are eligible apply for Indian citizenship.[13] Few of them apply because there is a general belief that their exile in India is temporary and a return to Tibet will eventually follow.[14] Many do not see India as their country and look forward to returning to a free Tibet.[15] As a result, they see no need for the acquisition of Indian citizenship.  

Other sources, however, reveal that the acquisition of Indian citizenship is not so straightforward for Tibetans. The Research Directorate of the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, for example, has reported that according to information obtained from the High Commission of India in Ottawa, neither citizens of Tibet who reside in India nor individuals who are born in India to parents who are Tibetan citizens are eligible for Indian citizenship.[16] In an interview with the Unites States Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, a Liaison Officer from the Office of Tibet in New York stated that in general, Tibetans have trouble obtaining Indian citizenship and are subsequently denied the concomitant rights it bestows.[17]  

Identity Cards for Travel 

Tibetans are able to travel within India as long as they obtain permission from Indian authorities and report back to local police upon their return. While travelling within India, they must carry their Registration Certificate.[18] For international travel, Tibetans must obtain an Identity Certificate (IC) from the Indian Home Ministry, valid for two years. In order to return to India, the document must bear a ‘no objection to return to India stamp’. Since the second wave of Tibetans is not recognised by the Indian government, they are unable to obtain Identity Certificates.  

Although the freedom of movement is enjoyed in this limited sense by Tibetan refugees, it is important to note that it is not a right guaranteed to refugees as foreigners in India. In fact, the 1948 Foreigners Order prohibits refugees and asylum seekers from leaving India without permission and the Foreigners Act 1946 gives authorities the right to control and restrict their movements within India. Thus, Tibetan refugees may be subject to the whim of the executive powers. In fact, at the end of 2006, India banned Tibetans from receiving international travel documents. [19]  

Sino- Indian Rapprochement and Rights Restrictions 

It appears that in addition to scaling down of assistance to Tibetan refugees, the Government of India has, in recent years, been looking eastward to improve relations with China. The combination of these two factors could spell disaster for Tibetans in India.  

Beginning in the 1980s, India’s enthusiasm towards refugees from Tibet began to wane. Although India continued to admit Tibetan refugees after the 1980s (approximately 25,000 between 1986 and 1996), the government has denied these Tibetans both residential and identification certificates and has refused to grant further assistance to refugee communities in the form of new land allotments. [20] 

Furthermore, the warming of India-China ties is unfavourable for Tibetan refugees in India who enjoy only the most minimal rights under the law. India has demonstrated that it will not tolerate protests from Tibetan activists, especially during important visits from Chinese dignitaries. When Chinese Premier Li Peng visited India in 1991, the Government arrested Tibetan leaders and used police to forcibly remove demonstrators.[21] China has been quite clear about its displeasure with protests in front of the Chinese embassy in New Delhi and had challenged the Indian government to act.[22]  

Conclusion

problems facing Tibetan communities in India are twofold: the increasing intolerance of the intolerance of the Indian government as it warms up to China in an environment of diminished rights for Tibetans, and the challenge of a limited and overburdened infrastructure, land and social services in the face of an expanding population and resource depletion.  

The Indian government has been permissive, but not overly happy with Tibetans in exile in recent years. This position, which has thus far created an environment where Tibetans are able to live in exile, is also a position, which technically allows for wide governmental discretion in restricting their rights. In the context of renewed political volatility in Tibet, the new Maoist dispensation in Nepal and increasing pressure from China, India cannot be counted on to assure the rights protection of Tibetan refugees in the future.