ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on how India treats refugees and, conversely, on how refugees themselves feel about India. Studying the relationship that India has established over the years with different groups of refugees is one way to look into the question of India’s relation with the Other. Although the Other here comes in the form of a weak and seemingly harmless refugee asking for India’s help, and may therefore not be at first sight considered as problematic to deal with as, for instance, the enemy Other, India still finds it difficult to construct a stable relationship with refugees in general. This is to be seen, notably, in India’s refusal to either adhere to the international refugee system or design a domestic law to deal with refugees. Refugees themselves have felt this hesitation on India’s part, which, for them, has practical consequences. Mixed feelings on both sides about entering into a relationship therefore tend to reinforce each other, making the construction of their relationship an uneasy enterprise.
