14 October 2020, NIICE Commentary 6287
Anchita Borthakur
On 11 December 2019, when Rajya Sabha, the upper House of the Indian Parliament passed the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), assented by the President Ram Nath Kovind the following day, it provided a huge relief to the majority Afghan refugees residing in India. Under this act Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, and Jains who have faced persecution in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan will be granted Indian citizenship if they have arrived in the country before 31 December 2014 and living here for the last five years. However, a section of the Afghan refugees (undoubtedly the Muslims) felt betrayed and discriminated by this new law. It is estimated that as of 31 Dec 2019, there are 15,727 Afghan refugees registered with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India, although their actual number is much higher. Over half of them are either Hindus or Sikhs. However, there are substantial numbers of Muslim Afghan refugees belonging to different sects and ethnic groups, such as Hazaras, Pashtuns, Tajiks, and Uzbeks in India. But the act has given a special kind of relaxations only to the non-Muslim communities residing in the country.
There has always been a correlation between forced migration and the notion of identity. Due to this relation, the government of the host country often treats various refugee groups coming from the same state differently. As India is not a party to the United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees 1951 (1951 Convention) and the Protocol Relating to the Status of Refugees 1967, the situation appears grimmer for the refugees. Moreover, the absence of a permanent national or regional legal framework for the refugees and asylum seekers and the lack of collaborations between international organizations and the government have led to politicization of forced migration in India since decades.
Contextual factors such as to escape from religious persecution and strict societal restrictions apart from conflict and instability in their homeland are some of the most significant reasons for immigration of majority of the Afghan refugees (be it Muslims or non-Muslims) to India. After the enactment of CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), a Hazara refugee, resident of Lajpat Nagar, Delhi (who preferred to be anonymous) said, “Along with the Hindus and the Sikhs we also face religious persecution. Ethnically as well as based on religion (as they belong to the Shi ‘a sect) we are among the minorities in Afghanistan. In fact we are a double minority in the country”. In the words of another respondent belonging to the Pashtun ethnic group, “People of all religions are suffering in Afghanistan”. In an interview with The Hindu former Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, who is regarded as a very close ally of India was heard saying, “We don’t have persecuted minorities in Afghanistan. The whole country is persecuted. We have been in war and conflict for a long time. All religions in Afghanistan: Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs, which are our three main religions, have suffered.” The current Afghan envoy to India, Tahir Qadiry, also echoed the same view when he said “all groups and ethnicities had suffered because of the war that has been raging in the country for the past four decades”. In an unprecedented move just before the passing of CAB in the Indian Parliament, the Afghan government under a “special decree” of its President issued ‘national identity card’ or ‘Tazkera’ to 3,500 Afghan Sikh and Hindu refugees living in India as part of the country’s plan to recognize the “special status” of these minorities.
In this scenario, it is feared that India is on the verge of damaging its age-old cordial relations with the people of Afghanistan as the CAA directly discriminates against the Muslims, who are the highest sufferer of the decade long war in the country. Nevertheless, the issue of refugees has always been a politicized one in India. But with the new law into force, the Afghan Muslim refugees are in a dilemma now. It is seen that the refugees are caught between politics and identity. On a day to day basis, the refugees are struggling with their identity now. Bollywood, a very popular medium of soft power diplomacy between India and the people of Afghanistan is also trapped in between politics and identity about the “Afghans” in recent years. The vilification of Afghans in some of the mainstream Bollywood movies such as Padmavat (2018), Kesari (2019), and Panipat (2019) has ramifications for the Afghan Muslim refugees living in India; whose religious identity now supersedes all other affiliations for some locals. Now, these sections of the Afghan refugees are in constant fear that in this political atmosphere, the empathy which the Indian people hold for them for decades (as persecuted fellows from a war-ravaged country) might wither away anytime in the future. But refugees are active agents who constantly find new ways to cope up with changing situations arises out of displacement. It is reported that after CAA there has been a sudden upsurge in the number of Afghan Muslim refugees wanting to convert to Christianity in New Delhi. Although it is too early to come to any conclusion about the new trend of religious conversion among the Afghan Muslim refugees to “Evangelism”; yet the endeavor appears to be a strategy to cope up with the new environment in India. Moreover, there is also a possibility that the conversion can be an onward migration strategy for the refugees to the western countries. In this crisis situation, it would be interesting to see what will be the steps taken by the Indian government so that CAA won’t be exploited by the ones whose applications for asylum are rejected before by the UNHCR or who are Muslim refugees but entered India before the stipulated date. At the same time, the Indian government should also pay attention to the fact that in this battle of politics and identity, age-old close ties shared by the people of Afghanistan with their Indian counterpart shouldn’t come under jeopardy. The bilateral relations at the political level can be restored but if the problem starts emerging at the people to people level; it would make the situation overly complex for both sides and then from there will be a point of no return. To avoid such a scenario it would be imperative for the government of India to develop mechanisms that address the grievances of all Afghan refugees irrespective of their religious or ethnic affiliation and attempts should also be made to integrate and make them a part of the diverse Indian society.
