Kapoor, Ria. Making Refugees in India. Oxford University Press. pp.272
| Published date | 01 August 2023 |
| Author | Sangbida Lahiri |
| Date | 01 August 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13156 |
358
|
International Migration. 2023;61:358–360.
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Kapoor a rgues that th e complexity of the term ‘r efugee’ developed in Indian sub continent after 1947; however,
she exa mines the colonial era to explai n how the concept ch anged after independence. She argu es that i n the
period pri or to the First World War the term ‘ref ugee' had fluidit y in its meaning as it was broadly accepted that
people who had bee n displaced from their place of usual hab itation and sought refuge would re ceive a temporary
status to reside in British India as refuge es. One example she gives to support her argument , is the case of wealthy
Persian Traders arrivi ng to Bombay from famine- hit Iran in 1871.The newly arriving Persian trad ers sought asylum
among their community memb ers in the city and the Indian Persian traders ar ranged an asylum structure in their
loca lity. This co ntrast s with the ev ents of 1948 , when the ne wly forme d Indian st ate forcef ully sent a foreign co u-
ple to Italy rather tha n consider them refugees. This event rep resented a watershed with respe ct to the history of
refugees in India as it signi fied the firs t instance of con ceptualizing the te rm refugee accordi ng to a postcolon ial
terminology.
The novelty of this book lies in its unfolding of the underst anding of the term ‘refugee’ in colonial times, and
how it was re defined by South A sian politic al leaders following Indian ind ependence. K apoor highli ghted how
political parties were eager to help asylum seekers while resisting colonial control, but then limited the extent of
people's rights once they gained state power. During World War II, India's sense of nationalism was closely inter-
twined to universal ism. The humanity question and the tendenc y towards inclusivity to support the idea of a great
nation were o n the agenda of ever y secular politic al party in Ind ia. The very ide a of being secular p redominantly
derived fro m the ideologic al perspective of Nehru, and the Congress pa rty. In 1947, with the decla ration of par-
tition in the Indi an subcontinent and the bir th of two nations, India and P akistan, displaced t he lives of millions of
Received: 22 Ap ril 2023
|
Accepted: 28 April 2 023
DOI: 10.1111/imig.13156
BOOK REVIEW
Kapoor, Ria. Making Refugees in India. Oxford University Press. pp.272
Sangbida Lahiri
© 2023 Internati onal Organizati on for Migration.
Universit y of Calcutta Rin ggold standard
institutio n- South and Southe ast Asian
Studies, Kolk ata, West Bengal, I ndia
Email: sangbidarchithirbakso@gmail.com
Abstract
Ria K apoor's book , Making Refugees in India, ex plores the
history of refugees in India, tracing the way the figure of
‘refugee’ makes its appearance in th e subcontinent since
colonial times. The motiv ation for the book stems from the
Citizen Amendme nt Act passed in the Ind ian Parliament in
2019, and through the book, Kapoor explore s the past his-
tories and the struggles of refugees i n independent India
for last seventy- five years. Thr ough the historicizing of the
concept of r efugee, Kapoor touch es on various pe riods of
history within t he subcontinent.
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