Les flux de réfugiés en Inde

Abstract

The Flows of Refugees in India. During the last fifty years, India has on several occasions greeted refugees on its soil. The official stand with regard to these refugees has evolved with the passing years. After the Partition, displaced Hindu and Sikh populations from Pakistan welcomed since their exile seemed to emphasize the excesses inherent to a religious State in opposition to the Indian secular polity. At the end of the fifties, Tibetan refugees were the embodiment of Chinese perfidy of which India was also victim. On the other hand, India reluctantly rapatriated members of Indian communities in Burma and Sri Lanka. From the early seventies, refugees are more and more perceived as a destabilizing factor, with a potential for exacerbating internal ethnic conflicts, competing with indigeneous people for scarce resources, or even threatening the law and order. Consequently, the policy of the Indian government, once its strategic objectives have been fulfilled, is to work towards a satisfactory repatriation of the displaced populations in their native lands.