The paradox of citizenship and nationality among Tibetans living in India

Abstract

This article discusses the implications of a landmark judgement of Delhi High Court on 22 December 2010 which declared that Tibetans born in India between 1959 and 1987 were eligible for Indian citizenship. A majority of Tibetans in India steadfastly refuse to avail of this facility as a mark of patriotism to their fatherland Tibetan. The Tibetan Exile Government's discouragement of Tibetans acquiring Indian citizenship needs to be understood as apprehensions based on erroneous conflation of citizenship with nationality. Drawing from ethnographic interactions with Tibetan Bhutias from Darjeeling and Kalimpong in West Bengal, who have always been Indian citizens, as well as Tibetan nomads in Ladakh, I argue that for Tibetans in India the choices of aspiring for citizenship or retaining refugee status are pragmatic, contingent ones as they navigate through bureaucracies, lived realities of their lives in India and their aspirations as Tibetans.