Burmese community in India

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Burmese community in India
Total population
17,975 (2014) [1]
Regions with significant populations
Mizoram , Manipur , Delhi , Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Kolkata, Lucknow, Patna
Languages
Burmese  ·English · Hindi
Religion
Buddhism  · Christianity  · Islam  · Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Burmese diaspora

The Burmese community in India consists of refugees, immigrants and expatriates from Burma as well as Indian citizens of Burmese ancestry. The 2014 Myanmar Census enumerated 17,975 Burmese individuals living in India. [1]

Contents

Ethnicity

The Burmese refugee population in India is overwhelmingly from the Chin ethnic minority group, with smaller Kachin, Rakhine, and Bamar populations as well. [2]

Migration history

Following the 1962 Burmese coup d'état, 155,000 Burmese Indians were repatriated to India and resettled by the Indian government in ‘Burma Colonies’ in cities like Chennai, Tiruchirappalli and Madurai. [3]

Burma has been entrenched in political and armed conflict between the repressive ruling military regime, political opponents, and ethnic groups - resulting in the displacement of over 3.5 million people. India being a neighboring country hosts a large and growing number of 100,000 Burmese refugees. [4]

Chin refugees have been leaving Burma for over four decades to escape persistent human rights abuses committed by the Burmese army. [2] Many experts believe that abuses became increasingly systematic and serious after the 1988 uprising in Burma, and this date does signal a growth in the numbers of refugees in India. However, there is also a sizable community of Chin refugees in India that have resided in the country since the 1970s who played an important role in helping refugee communities adjust to their new surroundings.

Distribution

Burmese refugees in India live primarily in two places: the Northeast states of Mizoram and, to a lesser extent, Manipur, and the capital city of New Delhi. Since India does not officially recognize Burmese as refugees, it is difficult to get a firm grasp on how many Burmese live in the country. [2]

Estimates for the Northeast, where the refugee population is predominantly Chin, range from 50,000 to 100,000. UNHCR India has registered between 3,000 and 4,000 Burmese living in Delhi, also primarily Chin, and estimates that over 600 Burmese are finding their way to Delhi each month.

Discrimination

While India generally tolerates the presence of Burmese refugees, they do not afford them any legal protection, leaving them vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, and deportation as the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, nor does it have a domestic legal code to identify and protect refugees. [2]

Without any formal recognition as refugees, the Chin community in Delhi suffer numerous challenges. The inability of many Chin refugees to communicate in either English or Hindi also subjects them to daily hardship.

Notable people

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chin State</span> State of Myanmar

Chin State is a state in western Myanmar. Chin State is bordered by Sagaing Division and Magway Division to the east, Rakhine State to the south, the Chittagong Division of Bangladesh to the west, and the Indian states of Mizoram to the west and Manipur to the north. The population of Chin State is about 488,801 according to the 2014 census, and its capital city is Hakha.

The Chin people are an ethnic group native to the Chin State and Rakhine State of Myanmar. Strictly speaking, the term "Chin" only refers to the 53 sub-tribes of the Chin ethnic group, divided and recognized by the Burmese government. They speak the Kuki-Chin-Mizo languages, which are often mutually unintelligible but are closely related.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rohingya people</span> Indo-Aryan ethnic group of western Myanmar

The Rohingya people are a stateless Indo-Aryan ethnic group who predominantly follow Islam and reside in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Before the Rohingya genocide in 2017, when over 740,000 fled to Bangladesh, an estimated 1.4 million Rohingya lived in Myanmar. Described by journalists and news outlets as one of the most persecuted minorities in the world, the Rohingya are denied citizenship under the 1982 Myanmar nationality law. There are also restrictions on their freedom of movement, access to state education and civil service jobs. The legal conditions faced by the Rohingya in Myanmar have been compared to apartheid by some academics, analysts and political figures, including Nobel laureate Bishop Desmond Tutu, a South African anti-apartheid activist. The most recent mass displacement of Rohingya in 2017 led the International Criminal Court to investigate crimes against humanity, and the International Court of Justice to investigate genocide.

Burmese people or Myanma people are citizens or people from Myanmar (Burma), irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. Myanmar is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural and multi-lingual country. The Burmese government officially recognises 135 ethnic groups, who are grouped into eight 'national races,' namely the Bamar (Burmans), Shan, Karen, Rakhine (Arakanese), Mon, Kachin, Chin, and Kayah (Karenni). Many ethnic and ethnoreligious communities exist outside these defined groupings, such as the Burmese Chinese and Panthay, Burmese Indians, Anglo-Burmese, and Gurkhas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hinduism in Myanmar</span> Overview of the presence, role and impact of Hinduism in Myanmar

Hinduism is the Fourth-largest religion in Myanmar, being practised by 1.7% of the population of Myanmar. Hinduism is practised by about 890,000 people in Myanmar, and has been influenced by elements of Buddhism, with many Hindu temples in Myanmar housing statues of the Buddha. There are also a large population of Hindus in which the Myanmar Tamils and minority Bengali Hindus having the biggest population share.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burmese Americans</span> Americans of Burmese birth or descent

Burmese Americans are Americans of full or partial Burmese ancestry, encompassing individuals of all ethnic backgrounds with ancestry in present-day Myanmar, regardless of specific ethnicity. As a subgroup of Asian Americans, Burmese Americans have largely integrated into the broader Southeast Asian and South Asian American communities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Burmese Indians</span> Ethnic community

Burmese Indians are a group of people of Indian origin who live in Myanmar (Burma). The term 'Burmese Indian' refers to a broad range of people from South Asia, most notably from present-day countries such as India and Bangladesh. While Indians have lived in Burma for many centuries, most of the ancestors of the current Burmese Indian community emigrated to Burma from the start of British rule in the mid-19th century to the separation of British Burma from British India in 1937. During colonial times, ethnic Indians formed the backbone of the government and economy serving as soldiers, civil servants, merchants, moneylenders, mobile laborers and dock workers. A series of anti-Indian riots in the 1930s and mass emigration at the onset of the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 were followed in the 1960s by the forced migration of hundreds of thousands of ethnic Indians, exacerbated by internal conflict in Myanmar.

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Pashtun diaspora comprises all ethnic Pashtuns. There are millions of Pashtuns who are living outside of their traditional homeland of Pashtunistan, a historic region that is today situated over parts of Afghanistan and Pakistan. While the (erstwhile) Pashtunistan is home to the majority of Pashtun people, there are significant local Pashtun diaspora communities scattered across the neighbouring Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab, particularly in their respective provincial capital cities of Karachi and Lahore. Additionally, people with Pashtun ancestry are also found across India; particularly in Rohilkhand, a region in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh; and in the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan. Outside of South Asia, significant Pashtun diaspora communities are found in the Arab states of the Persian Gulf, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Iran, Australia, Canada, and Russia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Refugees in India</span> Overview of legally registered refugees residing in India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora</span>

The Sri Lankan Tamil diaspora refers to the global diaspora of Sri Lankan Tamil origin. It can be said to be a subset of the larger Sri Lankan and Tamil diaspora.

Immigration to Bhutan has an extensive history and has become one of the country's most contentious social, political, and legal issues. Since the twentieth century, Bhutanese immigration and citizenship laws have been promulgated as acts of the royal government, often by decree of the Druk Gyalpo on advice of the rest of government. Immigration policy and procedure are implemented by the Lhengye Zhungtshog Ministry of Home and Cultural Affairs, Department of Immigration. Bhutan's first modern laws regarding immigration and citizenship were the Bhutanese Citizenship Act 1958 and subsequent amendments in 1977. The 1958 Act was superseded by the Bhutanese Citizenship Act 1985, which was then supplemented by a further Immigration Act in 2007. The Constitution of 2008 included some changes in Bhutan's immigration laws, policy, and procedure, however prior law not inconsistent with the 2008 Constitution remained intact. Bhutan's modern citizenship laws and policies reinforce the institution of the Bhutanese monarchy, require familiarity and adherence to Ngalop social norms, and reflect the social impact of the most recent immigrant groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhism by country</span> World Sikh population breakdown

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Myanmar (Burma) is a Buddhist majority country with a significant minority of Christians and other groups residing in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">British Tamils</span>

British Tamils are British people of Tamil origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Indian diaspora</span> Indian citizens and persons of Indian origin living abroad

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The Bengali Hindu diaspora is the worldwide population of the Bengali Hindus of Indian and Bangladeshi origin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2014 Myanmar census</span> National census of Myanmar undertaken in 2014

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 Rohingya refugee crisis</span> Mass human migration crisis

In 2015, hundreds of thousands of Rohingya people were forcibly displaced from their villages and IDP camps in Rakhine State, Myanmar, due to sectarian violence. Nearly one million fled to neighbouring Bangladesh and some travelled to Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand by rickety boats via the waters of the Strait of Malacca, Bay of Bengal and the Andaman Sea.

An illegal immigrant in India is a foreigner who has entered India either without valid documents or who initially had a valid document, but has overstayed beyond the permitted time, as per the general provisions of the Citizenship Act as amended in 2003. Such persons are not eligible for citizenship by registration or naturalisation. They are also liable to be imprisoned for 2–8 years and fined.

References

  1. 1 2 "The Union Report - Census Report Volume 2". The 2014 Myanmar Population and Housing Census. Department of Population, Ministry of Immigration and Population. May 2015. Retrieved 18 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 "India: Close the Gap for Burmese Refugees", Refugees International, 12 August 2009.
  3. Nainar, Nahla (24 February 2021). "How the Tamil link with Burma has endured down the years". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 20 August 2022.
  4. "Upliftment of the Burmese Refugee community by students from IIT Delhi", indian express .com, 7 June 2011.