TWAIL, archives, and refugee law

Abstract

Critical scholars of refugee law and refugee studies have demonstrated the entrenched Eurocentricity and the ingrained hegemony that dominate the fields of study. Therefore, this article embarks on a methodological inquiry that intersperses Third-World Approaches to International Law (TWAIL) and archival research to the study of international refugee law, with specific focus on India. I base this article on the preconceived notion that TWAIL cannot be divorced from the inquiry into understanding alternate non-European notions of refugee protection. This article emphasizes TWAIL’s significance as a methodological tool, and explores India’s refugee hosting practices and resistance to Eurocentric international refugee law through archives. The article also contends that TWAIL and archival research in this context, are not just methodological innovations, but constitute deliberate disruptions in the field.