Between citizenships: questions of home among the Burmese Indian repatriates

ABSTRACTThe 300,000-strong community of Indian repatriates from Burma remain torn between a place they call home and the unresolved questions of citizenship. The Indian community in Burma, whom I term the Burmese Indians, was repatriated to India following the military coup and nationalisation in 1962 and endured a considerable loss of livelihood, home, and friends. Their recreated living spaces in the Indian cities of Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Delhi, and Calcutta are by default and design prefaced with Burma; hence, ‘Burma Bazaar,’ ‘Burma Colonies,’ ‘Burma Markets,’ and ‘Burma Camps.’ This essay explores their citizenship forms, paying particular attention to civic and political citizenship, memory citizenship, and forms of belonging based on interviews with the repatriates.KEYWORDS: HomerepatriatesBurmese indianscitizenshipbelongingmemorypolitical citizenshipcivil citizenship AcknowledgmentsI thank the respondents for sharing their experiences and providing the necessary data for the study. SSF, Datmouth, for providing feedback on the working draft. PKN and Anna for suggestions, and Bhaskar for support.Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.Notes1. Taylor, ‘Refugees, the State,’ 1.2. Chatterjee, ‘South Asian,’ 1051.3. Institutional Ethics Committee, University of Hyderabad, Hyderabad, India has permitted to research human research participants for ‘A Study of Burmese-Indian Repatriates.’ The institution issued the order vide number UH/IEC/2019/172.4. Though the essay talks about India/Indians, in a larger context, it refers to the Telugu-speaking people who settled in Andhra Pradesh (Visakhapatnam and Kakinada Districts).5. Tinker, ‘A Forgotten Long March,’ 4.6. All translations are made by the author and the original names of the respondents are not used in the essay to maintain confidentiality.7. Buddhism is a religion followed by most people in Burma, and Burmese is a widely spoken language in Burma (present Myanmar).8. The children of the repatriates who were born and raised in India, unlike their parents.9. One of the South Indian languages.10. ‘Policy Briefing’ is a concise summary that helps understand government policies.11. Egreteau, ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’ 27, and Egreteau and Jagan, Soldiers and Diplomacy, 93–94.12. Local government of Visakhapatnam, State administrations and Ministries of Rehabilitation.13. Kaushik, ‘Returnees and Refugees from Burma,’ 8.14. Satyanarayana, ‘Birds of Passage,’ 92.15. Baxter, ‘Report on Indian Migration,’ 1.16. Ibid.17. For details, see Robin Cohen. Global Diasporas: An Introduction, Avtar Brah, Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities and (Gender, Racism, Ethnicity Series), and Gijsbert Oonk (Ed). Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory.18. Jain, ‘Emigration and Settlement of Indians,’ 155–164.19. Satyanarayana, ‘Migration of Telugu Coolies,’ 4.20. Aratika Ganguli and Pratim Das, ‘Mapping Memory,’ 95 and 103.21. Egreteau, ‘India’s Vanishing,’ 14.22. Rabi Banerjee, ‘No Man’s People’23. Basista, “Collective Memories,’ 97.24. Satyanarayana, ‘Migration of Telugu Coolies,’ 10.25. Egreteau, ‘Burmese Indians in contemporary Burma,’ 34.26. Basista, “Collective Memories,’ 97.27. Egreteau and Larry Jagan, Soldiers and Diplomacy in Burma, 120.28. Kulbhushan, ‘Burma under military rule,’ 88–91.29. Holmes, ‘Burmese Domestic Policy,’ 191.30. Egreteau ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies.’ 13.31. Ibid.32. The settlements of these repatriates at various places were designated according to their state of origin. Telugus were encamped at Visakhapatnam, Kakinada, Nellore, etc. For example, one of the interviewed respondent flew directly from Burma to Kolkata. However, he was put up at the Burma camps in Visakhapatnam because of his ancestral origins in Andhra Pradesh.33. Holmes, ‘Burmese Domestic Policy,’ 191.34. ‘The Subaltern as Subaltern Citizen,’ 4735.35. ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’ 16–17.36. Gabriel and Turner, ‘Citizenship Identity and Social Inequality,’ 2.37. ‘Uprooted Burma Traders Reach Indian “Home;” Nationalization Drive Expels Many Who Have Never Seen Ancestral Land’38. Burmese Indians born and raised in Burma.39. Majumdar, ‘Constructing the Indian Immigrant,’ 15.40. ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’15.41. Mannathukkaren, ‘The “Poverty” of Political Society,’ 296.42. Political Ideas and Concepts, 156.43. Egreteau, ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’ 20.44. See, Giorgio Agamben. Homo Sacer: Sovereign Power and Bare Life, 1998.45. Banerjee, Rabi, ‘No Man’s People,’ 2017.46. The District Collector’s Office and local MLA Offices.47. ‘Burmese refugees demand dues from govt,’ Times of India.48. According to the Indian Constitution (see Articles 341 and 342), reservation in education and employment is provided to advance lower castes and adequate representation of the underprivileged sections. In this regard, Burmese Indians, on repatriation, were allotted a quota (reservation) in education because they belonged to the economically weaker and socially backward sections. This was to assist the Burmese Indians in settling into the country, they had repatriated.49. Egreteau, ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’ 17–18.50. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, 46.51. Please refer to endnote 48.52. Chatterjee, ‘Communities in the East,’ 282.53. The original name of the founder of the ‘Burma Repatriate Association.’ His daughter, on being interviewed wanted her father’s name mentioned in the essay.54. Chatterjee, ‘Beyond the Nation? Or Within?,’ 60.55. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, 38.56. Aratika Ganguli and Pratim Das, ‘Mapping Memory,’ 93.57. Warner, ‘Voluntary Repatriation,’ 172.58. Buddhist Festival is celebrated in most parts of East and South Asia, specifically in Myanmar (Burma).59. Egreteau, ‘India’s Vanishing Burma Colonies,’ 27.60. Ibid., 26.61. Traditional clothing of a woman in the Indian sub-continent.62. Lungi is translated as Loincloth.63. Chatterjee, The Politics of the Governed, 33.64. Warner, ‘Voluntary Repatriation,’ 162.65. Tsuda, ‘Migration and Alienation,’ 6.66. Rothberg and Yildiz, ‘Memory Citizenship,’ 33.67. Ibid.68. Tsuda, ‘Migration and Alienation,’ 27.69. Ibid.70. Nainar, Nahla. ‘Sepia-Tinted Memories,’ 2021.Additional informationNotes on contributorsSireesha TeluguSireesha Telugu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at the University of Hyderabad, India. Previously, she taught English and Managerial Communication at GITAM University, Hyderabad, India. She worked as a Junior Language Analyst in the Interface Research Program, a Translator and Editor for the Special Assistance Program, and a Research Associate for a project coordinated by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs. Her recent publications include an article “Traumatic Realism in Films about the Nepali Diaspora” in the IUP Journal of English Studies, 2021, an edited book entitled Indian Literatures in Diaspora (Routledge, 2022), and a review of the book South Asian Writers, Latin American Literature, and the Rise of Global English by Roanne L. Kantor, Journal of South Asian Diaspora, 2023.