Historicising Refugee Protection in India

Since the beginning of civilisation the Indian culture promoted, preached and practiced diversity; a land which has accommodated and embraced racial, cultural, linguistic and religious diversity. The doctrine of VasudhaivaKutumbakam1 – the world is a family – is entrenched in Indian philosophy; it is one of the basic tenets of India’s spiritual and cultural heritage. The intrinsic value of this philosophy is that it has no discrimination, does not play favourites and has no class or hierarchy. India has a great tradition of hosting people who were in the fear of being persecuted by their government much before the adoption of international legal framework for the protection of refugees. This paper examines the history of India’s approach towards people seeking protection, by invoking doctrine of humanitarian consideration, despite the non-existence of a refugee policy at the time. Then, the paper proceeds to evaluate the massive inflow of the people into India upon partition of India and how effectively these new population were integrated and rehabilitated into our society, and how the practice has evolved to its current form. The study also carefully looks into the development of jurisprudence on refugees in India, by analyzing various judgments of the Supreme Court, Courts, and lower Courts.