A Place Called Home: The Sense of Belonging of the Afghan Hindu and Sikh Diaspora in India

Abstract

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021 caused a humanitarian catastrophe in the country that triggered en masse exodus of a new wave of Afghan refugees desperate to flee the clutches of the Taliban. Although Pakistan and Iran had traditionally been the two main destinations of refuge for Afghans, yet for some Afghans—especially for the non-Muslim minority communities of Afghanistan, namely the Afghan Hindus and Sikhs—India has always been the foremost destination for refuge. The article aims to understand the experiences of the mentioned communities, as they moved from pre-conflict, to conflict, displacement and finally to the settlement phase in India. Thus, the article throws light on the experiences of Afghan Hindus and Sikhs both in their home and host countries and, in the process, engages with various aspects of the negotiations and marginalisation endured by them. It then strives to explore their sense of belonging at the scales of state, individual and community by discussing the significance and impact of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, specifically for the members of Afghan Hindu and Sikh diaspora in India. A plethora of research has been produced that focuses on various aspects of India’s relation with Afghanistan, but the issues of the Afghan religious minorities in India remained a neglected topic of scholarly research. This article attempts to remedy this lack of literature by examining the unexplored dimension of India’s engagement and support for Afghan Sikhs and Hindus.

The role of place in everyday life of Ukrainian war refugees in Poland

“…Sampson and Gifford (2010: 117) point out that 'The importance of place in the refugee experience cannot be underestimated'. The literature considers various aspects of the role of space/place in the lives of refugees: camps (Darling, 2009;Sanyal, 2012) and zones of transit (Fontanari, 2018) but also different spaces referring to the semantic idea of the home (Boccagni, & Miranda Nieto, 2022;Ghosh, 2022).…”

“…An important topic of discussion regarding the role of space, places and their senses in the lives of war refugees is the semantic construct of home (Ghorashi, 2014;Boccagni & Miranda, 2022;Ghosh, 2022). The research shows that the definition of home as perceived by refugees may go beyond a specific location with residential functions.…”