Abstract
Statelessness is the quality of being, in some way, without a state. It most commonly affects refugees although not all refugees are stateless, and not all stateless men, women and children may be able to qualify as refugees. Article 1 (1) of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons defines stateless persons as those who are not recognised as nationals by any state under the operation of its law. Later, in 1961, Convention on the Reduction of Statelessness was adopted to deal exclusively with the issue of statelessness. These two legal instruments explain statelessness mainly in two ways, namely de jure and de facto. However, a great fallacy of international law of statelessness is that a stateless person is defined by his/her lack. Yet to claim any legal correctives or rights, the stateless person has to cite definite attributes. Against this backdrop, the chapter intends to analyse an ordeal of statelessness in South Asia where the states are characterised as ‘kin states’ representing social and ethnic continuities across the borders. The cases of Chakmas–Hajongs and Rohingyas are evaluated in this chapter in search for a fresh understanding of statelessness in South Asia.
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Notes
- 1.
Chakmas were settled in the three districts of Lohit, Tirap and Subansiri in NEFA.
- 2.
The plots of land varying from 5 to 10 acres per family (including 3 to 5 acres of cultivable land), depending upon the size of the family, were allotted to them under a centrally sponsored rehabilitation scheme of India.
- 3.
According to the 1991 Census, the total number of the evacuees in Arunachal Pradesh from the CHT increased further to around 65,000, whereas the total population of the state was 858,392. Due to the absence of a census survey since then, the aforesaid figure is quoted in all accounts of the issue.
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Chaudhury, A.B.R., Ghosh, A.K. (2022). Ordeal of Statelessness in South Asia. In: Mukhopadhyay, U. (eds) Internal Migration Within South Asia. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-6144-0_3
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