Interrogating the Semantic Domains of 'Refugee and Diaspora'

The Tibetan Community in Protracted Exile

Abstract

The year 2022 marks the completion of 63 years in exile for the Tibetan community. Since 1959, when the Government of India first provided asylum to the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso; and the Tibetan community, the role of India has changed from a temporary abode to a point of reference for the community spread across India, Nepal, Bhutan, and Western countries. The dispersion of the community across the globe with varied and in a few instances, multiple identification agencies have presented academia with a question of the appropriateness of usage of terms 'diaspora' and 'refugee' as homogeneous semantic categories with regard to the community. It is, in this context, that the paper attempts to explore the overlapping boundaries and interrogates the suitability of these terms for the Tibetan exile community. The paper states that the usage of the term 'diaspora' is an outcome of the movement of Tibetans from South Asia, particularly India, to the West thereby making an argument that the usage of the terms 'refugee' and 'diaspora' goes beyond the semantic categorisation and is also connected to the question of Tibetan identity. This has been argued based on a discussion on four parameters namely, the legal status of Tibetans, their relationship to homeland, the dream of going to the West and the Tibetans living in India as the harbinger of a homogeneous national Tibetan identity.