Internally Displaced Persons and Northeast India
| Date | 01 October 2013 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0020881717714900 |
| Published date | 01 October 2013 |
| Author | Walter Fernandes |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Internally Displaced
Persons and
Northeast India
Walter Fernandes1
Abstract
Thanks to the neo-liberal economy that has been the official policy in India since
July 1991 development-induced displacement is growing in India as a whole
as well as in the northeast. The focus on mining and possible 166 dams being
planned in the region is bound to displace a much bigger number of people than
in the past in the northeast. While it symbolizes globalization, the region
witnesses a rise also in the extent of the remaining types of displacement, that
is, by conflicts and natural disasters. In fact, because of the overuse of natural
and mineral resources after globalization there seems to be a close link between
these three types of internally displaced persons (IDPs). Present-day disasters
are mostly human-made. The overuse of resources causes competition for what
is left of them and it results in more conflicts and IDPs. After a bird’s eye view
of the situation in India as a whole, the article shifts its focus to the northeast to
discuss various types of IDPs in the region. The backdrop of India Look (Act) East
policy is taken to bring newer dimensions.
Keywords
Conflicts, disasters, displacement, Act East Policy, tribal land and constitution
With globalization development-induced displacement (DID) has become both a
human rights issue and one of relations between different countries. Development
planning is no more limited to individual countries but is done according to global
policies formulated by a few rich countries and multilateral agencies like the
World Bank (WB) and International Monetary Fund (IMF). DID has increased
enormously as a result of such policies. However, for protective mechanisms most
persons displaced by it as well as by conflicts and disasters have to depend on
national policies, not on the international agencies. The United Nations
Article
International Studies
50(4) 287–305
2017 Jawaharlal Nehru University
SAGE Publications
sagepub.in/home.nav
DOI: 10.1177/0020881717714900
http://isq.sagepub.com
1 Senior Fellow, North Eastern Social Research Centre Jagriti, Guwahati, Assam, India.
Corresponding author:
Walter Fernandes, Senior Fellow, North Eastern Social Research Centre Jagriti, 2nd oor, GMCH Road,
Christian Basti, Guwahati 781005, Assam, India.
E-mail: walter.nesrc@gmail.com
288 International Studies 50(4)
Organisation has a full-fledged unit, United Nations High Commissioner for
Refugees (UNHCR), to serve international refugees but no such body exists for
internally displaced persons (IDPs). This is despite the fact that disasters displace
a large number of persons and a bigger number is affected by development pro-
jects. Their growing number is a challenge to human dignity and they need more
attention than what they get today.
This article is a bird’s eye view of the type and number of IDPs of development
projects in particular. Its focus is northeast India (NEI). Its assumption is that
people concerned about justice to the poor have to question the development pat-
tern, especially globalization that results in displacement, impoverishment and
conflicts. It is also a plea for people involved in work for human dignity to join
hands to search for the type of development that upholds the right of every citizen
to a life with dignity. The Indian Constitution guarantees it under Article 21 but it
has to be upheld at the global level.
Defining the IDPs
IDPs are persons displaced by disasters, conflicts or development projects who do
not cross international boundaries. They become refugees when they flee to
another country. A refugee is ‘an uprooted, homeless, voluntary or involuntary
migrant who flees his or her native country, usually to escape danger or persecu-
tion because of one’s race, religion, or political views, and who no longer is pro-
tected by his or her former government’ (Schmitz, 2003, p. 33). The presence of
refugees can cause more conflicts as the presence of refugees in Europe does.
Conflict IDPs
The best examples of conflict displaced persons are refugees from West Asia
and North Africa, caused by the invasion of Iraq by the Western powers and of
conflicts around regime change in Syria, Afghanistan, Libya and elsewhere.
That can cause more internal as well as international conflicts as one can see
from the Paris terrorist attacks of 13 November 2015 and the allegations made
during it that some attackers had come in the garb of refugees. It has resulted in
hardening of attitudes towards the refugees (News Item, The Times of India,
14 November 2015). For the first time after World War II, the number of conflict
refugees and IDPs the world over crossed 50 million in late 2014, 38 million of
them IDPs, 11 million of them displaced during 2014 (IDMC, 2015). By October
2015, their number had exceeded 55 million. Around 800,000 of them have
reached Europe in search of a new life (‘Desperate Journey’ Democracy Now!
Daily Digest, 18 November 2015). Many more have fled to Jordan and Turkey
that are estimated to have around 2.5 million refugees each from Syria and Iraq.
Others remain within the country. In 2007, four years after the US-led invasion
of Iraq and six years after that of Afghanistan, 15 per cent of the population of
Iraq and 28 per cent of Afghanistan had become IDPs and were living in
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