India has played host to quite a number of refugee groups since its independence in 1947. Beginning with the refugees of Partition, the list includes refugees from Tibet, Bangladesh, Burma (now Myanmar), Afghanistan and Sri Lanka. Each of these cases has been dealt with through ad hoc executive responses and contingent regulations. There is an absence of formal legislation and specific mechanisms to address the problems pertaining to the refugee influx.

Along with the lack of a legal framework for tackling the refugee issue, there is a big void in the academic study of Indian practices in matters of asylum, protection, repatriation, and care of refugees. The task of such a study remains a daunting one, especially because India is not a signatory to any of the international conventions governing the protection of refugees. It involves the tricky exercise of assembling variegated state practices in different experiences with diverse refugee groups into a set of generally acceptable Indian practices relating to refugees. The book under review is a pioneering attempt at such an academically demanding task and as such deserves acclaim.
The book chronicles Indian experiences and practices relating to alien presence in the country in an attempt to trace the evolutionary trends in State responses by way of legislative enactments and executive decisions. Paula Banerjee?s ?Aliens in a Colonial World? provides a link between the practices in colonial India and independent India. Mainly focusing on the colonial period, this chapter brings to light how the colonial administration exercised control over subject territory and populations and regulated the entry and exit of foreigners through a set of legislative acts and legal jurisdictions.

A common theme running though the book is that, despite the laudable Indian record of humanitarian care for refugee groups, the ?kindness regime? because of all its flaws and inconsistencies, needs to be replaced with a functional legal regime for refugees. The inconsistencies of the kindness regime are well brought out through the case studies in the book. The chapter on the Tibetan refugees by Rajesh Karat, for instance, established how the kindness regime benefited the Tibetans while Subir Bhaumik?s ?The Returnees and the Refugees: Migration from Burma? condemns such a regime by showing how disadvantaged sections of the refugees from Burma suffered under an inconsistent regime.

The other common feature in the book is the use of the term ?refugee? to mean a person in flight from widespread violent conflicts, breakdown of law and order, systematic violations of human rights, and threat to the lives of individuals and people. This understanding of the term goes beyond the international legal definition of a refugee i.e., a person who, owing to a well founded fear of persecution, (the focus being on individual persecution) is compelled to flee from his native country to seek the protection in another country.

Sarbani Sen?s Chapter ?Paradoxes of the International Regime of Care? clears the ambiguity surrounding the presence and role of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in India, which is non-official organization based on a common concern for refugees and a case-specific cooperation with the government of India. The chapter also traces the improving relationship between the world body and the Indian State. B.S. Chimni?s chapter on the status of refugees in India provides an insight into the constitutionally inherent obligations of the Indian State towards the protection, care and assistance of refugees while also succinctly spelling out India?s obligations towards refugees under the customary International law even as it remains a non-signatory state to the 1951 and 1967 conventions.
Asha Hans? piece on refugee women and children is a fact-file on the suffering of women and children in refugee communities in India. Women and children constitute the most vulnerable components of displaced and refugee communities and are the most visible face of the misery often associated with refugees. By focusing on the international, national and non-governmental relief mechanisms for them, the chapter is of immense referral value to further research on the subject.

While the book impresses with its facts and figures, it is too historical in approach, often to the extent of obscuring the analytical and policy-tracing aspects, perceivably the principal objective behind the entire endeavor. However, such chronological orientation is unavoidable in a pioneering compilation such as this. One is left to wish that the book had focused more on the analysis of the problem of refugees as affecting the security and economy of the host country and the region as a whole, and the remedies thereof. Yet, the historical tinge which relegates such issues to the back-burner in this book does provide necessary material for such analysis and further study.
Overall, the book succeeds in filling a void in the study of refugees in India, especially relating to the State?s response to the question of refugees. It highlights the ad hocism with which the issue of refugees is handled in India and puts forth a strong argument in favor of a national legislation on refugees to replace the regime of mercy with a regime of rights.