The Burmese community in India consists of refugees, immigrants and expatriates from Burma as well as Indian citizens of Burmese ancestry. The

2014 Myanmar Census Fourteen or 14 may refer to: * 14 (number), the natural number following 13 and preceding 15 * one of the years 14 BC, AD 14, 1914, 2014 Music * 14th (band), a British electronic music duo * ''14'' (David Garrett album), 2013 *''14'', an unrele ...

enumerated 17,975 Burmese individuals living in India.

Ethnicity

The Burmese refugee population in India is overwhelmingly from the

Chin The chin is the forward pointed part of the anterior mandible (List_of_human_anatomical_regions#Regions, mental region) below the lower lip. A fully developed human skull has a chin of between 0.7 cm and 1.1 cm. Evolution The presence of a we ...

ethnic minority group, with smaller Kachin, Rakhine, and

Bamar The Bamar (, ; also known as the Burmans) are a Sino-Tibetan ethnic group native to Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia. With approximately 35 million people, the Bamar make up the largest ethnic group in Myanmar, constituting 68% of th ...

populations as well.India: Close the Gap for Burmese Refugees
, ''Refugees International'', 12 August 2009.

Migration history

Following the

1962 Burmese coup d'état The 1962 Burmese coup d'état on 2 March 1962 marked the beginning of one-party rule and the political dominance of the army in Burma (now Myanmar) which spanned the course of 26 years. In the coup, the military replaced the civilian AFPFL-g ...

, 155,000

Burmese Indians Burmese Indians are a group of people of Indian origin who live in Myanmar (Burma). The term 'Burmese Indian' refers to a broad range of people from South Asia, most notably from present-day countries such as India, Bangladesh and also Pakis ...

were repatriated to India and resettled by the Indian government in ‘Burma Colonies’ in cities like

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Tiruchirappalli Tiruchirappalli () ( formerly Trichinopoly in English), also called Tiruchi or Trichy, is a major tier II city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Tiruchirappalli district. The city is credited with bein ...

and

Madurai Madurai ( , also , ) is a major city in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District. As of the 2011 census, it was the third largest Urban agglomeration in ...

. Burma has been entrenched in political and armed conflict between the repressive ruling military regime, political opponents, and ethnic groups - resulting in the displacement of over 3.5 million people. India being a neighboring country hosts a large and growing number of 100,000 Burmese refugees.Upliftment of the Burmese Refugee community by students from IIT Delhi
, ''indian express .com'', 7 June 2011. Chin refugees have been leaving Burma for over four decades to escape persistent human rights abuses committed by the

Burmese army The Myanmar Army ( my, တပ်မတော်(ကြည်း), ) is the largest branch of the Tatmadaw, Armed Forces (''Tatmadaw'') of Myanmar (Burma) and has the primary responsibility of conducting land-based military operations. The My ...

. Many experts believe that abuses became increasingly systematic and serious after the 1988 uprising in Burma, and this date does signal a growth in the numbers of refugees in India. However, there is also a sizable community of Chin refugees in India that have resided in the country since the 1970s who played an important role in helping refugee communities adjust to their new surroundings.

Distribution

Burmese refugees in India live primarily in two places: the Northeast states of

Mizoram Mizoram () is a state in Northeast India, with Aizawl as its seat of government and capital city. The name of the state is derived from "Mizo people, Mizo", the endonym, self-described name of the native inhabitants, and "Ram", which in the Mizo ...

and, to a lesser extent,

Manipur Manipur () ( mni, Kangleipak) is a state in Northeast India, with the city of Imphal as its capital. It is bounded by the Indian states of Nagaland to the north, Mizoram to the south and Assam to the west. It also borders two regions of Myanm ...

, and the capital city of

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament House ...

. Since India does not officially recognize Burmese as refugees, it is difficult to get a firm grasp on how many Burmese live in the country. Estimates for the Northeast, where the refugee population is predominantly Chin, range from 50,000 to 100,000.

UNHCR India The head office of UNHCR's mission in India is located in Delhi, with a field office in Chennai. Actor John Abraham is the Goodwill ambassador for UNHCR in India. The current chief of mission is Oscar Mundia. UNHCR won the Indira Gandhi Prize fo ...

has registered between 3,000 and 4,000 Burmese living in Delhi, also primarily Chin, and estimates that over 600 Burmese are finding their way to Delhi each month.

Discrimination

While India generally tolerates the presence of Burmese refugees, they do not afford them any legal protection, leaving them vulnerable to harassment, discrimination, and deportation as the country is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, nor does it have a domestic legal code to identify and protect refugees. Without any formal recognition as refugees, the Chin community in Delhi suffer numerous challenges. The inability of many Chin refugees to communicate in either English or

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

also subjects them to daily hardship.

Notable people

Sitt Nyein Aye Sitt Nyein Aye ( my, စစ်ငြိမ်းအေး, ; born 24 April 1956) is a Burmese artist. Sitt Nyein Aye came from a small village, near Nyaung-U Township in Upper Myanmar.Christina Fink, Living silence: Burma under military rule'. ...

- Burmese artist *

Helen Jairag Richardson Helen Ann Richardson Khan (born as Helen Ann Richardson; 21 November 1938), known mononymously as Helen, is an Indian actress and dancer. She has appeared in over 700 films, making her a prolific performer in Hindi cinema. She is known for her s ...

- Indian film actress *

Lekha Washington Lekha Washington is an Indian actress, artist, and product designer who has predominantly appeared in Tamil and Telugu language films. She was first recognised for her work as a sculptor in 2002 and then as a theatre actress in Chennai based sta ...

-Indian film actress and model * Pu Zoramthanga - Boxer *

U. A. Khader U. A. Khader (16 November 193512 December 2020) was an Indian author. He published in Malayalam, including novels, novellas, short stories, travelogues and non-fiction. His works have been translated to various languages including English, Hindi ...

Usha Narayanan Usha Narayanan, born Tint Tint ( my, တင့်တင့်; 1922 — 24 January 2008), was the First Lady of India from 1997 to 2002. She was married to K. R. Narayanan, the tenth President of India. Upon her husband's assumption of the pre ...

(born Tint Tint) - former First Lady of India *

Pessie Madan Pessie Madan (26 September 1916 – 17 April 2015) was a Brigadier of the Indian Army and an early leader in India’s high-technology research and development sector. Early life Madan was born to a Parsi family in Rangoon, Burma (now Myanmar) ...

Samir Chaudhuri Samir Chaudhuri is an Indian pediatrician and humanitarian. He is the founder (1974) and director of the Child In Need Institute (CINI), also known as Child In Need India, an organisation that works to facilitate sustainable development in heal ...

* Ahalya Chari * Essof Ashroff * K. Deep * Ahmed Mamsa * Peston Padamji Ginwala *

S. N. Goenka Satya Narayana Goenka (ISO 15919: ''Satyanārāyaṇ Goyankā''; ; 29 January 1924 – 29 September 2013) was an Indian teacher of Vipassanā meditation. Born in Burma to an Indian business family, he moved to India in 1969 and started tea ...

Bhanumati Devi Bhanumati Devi (15 May 1934 – 4 January 2013) was a Burmese-born Indian film and theater actress. Devi was born in British Burma on 15 May 1934. She moved to Puri, Odisha, India, with her Indian family following World War II. Devi began ac ...

References

{{Burmese diaspora

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...