Paper short abstract:

Exiled Tibetans in India are simultaneously ‘citizens’, 'refugees' and ‘foreign guests’. This paper examines the materiality and symbolism of identity documents issued to these individuals by the Tibetan Government-in-Exile and Government of India to explore Tibetans’ legal and political identities

Paper long abstract:

Exiled Tibetans in India are an unusual marginalised population; with their own government structure operating within the state of India they are simultaneously 'Tibetan citizens' in the eyes of the Tibetan government-in-exile, 'refugees' in the eyes of the international community and 'foreign guests' in the eyes of the Indian state. Caught in this legal limbo, Tibetans daily negotiate their position vis-à-vis these governments - one theirs but unrecognised, the other their long-term 'host'. The aim of this paper is two-fold; to chart the contradictory relationship between Tibetans in India and each of the two 'states' which identify, label and document them through the lens of the identity documents issued by the Tibetan and to examine how citizenship is created and negotiated by a political community without sovereignty over territory. Such analysis of the relationship between the state and the individual and the state's role in identity construction will be examined through the identity documents issued by the exiled Tibetan administration and the Government of India. A focus on the differences between these documents - both effective and affective - enables a picture of a population caught between two 'states' to emerge. Moreover, if identity papers are to be seen as the point at which the state passes into material form, then the question of how this happens when the state in question is unrecognised and lacks sovereignty over territory becomes salient.