[Soasiastudents] Tibetan Govt. in Exile

[Keith Snodgrass]

Friday, May 16
12:30 PM
Thomson 403

State within a state? Exiled Tibetans? everyday encounters with the Tibetan
government-in-exile and the Indian state.
by Fiona McConnell

Exiled Tibetans in India are an unusual community; with their own government
structure operating within the state of India - albeit without legal
recognition - they are simultaneously ?Tibetan citizens? in the eyes of the
Tibetan government-in-exile (TGiE) and ?foreign guests? in the eyes of the
Indian state. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, this paper interrogates the
nature of relations between the Indian state, the Tibetan community resident
there and the TGiE through the empirical lenses of the negotiation of legal
status and the provision of welfare. Far from a straightforward relationship
between a state and a refugee population, the paper shows that this is a
complex, dynamic and at times contradictory three-way relationship. It will
be argued that the existence of a state-like entity functioning within a
sovereign state raises key questions regarding the nature of sovereignty,
statehood and citizenship, the negotiation of state-citizen relations and
the boundaries of authority, responsibility and legitimacy. How these issues
are addressed is shown to be fundamental to the changing relationships
between the Indian state, the TGiE and Tibetans in India.

Fiona McConnell is a graduate student at the Department of Geography, Queen
Mary University of London. Her research looks at the form, functioning and
limitations of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in India in order to
address broader issues regarding sovereignty without territory, and the
nature of statehood. She is a visiting graduate student at UW until
mid-June.


-- 
Keith Snodgrass
Associate Director and Outreach Coordinator
South Asia Center
Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies
University of Washington
w: http://jsis.washington.edu/soasia/
p:206.543.4800
f: 206.685.0668
e: snodgras at u.washington.edu
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