University of Michigan
Refugees in Empire: Jewish Refugees in British India (1921-1951)
Assumptions of the sovereign equality of nation-states has determined how scholars define refugees (as a consequence of the emergence of nation-states), where this definition and understanding of refugees is built (in the interaction of states in an international or regional refugee regime after the Second World War), and who the legitimate refugee is (persons located in Europe). My research, by thinking with imperial frameworks, traces the processes and negotiations within European empire-states that shaped their international positions on refugees. Specifically, it demonstrates how Britain, in its interactions in the developing international refugee regime, was constrained by the prerogatives of different semi- and non-sovereign territories within its imperial boundaries. Furthermore, it investigates how Jewish refugees responded to and resisted their state-designated labels, contributing to the building of the “refugee” as a social and political category. Using a multi-scale approach that examines the experiences and administration of European Jews in British India at the international, imperial, and local levels, I ask: how did European Jews negotiate the complexities of their identities as “Europeans,” “Jews,” and “refugees” in India? Additionally, how did the interdependence between empire-states and their semi-sovereign or colonized territories impact the diverse structures and systems of laws and institutions that administered Jewish refugees in India?