Professor Dr. Michael Hutt, who was until recently Professor of Nepali and Himalayan Studies, at the School of Oriental and Africa Studies (SOAS), University of London, is a renowned scholar on Bhutan studies. He has visited Bhutan, the Bhutanese refugee camps in Nepal, and Bhutanese resettled in developed countries. He has closely studied the refugee saga from the beginning till date. He has authored books and articles in peer-reviewed journals on Bhutanese issues. I P Adhikari and Dr. Govinda Rizal of Bhutan Watch Team approached Dr. Hutt for a conversation on past, present and future of the former and current Bhutanese refugees. Read Complete Interview
Repatriation is not just a physical return to ‘home’ but a complex political process. With the deadlock of repatriation, resettlement came to be the only practical solution to most of the Bhutanese refugees, which weakened the repatriation movement in the sense both local integration and third-country resettlement couldn’t be a durable solution. Bhutanese refugees faced severe pain in exile, got international attention when they began efforts of repatriation. After the peace marches to Bhutan failed in 1996 & 2007, repatriation voices got gradually muted an activist-less eloquent. The repatriation persuaders (the eloquent and visible leaders) excluding few exceptions chose the third-country resettlement and disappeared from the activism. A paucity of unified permanent persuaders weakened the vibrancy of the repatriation movement. For restoring the vitality of activism, the repatriation movement of Bhutanese refugees anticipates permanent persuaders as a historic necessity to a logical conclusion. Keywords: Hegemony, refugee, resistance, repatriation, resettlement Read Complete Article