Dominant narratives around refugees in India are ones of ‘threat’ or ‘burden’ on the one hand, and ‘victim’ on the other – different extremes of a spectrum, yet all convey negative or passive attributes. In the ‘threat’ and ‘burden’ arguments, refugees are seen to take or compete with nationals for scarce resources from the state and society, such as jobs, welfare, or land. More recently, hosting refugees has been conflated by some with giving refugees Indian citizenship and therefore a doorway to entitlements and power (something that many refugees in the country have never called for). In the ‘victim’ narratives, refugees are seen primarily through the lens of suffering, and are presented as passively waiting for assistance or ‘to be saved’. While experiences of persecution and suffering are certainly very real, victimhood does not characterize the entirety of refugee lives in India. The country has famously hosted many different refugee groups since independence, and each of them has lived rich lives in India’s towns, cities, and villages; bringing traditions from home countries, learning and adapting aspects of the host’s culture, supporting each other, and advocating for their community’s right to return home one day – safely and with dignity.

This chapter explores some of those social and cultural activities of different refugee groups across the country, focusing in particular on Tibetan and Rohingya refugees. It highlights the agency behind different acts of cultural preservation in India, and aims to fill a research gap on refugee-led advocacy for protection and the ‘right to return’. Indeed, cultural activities and advocacy work are integral and connected parts of many refugee lives in a host state, and they are usually led by refugees and refugee organizations themselves. Yet, refugee experiences, voices, and expertise in these areas are often excluded from analyses – partly because such stories do not fit the ‘burden’ or ‘victim’ narratives. An additional aim of this chapter, therefore, is to disrupt those conventions.