South Asia State of Minorities Report 2019 decades. More than 250,000 people are estimated to have arrived in Tamil Nadu from Sri Lanka between 1983 and 1991.8 In Myanmar, Rohingya Muslims have been subject to various forms of state repression, including the stripping of their citizenship rights, since the erstwhile Burma’s Independence in 1948. More recently, a brutal military crackdown in their native Rakhine province has resulted in hundreds of thousands of Rohingya fleeing to neighbouring countries, particularly to Bangladesh. However, despite a massive humanitarian effort by the Bangladeshi government, the harsh conditions there have led many to make their way into India, in the hope of finding better and safer living conditions, increased economic opportunities, and a tolerant, if not accepting environment.9 The Rohingya in India are concentrated mostly in camps scattered across Jammu, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, Jaipur and Mewat. Statelessness: De Jure and De Facto A case of de facto, if not de jure, statelessness in India is that of the Chakma and Hajongs. Of the 14,888 settled by the government of India, an estimated 6,087 are alive today and still await citizenship.10 According to the 2011 Census, the Chakma population is now 47,471, with the overwhelming majority born in India. In 1996, the Indian Supreme Court directed the government to grant them Indian citizenship.11 But the process has faced hurdles from local student groups and politicians, with the Arunachal Pradesh state assembly even adopting a resolution against granting citizenship to the group. The opposition is built along the lines of disruption of local rights and culture. A challenge to the order was defeated by the Supreme Court in 2015, which directed for 8 Ghosh, Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia, 29. 9 Yermi Brenner, ‘Rohingya Migration to India: Patterns, Drivers and Experiences,’ Mixed Migration Centre, April 1, 2019, http://www.mixedmigration. org/resource/rohingya-migration-to-india/. 10 Damini Singh, ‘The Chakma-Hajong Challenge,’ Observer Research Foundation, September 27, 2017. https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/ chakma-hajong-challenge/. 11 Jarpum Gamlin, ‘Why an SC Judgment Has Riled Up Arunachal’s Frontier People,’ Daily O, October 15, 2015, https://www.dailyo.in/politics/arunachalpradesh-chakma-and-hajong-refugees-supreme-court-bengal-eastern-frontierregulation-1873/story/1/6813.html. 42