Memory and Migration: Bhutanese Refugee Women and Oral Histories of Self and Nation

This paper focuses on the ‘flight’ and ‘temporary settlement’ of the Bhutanese refugee women living in Nepal – the uncertainties, the sufferings and feelings of rootlessness that overwhelm them. Based on in-depth interviews conducted with the refugees, the office bearers of humanitarian organizations working in the area and field observations of the author, the paper provides a comprehensive assessment of the social, psychological and economic wellbeing of the refugee women. The author links the Duar War in 1865 with the recent refugee crisis in Bhutan in the 1990s to raise important questions about citizenship and identity.