19. B.G. Verghese, The North East Resurgent, New Delhi: Konarak Publishers Pvt. Ltd., 1996

20. Ibid.

21. Interviews with Imtiaz Ahmed, New Delhi, and at Hikkedewa, Sri Lanka, 1998

22. Atiq Rahman, Simeen Mahmud, Trina Haque, ‘A Critical Review of the Poverty Situation in Bangladesh in the Eighties,’ Bangladesh Institute for Development Studies, Dhaka, May 1988

23. Meghna Guhathakurta, Communal politics in South Asia and the Hindus of Bangladesh. Unpublished paper, 1999. Presented at Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, Indo-Bangladesh Dialogue

24. Ibid.

25. Ibid.

26. Ibid.

27. Ibid.

28. Hazarika, Sanjoy, Bangladesh and Assam: Land Pressures, Migration and Ethnic Conflict. American Academy of Arts and Sciences, University of Toronto, March 1993; Imtiaz Ahmed, Environmental Refugees, Reinventing Indo-Bangladesh Relations. Conference paper, December 1995.

29. These and other details are taken from various census documents of the Census of India, 1991, including Series 4 Assam (published by N.C. Dutta, Director, Census Operations, Assam, 1993)

30. Census of India, 1991, Series 4, West Bengal, Migration Tables, Volume 1, June 1998.

31. Census of India, 1961, Registrar-General of India, New Delhi 1964, Chapter V.

32. This and subsequent data related to this petition is based on the Supplementary Affidavit/Status Report on behalf of The State of West Bengal filed in the Supreme Court by S.S. Rakshit, Joint Secretary, Home (Political) of the State Government, January 1999

33. Home Minister’s statement 6 May 1997.

34. Governor Sinha’s report to the President, 1998

35. Birth rate and death rate in Bangladesh, 1951-74, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS), 1974, Dhaka

36. Population, birth, death and growth rates in Bangladesh: census estimates, BIDS, Dhaka, 1990

37. Shapan Adnan, ‘Fertility decline under absolute poverty: paradoxical aspects of demographic change in Bangladesh, Economic and Political Weekly, 30 May 1998.

38. Brown, Lester, R., Gary Gardener and Brian Halweil, Beyond Malthus: Nineteen Dimensions of the Population Challenge, W.W. Norton Company, New York, 1999, p 98

39. Affidavit on Behalf of State of Assam in the Matter of All India Lawyers Forum for Civil Liberties and Another versus Union of India and Others, 1 September 1999 (for details, see Appendices)

Chapter Fourteen

1. Fourth Informal Consultation on Refugee and Migratory Movements in South Asia, Dhaka, 10-11 November 1997

2. On the Humanitarian Frontiers. Lecture by Sadako Ogata, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, New Delhi, 5 May 2000

3. Ibid.

4. Ibid.

5. Ibid.

6. Shekhar Aiyar, Times of India, 13 September, 2000

7. Hilary French, Vanishing Borders: Protecting the Planet in the Age of Globalization, World Watch Institute, W.W. Norton, 2000

8. William Frankel, ‘Immigrants are a Powerful Force,’ Statesman, Calcutta, 25 March 2000

9. Population Reports, Series J, Number 45, Family Planning Programmes, October 1998

10. Refugee Watch, South Asia Forum for Human Rights and Mahariban Calcutta Research Group, Calcutta, December 1998

11. Ibid.

12. These and subsequent references are from Zaid Bakht’s study, Cross-Border Illegal Trade in Bangladesh: Composition, Trends and Policy Issues, Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies, Dhaka, October, 1996

13. Chief Election Commissioner, M.S. Gill’s press conference in New Delhi, 12 August 2000, reported as ‘Voters Have to Prove Identity: EC’ in Statesman, New Delhi, 13 August 2000

14. Director-General, BSF talk in New Delhi to civil service officers, 16 October 2000.

15. Hazarika, Strangers of the Mist, p. 65.

16. Myron Weiner, The Global Migration Crisis: Challenges to States and to Human Rights, HarperCollins, 1995

Appendices