Refugee Crisis in Eastern India

During the Early Decadesin the

Post-Partition South Asia
Om Prakash*

The partition of India in 1947

resu.Ited displacementof .rpproxtnlately
,in 1g
I ;::: i::I::.'
exodus:.: :::0, 7: ":y";;:;";:;;,;:-" i i,;;; ;; ;;;# # ror r.or bensa\
Bensar,,he
fo,! .: :.:i
refugee continued the
v"oi, ,:'11i"_111'.
*niietr,e
,",,,,i,"''.,li,ii";"ff,"!:;:::::,'":"li;,ilo:[#:,r".":i:;",::
restictedprimonryto lr,r-1i*-
T!,I,.lji^l;\ty"1er
nas turnecl out to be q continuit i"..ii,' rn"i"nu_^ of Bensar
no*,a","
p"opii;;;;;;::'yl",iii,ii:,i;,'i{.ilii"!!:Xo'i:fn:,y,i::
en.v.r.lot:mentposed a challenge
::y: to their etistence o i- runur".
,:^"-::::\r*!" toreards the government policies What wcrs
government polic! to resettle of relief and rehabilitation? The
th
lIlp::":"i'bi"a.iiii"""i'iii",T.:':X::":i;';&:il'":::,,*:;:;::;
t n e g o v e r n m e n ts o u r c e s ,e s p e c i o u y
of the
Rehabititqtion oJ Government uiiirii- R e t i e fr t n d
"t';;;r"",
Rehobilitation, Goverrrment "f,,y^, :9:;1t ?;;'':i":: ;:i;; Department of
of India, and.theLok Sabho Orirrir-ona
AssembryD2bates,Reportof tn" lnion- West Bengal
li:r" along
etc-, -!:t_:r"l.y" iol"ning co^mr"ion
with other sources.

Intro du cti on
According to a French academician
Jean Luc Nancy, .,the gravest
most painful
tnatpossrury in'o,,*.u","* *"*;',:::,.;T,;
;;::tT:::_.t:T"J'1:::-l:no:.*.,ne
this epoch must answer is the
testimo,,. ;; ;;'--;,::^:.:l-""'€r
rEsumonresto which
of trle dissolution, the dislocation
or the
confl,d.ri^- ^r^^
;#:il":l,'::ffx:".i jl"^:t-".""av *ll:
, - -.testimony
iasouse'eatial; ;,".;.:"#:il;:::
ilffiT,*':'::lj',1-
rightly P:(memory begins
pointed out that
historicar
*'t o'.";.'
l" where history ends..3l, n""ffi ilHil;::
The division of India was done
according to the Mou,ltbaften plan (3d
on July 18' l94z the British parliament June plan).
p.""r"a ,h" tlt- t*'""o*ce
of power. The border between Act for transfer
India and pakistan w." d."turmirrea
by a British
,*,i, us.rauyreferred
lawyel cyril Radcliffe,whowroteit. pakistan * *"io,u" i_*d aftertrte London
;[THH::I::1":_":
*-" ,r. *", *iii"i1lnil::::
' -r"onffi
f.1tlff'"ffi',iT3:.T,,Ti
i&".*Tr
I Nancy Jean Luc (lgglr,The lnoDel.otive
- Corn^unity, p. l, Minneopolis, Minnesota.
N:ndy Ashis (2003). ..Srate,History
ar -^!! !, JUqur aran pouucs:
Politics: Modernity
or Clandesrine
oJ Lrandestine and
and In"omrnunl"aUie_i-_
Incornmunicabte lt"1":11t,T:,::*.T-tn_ Modernity and
and the
the Landscape
Landscape
Ashis *.""1y (Ed.),
me Romon."ol the state, eiri
f :T:^"i::::,'.,h.,f"pi* ;;.
^^ ;l;_'i,
rre rare or Dissentin th. rr'^i..
;j';;ffi
::'1":::ti
lf,l"'.i#*"if,['J;:fi,:
K*umar.(I997), 'Memory
3:;: .:.t-"oto Begins where Hisrory Ends,,. in satnrnadar R?nabir (Ed.),
ReJlections
ReJlections on partitii"
Partitionofihe
ii" e*t,
Eost-.'*. .r,u-- New Delhi.
p.'es,vikas,
"S
O 2ol0 IUp All RighB Reserved.
enclaves,East Pakistan(today Bangladesh)and West Pakistan,separatedgeographicallyby
1,ooo miles. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regionsof the colony,and Pakistan
ftom the majority Muslim areas.

For Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary commission comprised of two Muslim and two
non-Muslim judSes headed by Cyril Radcliffe, who had no previous experience of India and
its territory. The mission of the Punjab commission was to demarcate the boundaries of the
two parts of Punjab, on the basis of ascertaining the contiSuous majority areas of Muslims
and non-Muslims. In doing so, it was to take into account other factors' Each side
(the Muslims and the Congress/Sikhs) presented its claim through counsel' Thejudges were
divided on all major issubs which enabled clril Radcliffe to make the actual decisions' The
2,736 km long boundary line passes through Jessore, Nadia, Malda, Dinajpur and
Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal and sylhet district of neiShboring Assam' The demarcation of
the line was arbitrary since it cut across water channels, Pilgrimage centers, location of
industries and other vital strategic locations

J N sarkar, the famous historian, had observed, "The Hindus and Muslims of Bengali
origin have lived together side by side in peace for so many centuries that it is now
impossible to draw a clear-cut geoSr:aphicalline dividing the Hindus from the Muslim"''
The partition of Bengal in 1947 rendered millions uprooted and killed thousands. For
BenSal,the refugee exodus continued for years after partition' lt has been observedthat'
while ,,the partition of Punjab was a one,time event with mayhem and forced mi8ration
restrictedprimarily to the first three years (1947-50),the partition of Bengalhas turned out
to be a continuing process".sNearly one million died in the communal violence between
Hindus and sikhs Onthe one side and Muslims on the other. An estimated18 million people
were displacedwith close to two million killed. The population movement itself is one of
thelalSestinrecordedhumanhistoryandthetraumaofthepartitionremainedembossed
At the
on the psycheof thlee nation-statesof South Asia: India, Pakistan,and Bangladesh'u
time of partition, Hindus constituted around 31oloof East Pakistan' By 1951' only 24%
remained there due to large-scalemigration.

The then Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru signi'icantly remarked on the pliSht
of refugees in Eastern India: "West Bengal has suffered more from partition and its
after effectsthan .rnyprovinceor any part of the country.Punjabalso suffered,but it suffered
more in the sense of mass killins of the people' while economicall)!wcst Bengal had
suffereclrnore".' Ihe evacuecproperty left by the Muslims migratedto west Pakistrn,hclped
the displacedHindus and Sikhs laom the west Pakistanto settle down in Punjab and the
a d j a c e n ta r e a s .A l a r g en u l n b e ro f d i s p l a c c dp e o P l er v e r ea b s o r b c di n t h c g o v e r n m e nJt o D s

s a r k i r J N ( 1 9 1 7 ) . ' 1 n u r r B u : r r r P . r r r i f t ( r, u l \ I l
B:rSchi.JasodhaIiandDasgupr.subhor.njnn(I]d5')(200:]).Tfie,fldltl](rdnl1t/le7)'iu'Vr/l:Gc11.J(f
d n d i l r r / i r i r ) , ri r I i r f l r . n l n d i d . P P . 2 l . I i o i k r r i
the UrnBil
S c h e n d e l$ i l l i r n r V . r n ( 2 0 O 3 ) \ \ ' o r k i n g l h r o u : l h I h r t i r i o n s : N l r k i n g n l i \ i n g i n
( t , r t l s o . i ( r i c / r r I ' r . q ei n A s i u ]
Bordertancls . in Das Ar-,,indN .nd linden Nlnrcel virn der ([.d.). tv,)fk
tsr(ll'i in Itorrorrr (,/ J(rn ar.l]r.,). pP. 52 5'1. lUlnohar. Ne\! I)clhi.
c o p a l S ( 1 9 9 2 ) . s e i . ' . f e d } 1 / o r k ro l J d r t ( r n d r l d l N € h I u . \ ' o l . X I V P a r t 1 . p 6 N t ' w D e l h i '

parrilion Sotrrh \siir

Refuaee Crisis in anstern lndia During the Elirlv Decades in rhe Post 17
 a n d i n t h e a r m e d f o r c e s .T h e ( i o v e r n n t e n l o f l n d i a ( c o l )
s e r i o u s l yt n c k l c d t h e c o m p e n s a t i o n
cr:jjnls for imnlovable propcrties of th(: (jisplijced alriviDS
fronr rvesL pakrslan. frolvevcr the
situalioll was uncven and 'cr),difl"rent in thc cil\e of
l l c n g . , l . I I i n c l L t sl . l l i g r a t i n gf r o n L a s t
lj;rkistiln(now Bingladcsh) settled;!cross Llrstern
Indiil and N()nhcrslern Indir, nlany
s e l t l i n g i n c l o s e b ) s t a t e ss u c h r s w c l t l l e r l i i r l ,A 5 - . s a n r , i ] n d - f r i p u r i r .
s ( ) n r r r r i g r i r ) t s r \ r e r rs e n t
to thc Andilnran as well.

( r r i t i c sa t c S e t r r a t t s r i t i s hh a s t e
t o I e a ' c r n c r i ar c d r o r h e c r u e r r i e so l r h c p a r r i r i o n .B c c a u s e
i n d e p e n d c n c er v a s d e c l a r t ' d p r i o r t o t h e a c t u . l l p a r t i l i o n ,
no rilrge popuration nlovenlents
h,ere contcmplated. Ilowever. somc argue rhat
thc llrilish tverc forced to cxpedite the
partition by the development of events. Lalv and
ordcr had broken dorvn many times before
partition, with rnuch bloodshed on both sides.
A massive ci'il rvar uras expecreclby the rime
Mountbatten became viceroy. After the world rvir
II, Britain was devasrated and had limited
resourcesJ perhaps insufficicnr to the task of keeping
order. A hasry exlr was en!,rsaged as
less bloody than the slow disintegration of the emDire.

It would be important to obscrve that holv thesc people

strugglcd and what was their
attitude towards the government poiicies of relief
ancl rehabilltatlon? .fhe paper also
attempts to critically look into the various phases
of the government poltcy to resettle these
miSrants and also what legacy this aspect of. partition
of India left on the memory and
geopolitics of Indian subcontinenr.

The historiography of partition has gone rhrough

vivid change with more additions of
literature during the recent years. The so years of
lndia's lndependence led some scholars
to look back on the other side of Independence,
i.e., partirion from varying and differenr
I
perspective. The traditional partition historiography,
with very few exceptrons, had largely
explored the causes of India's partition and the inherent
politics, responsibilities, etc., behind
it. In contrast, the new partition historiography
highlighted the experience of the common
people and human dimension. Ritu Menon
and Urvashi Butalia tried interview method to
add new dimensions in the pariition narratives;
however, they focus on a gender approach.
Partition is not merely about riots or violence, but
it is also about becomrng a mlnority and
related trials and tribulations.

I Kanti Pakr:asi's sociological study on the refugees

of West Bengal is an important work
I in the field. His approach was to highlight that partition
shoulJnever merely rnean the
territorial division of the subcontinent, but it cuts
across the ,corporate living, of thousands
of people. Pakrasi evaluared the impact of partition
on Bengal from a sociological point
of view; trying to understand the process and pattern
of ritLigration, atso the impact of
miSration on family structure, caste and occupation.
It was one of the earliest systematic
attempts to understand the impact of partirion on
Wesr Bengal. prafulla Chakrabarti opined
that the refugees were initially drawn towards the
Indian National Congress, the party in
power' when they got disitusioned about congress
initiarive in refugee rehabiliration, they
actively joined the opposition. The Left parries
m.rde inroads amoDg the refugees and thus
built their organizational base. Tai yong Tan
and cyanesh Kudaisya provided a
comprehensive account of the aftermath of partition
and its continuing legacy in the

48 The IUP Journal of Hisrory and Cutrure.Vol. IV No. 3,

20lO
landscape and psyche of various communities in South Asia. Its focus is on the dislocations
and disruptions caused by partition and t}re manner in which these were addressed, and
some of the long-term effects of partition on state and society in south Asia.

The c:eat Exodus in Eastern India

In the begi rinS of 794a49, calcuna and other districts ofwest Bengal were flooded with
reftrgees. fhe Government of west Bengal as well as the GoI was confronted with rhe
problem of refugees, They urgently needed statistical data. Under this situation, the Indian
statistical Institute rnade immediate arrangem€nts to collect data on the disPlaced farnilies
in the state. The survetprovides a plethora of usefr.rl information on the miSrants.

The major differences in the migtation between Eastern and western India are that the
exodus from East Pakistan continued during the 1950s, l96os and even after the creation
of Bangladesh in 1971; and the influx from East Pakistan to India had not been balanced
by a corresponding influx from India into Pakistan.r The displaced persons fTom west
Pakistan were absorbed much more rapidly because to some extent, a vacuum had .been
created by tie departure of Muslims. In the eastern region, the government had been faced lil$
with a monumental task of absorbing these disPlaced persons into an area which was
almost saturated, both from the point of view of demography and employment.
{'it
kil
The partition had left 12 million non-Muslim PoPulation of the undivided Bengal in [,tl
East Pakistan and over the next two decades,a sizeable part of this minority was displaced $i{
and forced to seek refuge in eastem India. Their displacement proved to be atr

a long-drawn affair, making the refu8ee rehabilitation in west Bengal highly complex and lll

problematic. In 1981, the Sovernment of West Bengal's Refu8ee Rehabilitation Committee

estimated that no less than eight million, i.e., about one-sixth of this state consists of
displaced persons from East Bengal.e

The exodus from East Bengal started even before the actual partition. The first batch of
refugees arrived after the riot in Noakhali and Tippera in 1946 in the wake of direct action
stirred by the Muslim LeaSle of M A Jinnah. Among the first to leave East Bengal were the
Hindu upper middle classpeople,as most had contactsin calcutta it would have been easy
for them to pick up professionsand trade in ne$'surtoundings.toThey left due to fear of
violent riots and a general sense of persecution and insecurity. Nilanjana Chatterjee
suggestedthat while a majority of the later refugeesfled from violence,many of the earlier
bhodrolok refugees left because of a combined fear of physical harm, a downturn in
economicopportunities,and a perceivedloss of social standing and porver" Although the
'lhe
P ak r a s i K a n t i B ( 1 9 7 1 ) , L l p r o o t e d , A S o c i o l o g i c o l S l u d y o / t h e R e / uS e e so f w e s t B e n g Q l , p p . 2 3 ' 2 5 '
Temple Prcss, Calcutra.
'Reiugee Rehabiliration Committees Report". Calculln-
Government of west Bengal (1981),
Broomfi€ld John tt968), trlile Conli.l in d Plrlrol SocietyrTtventi(,thCentury 8en8{rl. p. S' Universiry
of caliiornia Press. Berkeley.
rr Chatteriee Nilanjana (1990), "East Bengal Refugees: A Lesson in Survival". in Chaudhuri sukanta.
( E d . ) , ? h e t i v i n S C i t - v ,O x f o r d U n i v e r s i t y P r e s s , C a l c u t t a .

Refugee crisis in Eastern India During the Early Decades in the Post'Partition south Asia 49
 p o l i c y o f t h e I n d i a n g o v e r n r n e n ti n B e n s a l a i m e d n o t a t e v a c l l a i i n gt h e m i n o r i t i e s f r o m I r a s t
pakistan. as has been done eflectively in Puniab, but ln lregotiating with Pakistani
But
authorities for creating conditions of security so that mass exodus could bc prevenled
r h e s e n l c a s u r e s .i n c l u d i n s N e h r u l , i a q u a l P a c t , P r o v e d t o b e f u r i l e a r l d b ) 1 q 5 0 r n e s L t n l : t e J
1,575,000 peoplc Ieft'cast Rcngalfor Indi:r'ir Neither of thesc people \v'r\ interc\ted to 80
. v e n t h o s c w h o b e l o n g e d t o t h e m i d d l e c l a s s a t r d c " n l P : l r a r t v e l Yr r o r s e
t o t h e r e l i e f c a l m D sE
off families, and did not possessmuch resources, did not want to seltle in the relugee camps'
Against this backdrop,the squatters'colonies dolted Calcutta.

The next major influx took place following the massacre in several districts of Last
Bengal, particularly in the subdivision of IOtulna district on December 20' 1949 and then
Rajshahi, Faridpur and Barisal in February 1950. During this Pcriod, the refugees who
arrived to west Bcngal were very poor and most of them belong to agricultural labofers.
Between 1946 and 1970, about 5.28 million people moved from East Pakistan to west
B engal. "'
'displaced persons' from East
Table 1 reveals that the 1951 census identified 21,04,241
Pakistan in west Bengal. In the next census of 1961, the number escalated to 30,68,750 and
in 1971, the Refu8ee Rehabilitation Directorate, Government of West Bengal registered
4 2 , 9 3 , 0 0 0 E a s t P a k i s t a n R c f u g e e si n w c s t B e n g a l .

Table 1: Share of Refugee Population in Total Population

of West Bengal, 1951-71
Tot al Refugees From Percentage of Refugees
Year Population
P op u l a t i o n East Pakistan to Total

1951 2,62,99,94O 2t,o4,241 8.00

1961 3,49,26,279 30,68,7S0 a.7a

7971 4,43,12,Ot7 42,93,000. 9.68

Source: Censur of India ond R€frgee Rehabilitdtion Directorate', Govemment of West Bengal'

i when the'passport qatem'was introduced for travel from Pakistan to lndia on october
15, 1952, more people started to arrive. It was a "now or never kind of situation", which
scared many people during this phase." Almost all the Hindu Sovernment servants serving
l. in East Bengal opted for India. In the 1950s, millions of displaced Peasantsand agricultural
laborers arrived who possessedalmost nothinS'ts Most of them belong to the lower caste

? spate o H K (f956), I^ilis o.nd Pakiston, A Generc] dnd Regionol GeogroPhy' P' 120, Methuen'
London.
Pakrasi Kanti B ('1971), The lJprooteil: A sociologicdl Study of the Refugeesof west BenSdl, TemPle
Press. calcutta.
Dasgupta Abhijit (2001), "The Politics of Agitation and Confession: Displaced Bengalis in West
Bengai", in Ray sanj"r K (Ed.), Re.nrSees ond flumon Rishtrj sociol ar.d Political Dtmamicsof Refugee
Problem in Eastenl dnd Norlh-Easfem fndia, pp. 98_100, Rawat, Jaipur.
6 For details please refer Guha B s (1959). studi€s in sociol Teruions Among ReJu*es Il'om Eost
Pakiston.Governmentof India Press.Calcutta.

The IUP Journal of History and Cultute,Vol. IV No. 3, 2OlO

Namasudra and Mahisya communities. tiaditionally, Namsudras were involved in the
professionssuch as paddy cultrvation,boating, fishing and carpet makinS. Initially, they
were reluctant to leave East Bengal leaving behind their traditional cultivable land. But
once migrated, they contributed a lot to the proSress and prosperity of their new adopted
lanq.

The refugee situation in the Eas: remained grave throughout the l95os. As a result of
the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950, a large number of Muslims who had left west Bengal before
March 31, 1951, came back to west Bengal, and reclaimed tieir land already occupied by
the Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan-while the Muslim evacueesretumed to West
Bengal, there was hardly any reverse population flow of the Hindus fTom west Bengal to
East Pakistan. Refugees who lived near the border districts moved across the border into
both the eastern and northern parts of west Ben8al; however, the vast majoriry
approximately 700,6moved to Kolkata.'6

Largely, the refugees from the western parts of East Pakistan miSrated to the adjacent
districts of west Bengal, whereas the displaced from the central and eastem parts of East
Bengal decided to seftle in 24 Parganas, and in and around Calcutta, According to the
government sources, the first phase of the refu8ee inflows during the period 1946-1952 in
west Bengal was 2.52 million. The years between 1953 and 1956 were also regarded as
crucial. Gradually, by December 1957, the refugee influx reached the hiShest point in the
east. The number of the refugeescrossingthe international border went up to 3,16,000.r?

Initial Phase of Settlement and Government Policy

During the initial phase, the GOI was primarily concernedabout the resettlementof the
refugeesfrom West Pakistan, and the national leadership was ambivalent regarding its
responsibilitiestowards the Bengali Hihdu refugeesffom East Pakistan.Pandit Nehru's
letter to Bidhan chandra Roy,the then chief Minister of west Bengalreflectsthis approach.
Nehru had his opinion that "large scalemiSrationfrom East Bengal to the West should not
be encouraged,as it puts pressureon the concernedstate and, to some extent,on the Indian
union as well. I lowcvcr,if the refuqeescome over to WestBengal,they need to look after".'*

Against the in-migration of refugeesin west Bengal,the out-miSrationto East Bengal

was merely 0.70 million from west Bengaland Bihar.The central governmentinsistedthat
rhc vast tracts of wasteland in Assam should be utilized for production, as the available
surplus rvas more than sufficient to nccommodateboth refugeesand indigenouslandless
rq
DeoDle

c h a t t c r j c e S P ( 1 9 , 1 7 ) ,? / r e P a r t i t i o n o l t s e n g e l : A G e o ! ' . r e p h i c e lS t u d y l t i r h M { r p s o n d D i d . q r d r r j , E K A

- R c l i e l a n ( l R e h a b i l i t a t i o n o f D i s p l a c c dP e r s o n si n l v r s t B e n 8 a 1 . S t a t e n r e n t i s s u e d b / t h e ( i o ! e r n m c n t
o i W e s r B e n g a l .p . l . I ) . c e m b e r I l . 1 9 5 7 . C a l c u t t a .
C h a k r a b o r t y S a r o j ( 1 9 8 2 1 . I t i l h A C R o ) ' d n d O l h f r ( l h r e l r r l i n i s l e r s ,R n l a t C h a h r a b o r t l rC l l c u t t r .
'fhe
Problcnl o/ /1,qricullurol De|el{rpmcnr (Assam Government Pr€ss. 1946. l:ble VI. p. 8) :Ind
l n d u s t r i a l P l a n n i n g a n d D e v e l o p m e n to f A s s a r r ( C o v c r D m e n t o f A s s a o r . 1 9 4 8 ) .

Refugee Crisis in Eastern Ind;a During the Eaily Decades in the PosGPartition Sou Asi. 5l
 I n o r d e r t o p r o v i d e r e l i e f a n d r e h a b i l i t a t i o n t o t h e w a v e s o f r e l u g e e o n a w a r s c a l e ,r n e
( ; o l s e t u p a M i n i s t r v o f R e l i e f l ' d R e h a b i l i r a r i o ni n e a r l y
s e p r e r n b c r 1 9 4 7 . I s o l a t e c lp o c k e r s
of refugees lrere organized into canrps and ivere gi'en rations irrld military protection
l l J . r i n s t h a r z r s s n r e n tu. n l i k e t h e d i s p l a c e d p c r s o n s o f l v c s t l t , ] k i s t a n ,t h e r e f u g c e s c ( ) m i n g
l r o n r l l a s t l ) a k i s t a nl v e r c r e l u c r . n t t o n l o v e t o o t h e r s t a t e s e \ c c l ) t w e s t B c n g a l , l r i p u r a r n d
A s s a m . l h e r c h a b i l i t a t i o n s c h e o t e s\ v e r e b r o a d l ) ,d i v i c l e di n t o t w o s c c t i o n s .r u r a l a n d u r b a n .
I r o r t h e i l g r i c u l t u r i s t ,t h c s c h c m e l v a s o r ' a l l o t m e n t o l r g r i c u l t u r a i l l a n d o r r l n a n c i a l h e l p f o r
t h c p u r c h a s e o f t o o l s , e t c . a n d t h e a l l o r n l e D to l i t h o u s c h o l d p l o r o r a l o i t n f o r t h c p u r c h a s e
of such plot. Ihen loans !{ere raised lirr building a house lbllowed by monerary aid ti)r
bu)ing farming inrplenents such as bullocks an<I other equipmenrs. A marnrenance granr
f o r n i n e m o n t h s u p t o t h e h a r v e s t i l a s s a n c t i o n e d . N o n - a g r i c u l t u r i s r sw e r e g l v e n n t o a n t o
s t a r t t h c i r b u s i n c s so r f o r p u r c h a s i n gh o n e s t e a d p l o t a n d h o u s e - b u i l d i n ga l o n g l v i t h a g r a n t
for three months.

As early as 1949, there were refugee activists who had mobilized their communities in
order to provide shelter and livelihoods for themselves, rather than relying on aid liom
various levels of government.?r) By 1950, there were close to 15O refugee colonies,
concentrated mainly around the southeastern portion of Kolkata. These locations gave
residents in the refugee colonies access to a. range of possible ,livelihoods including
aquaculture, farming, and work in the industrial sector.,l

Some of the camps in west Bengal were converted jnto townships, so that the transition
fiom relief to rehabilitation was accomplished with little disturbance to the lives of the
refugees. In 1956, more than four lakh families srill lived in camps, while a very large
number awaited rehabilitation outside the camps.z, Those who were classified as refugees
were given identity cards and placed in one of the two tjrpes of housing_refugee colonies
or refugee camps. Those in the former received some level of resettlement and rehabilitation
assistance, while those in th€ latter were less privileged.,3 The Government used to grant
loans for the rehabilitation of refugees in the rural and urban areas depending upon the
occupational background of the displaced.

Immediately after the partition, when the mass movement of the uprooted was going on
in the eastern part of India, the GOI defined the term ,displaced' in the following words:

'r\ displaced person

is one who had entered India (who left or who was compelled
to leave his home in East pakistan on or after October 15, 1947 for disturbances or

Ral. Manas (2002), "crowing Up Refugee: On Memory and Locality,,, History Workshop Jorrrnot"
vol. s3, pp. 149 r79.
waber Rachel (2003)' 'Recreating the Home: women's Rore in the Deveropmentof R€fugeecolonies
in South Calcutta", in Bagchi Jasodhara and Dasgupta Subhoranjan (Eds.), ffte .Irouma and
the
Triumph: cender ond Porririon in fairem ,ndio. Xolkata.
Repcrt on Reliefand Rehabilitatio!:-f Displacedpersonsin west Bengal,DecemberI l, 1957.
Sen Sarbani (2000), "Tbe Legal Regime for Refuge€Retief and Rehabilitarionin Wesr Bengal,
l9'16- 1958", in BosePradip Kumar (Ed.), Ret.,geesin west Ben[.",t,rruti.urionor procrice o narcontested
Idcntities, pp. 49-64, Calcutta ResearchcrouD. Calcutta_

The IUP Journal of Hisrory and Culrure,Vol. IV No. 3, 2O1O

.-.,-
 fear of such disturbancesor on accountof setting up of the tlvo dominions of lndia
and Pakistan."rl

Regardingrehabilitation measuresin West Bengaluntil 1950, the governmentaimed at

providing the incoming refugees relief on a temporary basis, rather than creating conditions
for their long-termrehabilitation.lts main responseconsistedof setting up of relief camps
in key areas where shelter and other basic amenities essential for survival were provided,,s
Most pre-1950 refugees came fTom the middle classesand relied on their own resources to
begin life afresh, Less than loo/o depended on government assistance and sought
accommodation in the government-run refugee camps. However, after 1950, the problem of
refugee rehabilitation acquired a somewhat different character. Most of those now crossing
the border belonged to the agricultural classes.They come with few possessions,capital or
skills and naturally craved for land upon which they could resettle. The peak of the refugee
inflow occurred in 1956 when Pakistanadopted an Islamic constitution.'6

Accordingto the report on the Reliefand Rehabilitationof the DisplacedPersonsin West

Bengal,in 1953,the number of camp admissionsof the refugeeswas 10,474,in 1954,it was
46,904, and in 1955, the number increasedto 1,09,834.,7When the refugee camps got
overcrowdedJthey accommodatedthe families on pavementsin Calcutta.'?s

There was hardly any district in West Bengal in which the refugeesfTom East Pakistan did
not settle, Howevet the maximum number of refugeessettied in the following eight districts
viz.,24 Parganas,Calcutta,Nadia, Cooch Behar,Jalpaiguri, West Dinajput Burdwan and
Hooghly (Table2). Accordingto the 1951 Census,out of a total displacedpersonsllom East
Pakistan,49olomigrated to the rural areas of West Bengal and the rest of the 51oloto the urban
The l96l Censusrevealeda similar tendency.Out of 30,68,750refugeesfrom East
areas.?'r
Pakistan, s0-B8qomigrated to thc urbitn areas of West Beng.rl.]oSome of them were
rchabilitatcdin covirnmcnt camps and colonies,but the overwhelmingmajoritf settled in
squattercoloniesalong the e:rsternfiingcs of the city.In the 1960s,they got settledon the lvest
bank of the llooghly as rvell.As a res!rlt,a rurai hinterlandof KolkataWastransforrnedwithin
tlvo decadesinto an urban sprawl intcgrally linked to the core of the city.

It was only alter 1955 that the GOt decidedto look at the problenrof tlte E.isl Pakistani
r e f u g e e so n r m ( ) r el ) r l g n r n t i cb a s i s .A c c o r d i n gt o a n e s t i m a t e t, h e l a r g e rp a r t o f t h e t a s k
o f r e i r i l h i l i t a t i nw
g e s t l ) l l k i s t i l ndi i s l ) l a c e d
p r r s o n s\ ! a s a c c o r l p l i s h e db c f o r et h e r : n do f t t r e

! A D n L r aR
l c p o r t o f t h e D e p a r t n e n t o f R e h a b i l i t a l i o n .1 9 6 5 6 6 . p . 1 0 7 . D e p a r t r l e n t o f R e h a b i l i l a t i o n .
co\enrment of Indi.. Nerv Delhi.
S t f u . t c . l l y ( r r l s o / J d n ? n d r i u l N f l r f r i . \ ' i ) 1 .5 . p p . l b I 6 3 .
\ n n L r a l l { r p o r t s . 1 9 . 1 8 . 5 Sp. p 1 9 - 1 95 0 . \ ' l i r r s t r \ o l R e h n l ) i l i r a t i o nc. o v c r n n r c n t o t l n d i a . \ c r ! l ) c l h i .
I t r l i e l u n d R e h n b i l i L r t i o ror 1 D i s p l i l c . d l ) c r \ o r r \i l l \ \ i . \ r B f n r r l . I l o n r c ( l r L r b )D c p a r t n r c t . ( i o \ r r n n r r n t
( ) i l \ c s t B c r ! n l . ( l l c u t l a . . \ L r r L r \ tI 7 . 1 9 5 6 .
C h r t t c r ' e c \ ( l ( ) 9 0 ) . I h c I . l . s r I l c n g : r 1l l c l L r ! r r 5 , \ l . e s 5 o n i n S r r r \ i \ n l . i | l L l r n u d l r L r r i S ( t d . )
( l , r / . r 1 l d . I / r f L o r r r . :C i t _ r l A . l ' l r \ f r ) r d r r r iI i r l u t 1 . \ b l I l . O r f o r d t l n i \ c f s i ( ) ' l J r c s . ( l i t l ( u | l . r .

a L l l r r l Jr , / l n L l t d , 1 ( ) 5 1 .
( . r n r r t J , ) /J n d i d . 1 9 6 1 .

R e i u g c e C r i s i si n L n s r c r n 1 n . l i aD u r i n g t h e l . r l ! D c c a d c si n r h e P o s r p . r r i r i o n s o u r h ' 1 \ i n 53
 Table 2: East Pakistan Refugees in Different Districts
of West Bengal
Districts Total Rural Urban
24-[,rrt.rn3s 7 , 8 6 , 6 b1 2.97.164 4,89,497
i
Calcutta s,28,205 . l
Nadia 5 .,0022.,664455 3 .,8B1
I ,009 1 , 21 , 6 : t 8
Cooch Bchar 2,52,753 25,125
J a lp ai g u r i 2,18,341
West Dinajpur 1,72,237 1 , 25 , 15 5
Burdrva n 1,44,704 BI , B 4 1 62,863
130,951 38,663 92,288
30,68,750 15,O7,220 15,61,530

First Five-YearPlan.3'Despirethat, the SecondFive-yearplan provided Rs. 187 mn for the

rehabilitation of the refugees coming to India from West pakistan and Rs. 66g mn was
assiSnedfor the refugeescoming from East pakistai.3:Funds were mad! availablefor the
completionof the housing projects,and for mitigating unemploymentin the townshipsand
coloniesof displacedpersonsthrough schemesfor setting up industries.The training and
education schemes for rhe displaced people got crucial attenrion in the policy of the
govemment.33 Although the Second Five-year plan provided monetary support for the
rehabilitation schemesof the displacedpersons in the eastem states,the cOI decided to
review the financialprovisionin the third year of the secondplan, and it was said. if needed.
provisions for the additional fund would be made.tra

covernment Policy of Rehabilitation and Seftlement Since 1959

On March 31, 1958, the covernment of West Bengal decided to close the work of relief and
rehabilitation in the transit camps in West Bengal and not to recognize any .immigrant, as

I First Five-YearPlan, 1951-56, Governm€nt of India, planning Commission, yojana Bhavan, New
Delhi.
Second Five-YearPlan, 1956-61, covemment of India, planning Commission, yojana Bhawn, New
Delhi' According to the report,'There has been a continuous influx ofdisplaced persons from East
Pakisian into west Bengal and neighboring states. out of 3.83 million fcrions who have migrated,
abcut 388,ooo families have been settled on land and other ancillary occupations. while bulk ofthis
settlehent has been in West Bengal, a fafuly large number has bcen settled in Tiipura, Bihar,
orissa, uttar Pradesh and Assam. About 3so,ooo residentia! units have been constructed in rural
and urban areas mainly by the displaced persons with loans from the Covemment. About 22,OOO
displaced persons were given vocational and technical tlaining and 8,OOOare now under training.
Business loans have been advanc€d to about 88,ooo families. The continuing influx of displaced
persons has made the problem of rehabiliration in rhe eastern srat€s particnlarly diffic;lt. Ar
present, it is estimated that about l70,OO0 families reouire to be rehabilirated."
Ibid.
/bid.

The IUP Journal of History and Culrure,Vol. IV No. 3. 2Ot0

a 'displaced' in need of relief and rehabilitation beyond that date. There was strong
opposition to the official class for the aftempt to send the refugees away from West Bengal,
It was claimed that no proper cateogorizations were made before sending them to different
states and by that way the refugees would not be able to preserve their language and
culture.3s

ln 1958, Dandakaranya Development Authoriry (DDA) was established. Tte DDA scheme
was meani to develop the 78,OOOsq miles of area situated in Koraput and Kalahandi district
of Orissa and Bastar district of Madhya Pradesh. The topography of the area is hilly and
tribals are the indigenourpppulation. The external and internal accessibility to this area is
quite poor. Having a hot humid climate, uneven rainfall, the seasonal nature of the streams,
lack of groundwater, porous soil and soil with little plant nutrient made the irigation work
extremely difficult-36 It is still a mystery that despite such unfavorable conditions why this
region was chosen for rehabilitation of the refugees.

When some of the refugees moved to this region, each family was provided with seven
acres of land, Loans were provided for house construction, purchase of agricultural tools and
equipment, etc. A maintenance grant for 12 months was also provided. By 1965, o|Jer2.75
lakh acres of forest had been cleared for refugee settlement, over I2,OOOfamilies were moved
into the region and were seftled in 184 villages that were built by that year. But soon a
backlash began due to the sense of alienation, unfamiliar tribal population, fear of wild
animals and no hope for paddy cultivation without irrigation- By 1973, approfmately 25,000
families moved there and out of that only 17,000 stayed there, and the rest of them retumed
back. By 1978, a large number of refugees sold off their properry land and belongings to
retum to West Bengal. They moved to the Sunderbans delta, parts of Ttipura and the Assam
valley where without,any govemment aid or planning they cleared forests, colonized
agricultural tracts and created their own settlement.3T
In 1981, the government of West Bengal
acknowledgedthat out of the ofncial figure of eight million registered displacedpersons,over
7oo/oor 5.6 million still lived below the poverty line.33

The peasantsof Bengal,who had been settledand comfortablein the rich deltaicregion
sinceages,were reluctant to move in a territory which was not only ecologicallycontrasted
but also culturally unfamiliar.:r'ltonald S Zagoriamaintains that the severalmillion Ilindu
refugees,who constitutealmost one,fourthof West Bengalpopulation,becamethe strength

Nlukherjec R K (1964) in Chaudhury M (Ed.). Partitron on.J the Curse of Rehdbili.drion. pp. t6-t7,
Bengal Rehabilitation organization. Calcurta.
Special Correspondenr, "Danadakaranya Can be Developed for Benefits of Displaced People,,.The
S t , r l e s m . r nN, e w D e l h i . A u g u s t 1 5 . 1 9 5 7 .
l v € i n e r i \ t l r o n ( 1 9 7 8 ) . S o n s o f t h e S o i l , M i g r o t i o D a r r c |E t h n i c C o n | l i c t 1 Indie. princeton Llniversitv
Press. Princeton.
Refugee R€habilitarion Committee s R€port. p. 50. Co\'ernmcnr of West Bengal.
N ' l u k h e r j iA B ( t 9 8 5 ) . A C u l t u r a l E c o l o g i c a tA p p r a i s a l o f R e f u g e e R e s e t t l e m e n ri n I n d e p e n d e n t
India', in Kosinski L and Maudood Elahi X (Eds.). Population Redirlnbuti.rn ond D€velopm€nr in
Soulh Asiu.p. | 10, New Delhi.

Refuge€ Crisis in Eastern lndia During the Early Decades in the Pos.Partition South Asii 55
 r ) l t h c C o n t n l u o i s t s .I h e v v o t c d a n e . t r e t n i s t p a r t y
based on the model dc!cloped by the
P r ( ) p ( ) u n d e r s( ) l t h c c o n c e p t o l - n 1 a s ss o c i e t \ : t

r 1 r s l r t ( r . . s r i n gr r e r e1 . ' n o l c t h c s l a t c n r c n to J S r r c h e t ax r i p . l a n i ,
a M c n l b ( : ro t p a r r i a m e n t ,
o n l J r cr . . r r , r ( : cs i t u i l t i ( ) ni n w e s t t s e n g a r s. r r c s x i ( r : r I ! ! a s . o t o n
! \ t s t r t e n l r i r r .ds c c r s r o nl h i r t
t h i s . o u n t r v t ! r s p i l r t i ! i o n e ( l _- l h t \ . , , L t r r \ r r l r r p a r t r L i o D t d
bv ii (lrcision of lndiil...
'Iherclbre,
ir is:r nalioniil problrm and all thc srates should pu
rhcir weight in
r e h a b i l i t a t i n gt h c m ' , . 0 '1l h i s w a s r h c s p i r i t t h i l t \ r a s p c r h a p s r e s p o n s i b l e
lbr the Govcrnment,s
d e c i s i o n t o s e n d t h e e x c c s sr c f u g e e so u t s i d e W e s t B e n g a l
to placessuch as Dandilkaranya
o f M a d h y a P r a d e s ha n d t h e A n d . i m a n a n d N i c o b a r I s l a n d s .
{ s s a m s h o w c d t t s r e l u c l a n c et o
settle Bengali refirt"". largely due ro cultural and ethnic f:rcrors (see.I.able 3).
]T l":
Table 3: Share of Urban Refugee Population to the
Total Urban
Population of West B e n g a l , 1 9 5 1 -1 9 7 1
Total Urban Percent of Urban Refugee
Year Urban Refugee Population to Total
Population Population Urban Population
1951 62,Ar,642 10,52,121 16.74
196r 85,40,842 15,61,s30
i ,..
1971 1,09,67,033 27,24,936
Source: Cens6 o/India, 1gSj, 1961, arld 1921

Dandakaranya scheme was formulated as a lonp-term sorution

for the reseftlement of
the East Bengal refugees..3Howevet the Dandakaranya project
for rehabilitation ofthe East
Bengal refugees and the .civilization, of a local tribal group through
enforced contact with
the newcomers was an abject failure, with conflicts arising
between tribal and refugeesand
the inability of many of rhese Bengalis from agricultural
backgtounds to adjust to
cultivation in a very different environment and resource
base.{ Dandakaranya area,
although rich in mineral resources, was poor for settled cultivation..,

Zagoria D S (1969), .'The Social Bases of Indian Communalism,,,

in Lowenthal R (Ed.), Iriues in rie
Future of Asia: Commur.ist and Non_Communx,t Alternatives, pp. SZ_LZ+, ia|rl Mall press, Irndon.
For a detailed discussion on Dandakarany-a,refer cupta
Saibal Kuhar (1999),..Dandakaranya:
A Survey of Rehabilitation,', in chosh_Alok Xumar Cupto S",Oof Kumar roperc, Bibhasa,
1E'd.;,
calqrtta;.chosh Alok Kumar, ..Bengali._Refu,gee, O.rrauLrurry
a ffug"& of n"h"Uilitarion., in
"t
(r0oo), Retugeei in WesrB;ngoli /'sriturionaf i-.t
""."-T:_dt!^*113. a.ol,?,," Coniesr€d identitier,
p.p. 106'129, calcutta Research Group, calcuna, and
for the rerrauititaiJn in rhe Andaman and
Nicobar lslands, seeChaudhury SabyasachiBasu Ray (2OOO),.Exif.J
to tt Arra"_".r., ffr" n"f.,g.""
tiom EasrPakisran",in Bose.op. cil.. pp. t3l-t39. "
"Neh-ruto copinath Bardoloi, Chief Minister of Assarn,,,May 29, 19,+8,
in SelectedWork ofJawaharlal
Nenru.Vol.6, p. 118.
fhe Stotesmon, AugusrlS, 1957.
Ghosh Alok, "Bengali Refugees at Dandakaranya: A Tfagedy
of Rehabilitatlon,,, in Bose, op. cit.,
pp. 106-129.
6 Ben Farmer(1972),
Asriculrurat Cotonisahonin tndia, DD.37-42.

56 The IUP Journal of Hisrory and Culrure, Vol. tV No. 3. 2OlO

 Against the Government Policy
Criticism and Protest Movement
that they
of West Bengal issued a press note stating
In 1948, the provincial government because
Bengalis cominS to the state as refugees'
would discontinue registering East
..whatevelmighthavebeenthecauseoftheexodusinthepast,similarconditionsdonot
the
':3 is hardly any communal disturbance in Eastern Pakistan"' Therefore'
now prevail. Th
presentexodusisduetoeconomiccauses,,.ooHowever,thisassumptionwaschallengedby that
welfare committee in calcutta by stating
the president of the East Bengal Minority basis"'47
consequence of partition on a communal
these economic cruses were the direct
shut down registration
rnade pubtic its decision to
In December 1948, when government who were
justified the decision arguinS- that refugees
offices by January 15, 19.49, it that itself
time to register''s If he did not' then
genuinely interested had been gu-"" "tpl" sufFciently
refugee status could not have been
was the proof tiat the person claiming-gou"rn-"nt problem
at a stroke cut down a huge
desperate to require relief' ln this *"y'
to a size it felt it could handle'
to rePresent
barest rations' government was able
Thus, while the refuSeessurvived on the tt1:lt^T:
'charrty" and attemPted to make them realize thi:
its relief to the retugees as to Saln
and the Sovernment made all the attempts
a mafter of ri8ht. so, the official class segment of the
which was an imPortant
popularity out of these charity measures'
rehabilitation PolicY'
rule policy by
government for adopting the divide and
The refu8ee leaders blamed the et'tered
'haves' ano 'havJnots" obviousl)I these Marxist terminologies
dividing them into with
Such government attemPts were challenged
due to the influence of the communists' 'haves' along with the
West Bengal' But carrying the
a series of strikes in camPs all over
refugee leaders found
'have-nots'in a unilled campalgn had its inner contradictions'The
two
one' against the Sovemment for creating
themselves waging a *nt ot' *o frontsl what
brothers who took
..**"". ahd the other against their own aid-receiving
"*r"r'.i
they could and looked the other way'
the
rehabilitation measureswas to divide
one of the objectivesof the government's handicapped'
the
viz ' able-bodied males' widows'
refugees into several categories'
to offer each cateSory a
servants, medical practitioners' lawyers' etc ' and
*-o-uJanrn"n, forced the
rnachiavelian poricy of the government
different rehabilitation package.This
lefugeeactiviststoseekthesinilarrightseqLrallybyallthelelugees.
colonrcs
of about 500 tefugeesfrom differcnt rcfugec
On August 15, 1950, a procession tvvo nreetinEs
etc convergedat DeshapriyaPark wherc
such as Jadalpur, Tollygunj,Garia' Bloc ]larxist
auspicesof the trvo factiolrsof the Forward
rvere held in successionunder the lndependence
Congress(iovcrnment for getting fake
and non-Marxist to condelnn the to celebrlte
r e f u g e ep r o c e s s i oenn d e du p a t I l : l z r aP a r k
a c h i e v e do. n t h e s a m ed a \ ' .a n o t h e r
' . 1 ' r d n ( l . r8 . r : . r t J r o r r i k d J u n e 2 ' ) t 9 ' 1 t i

Nlemo December 20 1e'+8

(;o\crnmelrt ol wcsr Bens.l
" il;i", Rehabilitation l)eParrrnent
""a
Decades iD the Post-Partilion south
Asi:r 57
Duttng-t}t" ln'ly
Refu{ee crisis in Eastern lndia
' A n t i - l n d e p e n d e n cDea y " . " O n e ( ) l t h e d e n r a n d sn l a d eb v l h e r c t u t { e eo r g : l n l z a t l o n!s\ ' a st n c
r i c h r r o d e t e r m i n eh o r v ,r v h c na n d w h e r et h c y t t e r c t o b e r c h i l b i l i t r t (d l l l e y d c m a D d c dt h a t
f : r n r i l i c sb e g i v e n a d e q u i l t en o l i c e b t [ o r c t h e ] w e r e n 1 c ] v c tdo r e i l : l l ) l l l t . 1 t l (crul 1l o n r t s ,l l n L l
'
t h : r t r e f u g { : essh o u l dn o t i ) c s e n t l h c r e a g r i n s tt h c i r w i l l . l , i r t c ro t h i s d e m i i o ds o l i d i l i e d
i n t h e l o r m t h a t i l l r t l i r R e e sn r u s l i ) c r e h a b i l i t i l t e dw i t h i n W c s l I l c r l ! a i -

u v c r vn r e e l i n ga n c lp r o c e s s i o nvso i c e dt h e d e m a n dI o r c e r t r i n b r s i c e c ( ) n o r ] i cr i g h t s :t h e
p r o v i s i o no f r e l i e f t o a l l r e f u g e e sf,u l l r e h a b i l i t a t i o na, n d c n t i t l c n l c r l lto r c l l e i 8 r ' i n l s u n t i l
full rehabilitationhad been achieved.In rhcir vieW reliels flot onl! nleiln( doles for all, but
also free education fbr rcllSee children, free mcdical care, clothing, and clean canps'
Rehabilitationmeant a brick-built house for each refugee household and regular, paid
'l
emptoyment. his p.lrticular demand lvent diantctricallyagainstthe go'!ernmentpollcy on
rehabilitation,since its central purposewas to encouragerefugeesto tind sell employment
The refugeemovementassertedthat thesewere not specificallyrefugeeriShts but the rights
of all members of society. Similarly, thc demand for free rations for refugees was
increasinglylinked to a more Seneralcritique of the government'sfood policy and its lailure
to guaranteesecurity of rations for the public.

The refugeemovementgraduallycame under the influenceof left'wing political parties'

The trend depictsthat the refu8eemovementwas.capturedby the Leftparties.'' The internal
d''namics and logic of the refugeemovement stressedthe notion of'riShts'which itself is
based on the assertion that all men are equal. The refugee movement soon took to the
egalitarian path. Many of the 'riShts' claimed were related to basic needs such as food,
clothes, medicine, housing, educationand jobs. It would have been difficult to justify the
'rights' whereas other and
argument that refugees had an entitlement to these economic
e q u a l l yd e s t i t u t el n d i a n s .d i d n o t

The government showed its inability to provide enough uninhabited land to

accommodate rnillions of refugees. More land for redistribution to the dispossessedwould
have possible only as the result of land reforms. That is why refugeescalled for radical land
reforms, for the abolition of the zamindaris and for more equitable laws. From the late
1949, when camps were to be closed, refugees started to occuPy vacant plots in the suburbs
of Calcutta and put up makeshift shelters, In many instances, they were offered fair prices
for the land, but they refused to move. To evict them from these unused plots would have
been embarrassing for a Sovernment, which had proclaimed that there was no land
available for redistribution-

In March 1951, the media sources and the people came acrosiabout the secretly drafted
clauses of the Eviction Bill. The chief Minister had to admit that it was essential to deal
with squatter colonies, which violated the right to private Property enshrined in the lndiar
constitution. But the sustained campaign against the Eviction Bill forced the Government

August16, 1950.
TheT€le8roph,
rbid.
chakrabarty Prafulta K (1999), The Margir.al Men: The Refugees and the Lefl Politi.ol Syndrom€ in
West BenSol, p. 4o7. Naya Udyog, Calcutta.

'ahe
IUP Journal of Historv and Culture, Vol. IV No. 3, 2010
 a "displaced
of West Benqalto withdraw it The Bill was redrafted to include a pledge that
person" in unauthorizedoccupationof land would not be disturbed "until the Government
providesfor him other land or house...inan area which"'enablesthe Personto carry on such
order"'5'?
occupation as he may be engaged in for earning his livelihood at the time of the
since it
This development was hailed as a majot victory for the refu8ee movement'
to provide
acknowledged the refuSeesright to shelter, and underlined the Sovernment's duty
property could be
it. tt also emphasized the circumstances in which the riSht to private
Bengal's Left-wing
non-enforceable. It was equally a thumping victory for the west
the gain out
opposition. The Left Parties made a cautious and compelling strategy to 8et
to food' shelter and
of refugee issue. They sdught to press the case for the refugee's riShts
parties
employment. Atrd once the Sovernment coerced to accept these rights, the Left-wing
role of the
demanded the same rights for everybody' Thus, the refugee movement and the
party base among
Left-wing parties had been seen as a "Ttojan Horse" tactics to build up the
the masseswhich in the due course paid huge dividend' It is aiso important to note that the
merely as the
refugee movement and the response of the Left parties should not be seen
their
power politics agenda but the unconditional support they gave to the refugees against
fight for survival.
GOI took the
The refuSees'protests in camPsreached the pinnacle in 1958 when the
the continuing
decision to wind up the camps in the eastern region by July 1959' In view of
that it would be difficult for the
exodus from East Pakistan, the Gol gradually realized
of the border'
cash-starvedwest Bengal to give shelter to all the incoming from the other side
could not be
Therefore, it would be wise to select some of the displaced persons who
pans of the country'5]
rehabilitatedin the economyin west Bengal,and send them to other
the Central
Gradually,the resentment of the camp-dwellers in west Bengal against
raise their voice'
covernment'sdecis{onto send them ouiside the state encouragedthem to
movement in May
The camp-dwellersof Bettiah in Bihar launched a peacefulsoryogroho
conditions in
1958 for the fulfillment of their demands of improved living and economic
refugees living in the camps
the camp to rehabilitatethem. This showed a way out to the
these refugees
of west Bengal.when the Governmentforced them to 80 to Dandakarallya
in the Gandhian way and
revolted.They launched a massivecivil disobediencemolement
'
m o r e r h r n 3 u , o o 0c a m p r e f u g e e sw c r e a r r e s l c d
they chose
As rnany of the camp'dwellersrvere lrf lolver caste Namasudra community'
JoSenNlondal,
their leadersfronl antongthemselves,and consequentlYthe leaderssuch as
Apart lroDr
FlemantaBiswas,Apurbalal Mazumder and P R lhakur crne to the forelront'
lcd utgantzatt'rn
t h e c o r n m u n i s rP a r r - vo f l n d i a ( c P I ) t h e P r o j a s c l c i 3 l i s iP : l r t y ( P S P )
and the
S a r a B l n q l i B a s t u h a r aS a m m e l a n ( S B I I S ) ,( A l l B e n g a l l t e f i r g e eC o n f e r e n c c )

\\tstBelr!jll\ciX\Io|1951.'l.hcltehsbililllrioJloil]i\p13ce(lPtrsonsan.]I.]!icii()notI)er\ons'lr
t r f ; r u r h o ' i z c ( lo c c u p r t i o n o f L a n d r \ c t l t : ; 1 .
i o k S , 1 b h dD r l ) , r r r ' rJ. u l v t 5 . 1 9 5 7 . p : l : 1 7 6
C:hrkr.lb rl\r r)l, .rl . P t86

('urh r\\1a
R € f u S e eC r i s i s i n F a s t c r n l n { i i a D u r i n g t h e F - a r l vD c c a d e s i n i h e P o s t - P a r r i r i o n
59
 o r g a n i z a t i o nc a l l c ( l B a s r u h a r aX o l ) , a np a r i s h o d( t { e f i t g e cW e l l i l r e
C o u u c i l ) ,I e d b ! t h e
I { c v o l u t i o n a nc, o m n r u n i s rp i t r t v o f I n d i : r ( R C p l ) , s t a r t e d p l a t i n g
dominanrrole in the
c a n t p s .t h c R C l ) lw a s m o r e a f f i v c i n t h c c a r n p s( , 1N a ( l i a .S i n c e
t 9 S 8 . t h e L J n i t c dC e n t r a l
R c i u S e c( ' o u n c i r( r I a r . c ) s t i r r l c ( tl o b r i n g t o g e t h e r h c c . m p r c r ' r ! c c s
, . . r t hI r ) eh e r p( ) f p s p
o n i p r o l r r a n ra c c c p t a b r e t o a l r . s o o n r a l l i e sa n ( l d e n r o n s t r a t i o nfso o w c d t h c p c a c e f u r
s o l ' v o g f o / ruos t h e f o r m o l p r o t e s ta n d m o b i i i z l t i o na g a i n s t l l e
s o v e f n I n e n 1l n. c l u cc o u r s e
o t t i m c , r h e r e f u g c em o v e m e nltl o t p o l i t i c i z e da n d g i o u p e da s u n i o n s
r l h i c hf u r t h c ri n s p i r e d
t h c s e u p r o o t c dt o b e c o m ea p a r t o l t h e l a r g e r m o v c n t e n ta g a i n s t
the Union and State
c o v c r n n l e n t sa, n d t h e s r r u g g l co f r h e r e f u g t e s t, h r o u g ht h e p o l i t i c s
o f a g i r i r t i o nc o n t j n u e d
t o c o u n t c rt h e p o i i c i e so f r c h a b i l i t a t i o ns i n c ct h c n .

T h e r eh a sb e e nc o m p l a i n t sa g a j n s t h e g o v e r n n e n tt h a t t h e l . t r e a t c d
t h e r e l u : j e e sb a d l ' ;
meager ratlons were provided and no efforts ilere
made ro creatc employment
opportunitics.All kinds of pressuresivere used to drive then
to Dandakaranya.S K Gupta,
who was the chairmanof DDA in 1964 for a short turn, shareshis
distressand experience,
"lluman distresson a large scaleis much too seriousa matter to be passectover
ln silence
either to feed official complacencyor to save reputations.,,;.

Despite the }lerculean effons by the seftlers,.the DDA project

was a failure. I.he
ill-conceivedpolicies of the planners have to blame for it.
They need to set up small
irrigation proiectswhich could have been finished soon, but
instead they resoried to big
hydroelectric projects. This proved to be a failure for rhe system,
because the big projects
require a large gestation period and other hurdles such as project
delays, etc., are the
common faqtors. So, poor policy implementation had its toll on
agriculture production and
under such circumstanceseven subsistenceagriculture was not possible.

The uncanny remarks of the Government and DDA officials put

the blame for the failure
of the schemeon lazinessand sluggishnessof the refugees
and their sicknesswith the paddy
cultivation. A very pertinent question needs to be raised
here that why planner,s sole
emphasis was on agriculture. Virtually, no efforts were
made to raise cottage and small
scale industries or other semi-urban emplojment.

Refugees were not given the title deed to the land allotted
to them. The shortage of
drinking watet lack of adequate health facilities, lack of facilities
for fish culture and

;:::'Ji:,l:ilil:ffiil:ffi
i'"T,ffi'5::"ff
:l::T::::i::::_:::""1"
tribal further made the region inhabitable. According to an
observation, ,,The organized
encroachment on the forest land interfered with the normal
tribal way of life, considering
the fact that the tribal mode of life and economy were intrinsically_tinked
with the forest,
tire nc,. conflict engenderedby this systematicintervention
was both economicallyand
S-I.( ,,Dandakaranya:A Story of Rehabilitationt_The Srareof ASriculrure,,,
" ::p.,1
Weekly.Vol.19j:1,
17. No. t, January2. Economic

60 The IUP Journal of History and Culrure,Vol. IV No. 3. 20lO

 30o/odecline in the
psychologicallyunllt."lo Due to DDA project, there rvas an estimated
p o p u l a t i o no r t r l b a l si n t h e D a n d a k a r a n y rae g i o n ' : -
to West Bengal has been
This reversemigration of the population fTom Dandakaranya
rags have a lack of infinite sadness
reported as follows, "Men, women and chiltlren in torn
is alive as their hope about
on their face. ...They say that their love for West Bengal
because of the humiliating
Dandakarnya is dead....Refu8ees say they are deserting
conditions in which they lived".s3
at the hards of the state
The treatment that many refugees from East Pakistan received
was questionable' They were
and central governmentc in India during the L950s and l96os
and their settlements were
denied the accessfor adequate aid, resources, and oPportunities
refuSees were transported to
outlawed. Not only this but latge numbers of East Bengali
Islands' Bettiah in Bihar' and the
distant regions of India such as Andaman and Nicobar
decided that largely the reFigees
Dandakaranya district of Madhya Pradesh'se It was
Poundra Kshatriyas' who
belonging to the lower castes such as Namasudras' Ichatriyas'
the Government' had to 8o to
took shelter in the refugee camps and received aid from
of the Indo-Gangetic plains were
Dandakaranya. However, these original inhabitants
reluctant to move.

Legacy of Culture and Territory

its longlasting effects
The dislocationof refugees, and the human dimension it created had
Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru
on the cultute, mind and territory of Indian subcontinent'
Iegarding the striking difference in per
communicared ro the chief Minister of west Bengal
East by arguing that while "there was
capita expenditure on rellgees in the West and
where Practically all Hindus and
something elemental about the situation in West Pakistan'
it was more Sradual, and many Hindus had
sikhs have been driven out, wnereas in the East,
been able to renain".""
'lhe traditional middle class Bengali families had been conservative and reluctant to
jobs even if they were in distress l he refugee womcn
allow their $'omen folk to tal(e up
in the job market influenced the other sectors
brokc the tradition and thelr Srowing presence
urban working women' a new class ln BengJli
of the Bengali sociery'1lrus emerged the
womcn Economic independellcc
societv comPrised both refugee as well as non-refugcc
to hSht against patriarchal societY rnd
made them sclf-conscloris ano confident enouSh
lndcpendeni India'
u l t i n a t e l y l l a v e w a y t o t h e i l t - ' m p o w e r m e n ti n t h e
in mid-lndiaLn
. . n h n l e ( t A . . . R e g i o n a tD e v c l o p r n e t p r o c e s sa n d R e d i s t r i b u t i o no f T r i b a l P o p u l a r i o n
( l l ( i ! . ) . R e ' J i s t r i b u t i o n . r n ( l I ) e v ' l ( ) P n r " n ' In Soutfi Ari'r' p 74
l;lahi nnd Xosirrskv P ' ; l u l i r l r r ) n

. Sr'uldr DrDrdcrd'j"\'o1 l l No S I'ril l97S

' ' l . l \ o ( 1 L rr r\ t ) r r rl ) . r ( l r k . i r r r \ \ .
- E t i l c ( t t o t h e i r r d : t n r a n s :l h e R e i L I s e c sl r o n r h r s r
C h o ! \ ( l l r L r t s\ r l ) \ r s n c l r r l l n s L r ' l { o \ ' ( r 0 0 0 )
I ) r l ( i s L r n. i n I l o s r :o p , i t l ) l l : J 0 l 1 l
Dr B (l Ro):
(. 1 9 ' 1 9 P 1 ' 1 3 c i t c d i n ( ' h a k r a b a r r iS r r o i t ! i i h
' J ( r ! ' { 1 l d r l o l, \ f l r u r o B i l ( ' r . l ) ' c c m b c r 2
--"rug""
in thc Posr Partiiion south Asia 6l
c;ri.i. in Las(ern ln(tia During rhe F-arl) Decacles
 n n u m b e r o l n e w t o w n s e m e r g e d i n d i f T e r c n tp a r t s o f w e s t I l e n g a l . I l l e 1 9 6 1 C c t r s u s
i d c n r i l l c d 6 9 n c w t o w n s i n w e s t l i c n S a l l v h i c h t o t a l e d t h c n u n l b e r o f 1 o l v n st o 1 8 4 . S i m i l a r l y
t h e 1 q 7 1 C ( r n s u si d c n t i f i e d 4 : l n e ! ! t o l v t r s . n r a k i n g t h c t o l a l n u m b e r o i t o w n s t o 2 2 3
( lirblr .1).

Table 4: Growth of Towns and Urban Population. 1941-1971

Percentage of
Year No. of Towns Urban Population Urban Population
to Total Populatio n
1941 102 47,40,222 20.41

1951 Il5 6 2 , 8| , 6 4 2 2 3.8{J

'24.45
1961 184 85,40,842

223 1,09,67,033 21.75

sourcei L'cnrur of Indio. 1'r71
_ i
Caicutta emerged as one of the most congestedmega cities with high level of urban
West Rengalemergedas a food deficit region.u'Undoubtedly,the massive
conccntration.6r
and continued influx of refugeeswas a tremendous drain on social servicesand had a
considerableimpact on the political and economic structure of West Bengal. However,
despite Kolkata'sreputation as a disorderedand chaotic metropolis, it is still maintaining
itself and managing the other affairs without difficulties.

while the upper class people from East Pakistan could reconstruct their lives in west
Bengal quite easily, for the middle class and lower middle class people, it was not easy.
Several of them spend years in refugee camps in the hope of a befter life. Large number
of the uprooted could never return to their traditional family occupations and, thus felt a
sense of alienation. The Bengali diaspora throughout the country can be observed today
where Bengalis form various small pockets in various parts of nonhern lndia, There is no
doubt that the partition of Bengal had a long-term impact on the economy and culture of
the region.

william van schendel notes that the partition is best understood not only in terms of
nationalist and anti-colonial politics and antagonisms, but also "as a cultural and personal
disaster, the fissure of two major regional cultures (Punjab and Bengal) which were divided
between the successorstates, and the personal suffering and trauriatic memories of millions
of uprooted refugees.a Besides,it has been acknowledged that the experience of partition

d sen A and Ban€rjee A (1983), "Migrants in the calcutta MeEopolitan District, 1951-71", csss,
OccassionalPaDer No. 62, Calcutta.
vakil c N (1950), Economic Consequencesof Divided Indio: A study of the Economy of lndia ar.d
Fdi;..rn, vora anC Co., Bombay.
Schendel Williatn Van (2003), "Working Through Partition: Making A Living in the BenSal
Borderlands", in Das Ar-vind N and Linden Marcel van der (Eds.), work ond sociol Chongein Asia:
Essaysin Honour of Jon Bremen, p. 54, Manohar, New Delhi.

The IUP Journal of History and Cullure. Vol. IV llo. 3. 2010

 was not rhe same for all people in Indja
and as SabyasachiBhattacharyarightly
out: "Bengal and punjab underwent pointed
partition, while the rest of India
cxperienced it
vicariously'.6a

By l97Os, the terms ,refugee,and,displaced,

'migrants'. had been replacedin official r"nguage
Indeed, the Government of West Bengal by
'new'and 'old'migrants today draws a clear <listinction between
by stating that those who migiated
between october 1946 and
March 31, 1958 are known as
ord ,migrants,; and those who came
January l, 1964 and March 25, l97l between
are known as ,new migrants,.* Chimanlal
the noted lawyer of the time, wrote: ,,partition Setalv-ad,
had laid the foundations of interminable
quarrels ard would bririg untold suffering
to generations yet unborn,,.6
E

Rekrence # S2J-2O|O-07_O4_01

'' sinsh^r'rrit([d.1
12060,,ru" ^*.*r,*.l,1
R e h . ' b i r i t . t i a r , 2 0 0 l . p . r ., coo-.,,_il"-,-"*
' t \ r a n u Q r o l R e i 1 3 e € R e i i € t d n d ""*.-, o v e r n m e n t o f . ' e so"rU.
trensar.carcurra.
' The tines af rndie. Jun€ ls, 1947.

R€fuseecrisis in Easrernindia During the

t"m