Population Movements in West Bengal

Abstract

This article scrutinises the ramifications of population movements between India and Pakistan in and after 1947 in one particular border district in West Bengal. Information from census reports of pre-independent and independent India and Pakistan allows detailed examination of micro-level cross-border migrations, showing how the relocation of populations completely recast the religious and demographic contours of this border district. Within just four years, the Muslim-majority district of Nadia turned into an overwhelmingly Hindu-majority district through this two-way population movement. Contrary to popular perceptions, which stress the unidirectional pattern of migration on the eastern side of India, this article brings to the fore a hitherto unknown facet of partition migration.

Keywords

Bangladesh demography East Bengal India migration partition population movements West Bengal

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bagchi

Jasodhara

Dasgupta

Subhoranjan

Ghosh

Subhasri

(2009) The Trauma and the Triumph: Gender and Partition in Eastern India. Kolkata: Stree.

Bandyopadhyay

Hiranmoy

(1970) Udvastu. Calcutta: Sahitya Samsad.

Bharadwaj

Prashant

Khwaja

Asim Ijaz

Mian

Atif R.

(2006) ‘The Big March: The Nature of Migratory Flows during the 1947 Partition of British India’. HKS Working Paper No. RWP08-029. URL (consulted August 2012) http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1124093 .

Chakrabarti

Prafulla

(1999) The Marginal Men: The Refugees and the Left Political Syndrome in West Bengal. Calcutta: Naya Udyog.

Constituent Assembly of India (1947) Population of India According to Communities Based on the 1941 Census. Delhi: Government of India.

Davis

Kingsley

(1949) ‘India and Pakistan: The Demography of Partition’. Pacific Affairs,22(3): 254–64.

Debasree

(2014) ‘Nehruvian Vision of Sustainable Development for Tribals in India: A Critique’. South Asia Research, 34(1): 1–18.

Dutch

R.A.

(1942) Census of India, 1941, Volume IV: Bengal. Delhi: Government of India.

Elahi

K. Maudood

Sultana

Sabiha

(1991) ‘Population Redistribution and Settlement Change in South Asia: A Historical Perspective#x02019;. In Kosinski

Leszek A.

Elahi

K. Maudood

(Eds), Population Redistribution and Development in South Asia (pp. 15–35). New Delhi: Rawat.

10.

Government of India (1958) Reports of the Bengal Boundary Commission and Punjab Boundary Commission (Radcliffe Awards). New Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

11.

Government of Pakistan (1951) Population Census of Pakistan 1951. Karachi: Census Organisation.

12.

Hill

Seltzer

Leaning

Malik

S.J.

Russell

S.S.

(2005) ‘The Demographic Impact of Partition: Bengal in 1947’. URL (consulted June 2006) http://iussp2005.princeton.edu/download.aspx?submissionId=52236

13.

Intelligence Bureau (1948) File No. 1238-47. Nabadwip, Pakistan Activities. Copy of D.I.B. Nadia to Spl. Supdt. of Police, 28 July 1948.

14.

Intelligence Bureau (1950) File No. 1838-48. ‘Weekly Report by the Department of Relief and Rehabilitation on Relief and Rehabilitation of East Bengal Refugees’.

15.

Mahalonobis

P.C.

Bhattacharya

(1976) ‘Growth of Population of India and Pakistan, 1801–1961’. Artha Vijnana, 18(1): 1–10.

16.

Mitra

Asok

(1953) Census of India, 1951: District Census Handbook: Nadia. New Delhi: Government of India.

17.

National Archives of India (1941) Home-Public Department. F.45/11/41.

18.

Pandey

Gyanendra

(2001) Remembering Partition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

19.

Rao

U.B.

(1967) The Story of Rehabilitation. Delhi: Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.

20.

Samaddar

Ranabir

(1999) The Marginal Nation: Transborder Migration from Bangladesh into West Bengal. New Delhi: SAGE.

21.

Zamindar

Vazira Fazila-Yacoobali

(2007) The Long Partition and the Making of South Asia: Refugees, Boundaries, Histories. New York: Columbia University Press.