Decoding Post-Partition Traumatic Suffering, Migration, and Testimony

One of the tragic incidents that occurred in India’s History in 1940’s was the partition of the country. Soon after the partition the scenario in East Pakistan i.e. (East Bengal) became worse as continuous attack on the Hindus forced them to leave the birth place of their forefather and migrated to India and settled as ‘Refugees’ in nearby border areas like West Bengal, Tripura, Assam etc. The present research paper attempts to study the challenges faced by the Bonafide displaced persons migrated from East Pakistan who were suffered a lot in the process of getting Registration Certificate and to get hold of sanction financial and medical loans for resettlement of their life in the very new place and to fulfil their basic livelihood needs.

Exposure to refugee and traumatic experiences in early childhood can dysregulate the stress response system and lower children’s threshold for aggression. This study examines differences in amount and patterns of aggressive play in children with and without refugee or traumatic experiences, while also assessing how other environmental factors, such as flight duration as a marker of cumulated adverse experiences, time spent in the host country, parental distress, and screen exposure, are associated with such behaviour. In standardized 10 min free individual play sessions, episodes of aggressive behaviours were observed in 62 children with refugee experience and 64 children from a clinically referred comparison group without refugee experience (aged 3–6 years) and coded into four categories: physical, verbal, instrumental, and symbolic. Emotional states were documented to clarify the background mood and context of the aggressive episodes. Parents reported sociodemographic data, screen time, and filled out the Child and Adolescent Trauma Screening for children aged 3–6 (CATS 3–6), assessing potentially traumatic experiences of their children with corresponding symptoms, and the Refugee Health Screener (RHS) for information on their own mental health and distress levels. We correlated these factors with our structured observations of aggressive episodes during children’s play in a standardized situation. No significant difference in the distribution of aggressive behaviour episodes between the refugee and comparison groups was observed, even after accounting for gender. Symbolic aggression was more frequent among boys from the comparison group (p = 0.014), while no group or gender effects emerged for other aggression categories. Amount of aggressive behaviour was not related to parent-rated traumatic experiences or symptoms, but a significant correlation appeared, with the reported amount of screen time within the male sub-group (ρ = 0.209, p =0 .027). Refugee and traumatic experiences showed no association with increased aggressive behaviour, whereas higher screen time was observed alongside elevated amounts of aggressive episodes among boys in our study. Children from both, refugee and clinical comparison group predominantly engaged in non-violent play in calm, low demand setting, highlighting potential protective role of safe, stimulating environments. Trial registration German clinical trials register, registration number: DRKS00025734, date: 07–23-2021.

This article focuses on the Muslim refugees who went to East Pakistan due to the Partition of British India in 1947. It studies the magnitude of their migration, their motives for and strategies of migration, their origins, occupations, and political orientations, and their linguistic identities and experiences with rehabilitation. As refugees in East Pakistan, they faced many social, political, and economic hardships, and they had to negotiate with the government in different ways, but little is known about their experiences of migration and rehabilitation. This article addresses that gap and in so doing challenges the popular notion that Bengal only witnessed a one-way migration of Hindus from East Pakistan to West Bengal. Moreover, by highlighting how the linguistic identities shaped the experiences of the Muslim refugees in East Pakistan, the article highlights how the province’s language movement affected the unfolding of Partition in a particular part of post-colonial South Asia.

This article theorizes the concept of experiential time in refugee migration. While recent migration studies have increasingly recognized the importance of immobility in understanding migration, research on refugee experiences remains predominantly focused on mobility from displacement through transit to settlement. This mobility-centric perspective overlooks the immobilities embedded within the broader mobility, which generate distinct temporalities that impact refugee experiences. To bridge this gap, we introduce experiential time as an analytical framework designed to capture the subjective, fluid, and multifaceted temporalities that refugees navigate. We view displacement as a dynamic process with distinct phases, emphasizing the interplay of two temporal properties: speed and duration. Through this lens, we identify four categories of experiential time: sluggish, stuck, racing, and shock each reflecting unique emotional and psychological responses to temporal experiences. This framework offers a fresh perspective on how refugees simultaneously experience and navigate the intersections of mobility and immobility, yet in distinctive ways.

Migration is a universal phenomenon that has occurred in all nations at all times and is being repeated throughout history. Becoming refugee/ migrant/ asylum seeker is a complex psychosocial process with significant effects and consequences on identity of individuals and new countries. That process is related to many factors and may have profound, lasting effects, causing various mental health problems. While some characteristics of migration and experiences of refugees and migrants are universal, they are also specific to each region, country and individual. What follows is the Balkan perspective in experiencing and managing the problems of migration and huge number of refugees in the last three decades. Results of the regions specific studies and the authors’ views as witnesses, organisers of programmes for mental health care of refugees and in the field of disaster and migrant psychiatry are presented. Implications for mental health and organization of mental health care both of refugees and new countries are discussed.

For refugees, displacement involves a reconfiguration of both space and time. Yet the temporal aspect receives less emphasis in existing geographic research. Paying attention to the temporal dimension can generate conceptually innovative insights into how temporality shapes refugees' experiences of displacement. Based on empirical research conducted with Ethiopian refugees in Melbourne, the paper considers how the participants experienced time throughout their migration journeys until their arrival in Australia. The participants' accounts suggest that their pre‐arrival displacement experiences were characterised by four novel distinct temporal features:spontaneity,disorientation, transposition, andincessancy. Recounting their stories, the participants pointed out that they were excluded from time and space, while simultaneously being engaged in temporary place‐making endeavours, navigating through multiple temporalities. Being displaced has altered their connections not only to places but also to times of which they are a part. The paper expands the growing theme of time and temporalities in geographic and migration research while showing how refugee experiences are dictated and controlled by time.

This chapter contextualises the experience of the Vietnamese diaspora in Britain with reference to the broader international Vietnamese diaspora. It provides the context and background to the book by focusing on the early conditions of migration and settlement of Vietnamese refugees in Britain. Their migratory trajectories and the conditions underpinning their reception and incorporation are explored in relation to other national contexts in the USA, Australia and Canada. This is taken up to the present day in relation to the subsequent generations born in these host nations. The first section of the chapter outlines the experiences and social composition of Vietnamese refugees arriving in Britain, this will include a discussion of the political and migratory context underpinning the refugee experience, and the key factors (arrival, reception, cultural and demographic issues) shaping their early resettlement. By analysing the unique characteristics and experiences of the Vietnamese in Britain, the chapter provides an explanation for the issues affecting the community today and considers the implications for the young British-born Vietnamese. This analysis will show how the Vietnamese in Britain have been located at the periphery of society as a consequence of their migratory and ethnic origins and relations under the British colonial legacy.

This article focuses on the Sealdah railway station in Calcutta, West Bengal, as a site of refugee ‘settlement’ in the aftermath of British India’s partition. From 1946 to the late 1960s, the platforms of Sealdah remained crowded with Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan. Some refugees stayed a few days, but many stayed for months, even years. Relying on newspaper reports, autobiographical accounts and official archives, this article elaborates how a busy railway station uniquely shaped the experiences of partition refugees. Despite severe infrastructural limitations, the railway platforms of Sealdah provided these refugee residents with certain opportunities. Many preferred to stay at Sealdah instead of moving to any government facility. However, even for the most long-term residents of Sealdah, it remained a temporary home, from where they were either shifted to government camps or themselves found accommodation in and around Calcutta. The article argues that by allowing the refugees to squat on a busy railway platform for months and years, the state recognised a unique right of these refugees, their right to wait, involving at least some agency in the process of resettling.

To what extent are different parts of the world exceptional when it comes to the history of forced migration and refugee experiences? For instance, is forced migration in Asia distinct from developments elsewhere? Or is forced migration in Asia part of wider processes of displacement and emplacement so characteristic of the modern world? Over the past few decades, the fields of refugee and forced migration studies have ballooned. Scholars in a wide range of disciplines, including anthropology, political science, geography, and history have sought to understand the nature of population displacements in the modern world. Much of the early scholarship in this field focused on Europe in the immediate aftermath of the First and Second World Wars. Scholars have also sought to understand the nature of protracted refugee situations in Africa.1More recently, scholars have investigated forced migration within globalized and transnational frameworks.2Yet no sooner had scholars started to think of displacement in these terms than critics began to contend that the unique, and localized, dimensions of displaced populations, including refugees, forced migrants, and internally displaced people, were being ignored. Questions about what is gained and what is lost in approaching the study of modern refugee populations from various vantage points now frame much of the work in the fields of refugee and forced migration studies.3

Time and refugee migration in human geographical research: A critical review

When India became independent in 1947 one of the strongest bases of the Communist Party of India (CPI) was the Province of Bengal.' While the boundaries of Bengal had undergone a number of shifts prior to 1947 the Bengali-speakers in British India had remained subject to a common provincial administration for all but six of the almost 200 years of British rule.2 Because of the partition of 1947, however, the major (predominantly Muslim) portion of Bengal came to be included in East Pakistan, while the remaining (predominantly Hindu) portion remained within the Indian Union. Each of the members of the Communist Party of India who had worked in the united Province of Bengal then had to make a choice between citizenship in Pakistan or in India. Membership figures available from Communist leaders in both India and Pakistan indicate that the majority of the Bengali Communists opted for Pakistan rather than India in 1947. According to Muzaffar Ahmad, one of the founder-members of the Communist movement in Bengal, the CPI had a membership of almost 20,000 in Bengal in 1947, the majority of which went over to East Bengal in Pakistan after partitions But despite its relative membership advantage at the time of partition, the Communist movement in East Pakistan has never received the same attention from scholars that has been given to the party in West Bengal. Indeed, one searches in vain for even an introductory article on the nature of the Communist movement in Pakistan. The absence of any discussion of the Pakistan Communist movement in the literature can be traced to two principal sources. First, the Pakistan

This article delves into the pressing necessity for comprehensive refugee legislation in India and the repercussions arising from the absence of such legal provisions. India, which harbours a considerable population of refugees from nations such as Myanmar, Bangladesh, Tibet, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, presently lacks a specialized legal framework tailored to tackle the distinct challenges confronted by refugees. The nonexistence of refugee laws gives rise to various consequences impacting refugees and the host country. The research methodology for this study adopted a qualitative approach, focusing on gaining in-depth insights into the challenges faced by refugees and the host communities in India and the consequences of lacking a dedicated refugee law. This article highlights five pivotal domains where the lack of a refugee law in India yields significant ramifications: insufficiency of legal safeguards, ambiguity and inconsistent treatment, restricted access to essential services, susceptibility to exploitation and mistreatment and burdens on host communities. Moreover, the article delves into the implications of national security concerns originating from the dearth of a comprehensive refugee law and its effect on India’s global standing. The analysis underscores the criticality of enacting a robust refugee law to safeguard the rights, security and welfare of refugees; foster their integration into society; and showcase India’s dedication to human rights and international humanitarian endeavours. The article concludes by emphasizing that implementing a comprehensive refugee law is imperative to address the challenges posed by forced displacement and establish a secure and inclusive future for refugees and the host nation.

The status of refugees in host nations may depend upon several factors, including the economic situation of the receiving state, political alignments, international commitments, ethnic affinities, the domestic refugee regime, security considerations and bilateral ties with the home country. The study aims to discern the role that bilateral ties and domestic considerations play in the refugee experience. Is there a pattern that can be drawn out from these two factors? The article uses neoclassical realist and critical theories to better understand the phenomena, while employing the case study method to make a comparative study. The study analyses how India and Turkey have dealt with refugees belonging to two ethnic minorities of the Republic of China: the Tibetans and the Uyghurs. The results show that the way the receiving states handle refugees depends greatly on domestic considerations. It becomes clear that even though bilateral ties between the host and the home nation are important, no simple deduction can be made on how this affects the treatment of refugees. Both cases provide varied response patterns; it is only through a blend of realpolitik and critical theory that the phenomena can be understood. Mapping refugees and their movements, as well as their status in the host countries, determines many of the policies created for their welfare. The article therefore attempts to provide a framework for a better understanding of the phenomena by considering bilateral ties and domestic considerations.

Trauma is an unpleasant experience suffered by an individual and or a group of individuals collectively. It is a life-changing event that leaves physical and psychological scars that could influence both explicit and implicit memories in the conscious and subconscious mind. Therefore, traumatic events can occur when previous memories haunt the present state of mind through flashbacks, nightmares, hallucinations, disorders, and other means. As a result, the suppressed ghost of the past conjures up mental imagery of locations, people, and items associated with the heinous crime. While some individuals are locked in their traumatic experiences, others may integrate and release them via narration and testimony stories. This is important in making the wound visible and the silence audible. Therefore, as Nadia Murad demonstrated, literature deals with trauma and constructs a bridge of communal solidarity amongst people who share the same society or culture by exposing hideous crimes. The book by Nadia Murad and the co-writer Jenna Krajeski, The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity and Resistance to the Islamic State (2017), focuses on ISIS sexual assaulters of their Yazidi victims and women’s aspirations for reparative and restorative justice. Between 2014 and 2015, Nadia Murad, the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize winner, was imprisoned in sexual slavery. Nadia’s historical testimony gave details of the crimes that the ISIS members perpetrated against her and her determination to prosecute them. The study argues that the Yazidi women’s brave decision to come forward assisted rape survivors in breaking the women’s generational silence. They significantly recalled their people’s collective traumatized memory to heal the wounds through verbalizing suffering and testimonial narratives. The author-personal narrator’s experiences with injustices had been investigated using a mix of autobiography biography, memoir, History, and testimony, and also how the testimonial narrative aids in the act of speaking out against crimes; by giving voice to the silent agony

Based on the reading of Kalyani Thakur Charal’s notable autobiographical narrative Ami Keno Charal Likhi (Why I Sign as Charal,2016) and novella Andhar Bil (2016), this paper intends to analyze the experiences of second-generation Bengali Dalit women refugees in case of the post-Partition West Bengal. The present paper examines the tropes of nostalgia, partition, and rehabilitation as experiences of Bengali Dalit women characters in the post-Partition West Bengal, the notions of migration, remembrance, oppression, and injustice. Through a detailed analysis of both the narratives, this research article intends to explore how the intersectional dynamism of caste, and gender have impacted the experiences of Bengali Dalit women strata substantially. In majoritarian aspects Bengali Dalit women characters have been reduced to mute objects, stripped of their agency, subjecthood, and desires, from which these two narratives shift substantially.
 In case of the post-Partition scenario of West Bengal, the experiences of refugees from the different sections of the society are not a homogenized one. Kalyani Thakur’s narratives offer some valuable points for thinking about the differentiated experiences of migration, displacement, deprivation, and caste discrimination faced by Bengali Dalit women characters. Through her autobiographical narrative and the novella Andhar Bil, Kalyani Thakur also tries to portray how the intersectional dynamism of caste and gender has problematized the overall experiences of the Bengali Dalit populace in the post-Partition West Bengal. The researcher wants to argue that ideas like caste and gender both act as a site of oppression, which the grand narrative of the Bengal partition is primarily unable to capture. To develop this paper, the researcher consults literary, historical, and sociological facets of the Bengal Partition of 1947, Dalit identity, migration, and its effects on the Bengali Dalit population.