Displacement, rehabilitation and vernacular press discourse

Abstract

My paper explores the role of the dominant pro-establishment vernacular press in the western half of divided Bengal in reflecting opinion, shaping attitude and tenors of debate on issues of displacement and rehabilitation following the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. I argue that West Bengal's mainstream vernacular press actively participated in communal and sectarian discourses. It pitted the demands of the incoming Hindu refugees from East Bengal against the Muslim minorities inside the state, and also incentivized a kind of linguistic and cultural 'othering' of the inhabitants of West Bengal's neighbouring states, particularly of Bihar and Orissa. While ardent nationalist posturing proved dominant in the press deliberations on partition, migration and refugee rehabilitation, over time opinion gradually turned against accommodating the ever increasing number of poorer sections of refugees. The influential vernacular press failed to provide a critical debating space, which could accommodate marginal voices and hold the state accountable on the crucial issue of redistribution of land and resources in favour of the East Bengali migrants along with other socially disadvantaged groups. 1