Partition of India and the Scheduled Castes of Bengal

Abstract

Studies on partition of India in 1947 and its ln;products like migration of refugees and their rehabilitation, post-independent nation building processes in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh and other issues related to the partition are increasing day by day. Historiography of partition of India is thus now a very big matter of historical studies for the students, scholars and teachers of modem histon; of the Indian subcontinent. Partition of India in the East i.e. Bengal; has thus drawn wide attention of the scholars. We can broadly categorize the partition related historical works into Jew groups such as ‐(i)studies on political aspects of partition including provincial politics and communalism, (ii) historiography of forced migrations and refugee rehabilitations, (iii) studies on violence and gender related issues, (iv) partition memories ,etc. In these studies the marginal social groups like the Scheduled Castes, however, have been sadly neglected. Although in the recent years some scholars have paid little attention to the plights of the Scheduled Caste refugees but many aspects of impact of partition on the Scheduled Castes are yet to be properly reconstructed. In this paper an attempt has been made to review the historical studies on the partition of India especially on the partition of Bengal in 1947; Here I have also highlighted the location of the East Bengali Scheduled Caste refugees in the historiography of partition of Bengal.