REFUGEES FROM BANGLADESH

 REFUGEES OF BANGLADESH

HISTORY OF EAST BENGALI REFUGEES

East Bengali Refugees are people that left East Bengal following the Partition of Bengal, which was a part of the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. An overwhelming majority of those refugees and immigrants were Bengali Hindus.[1] During the Bangladesh liberation war with Pakistan , an estimated 10 million people of Bangladesh (present-day Bangladesh) fled the country and took refuge in India particularly in the Indian states of West Bengal and Indian North East region, especially Tripura and Assam.

In 1947, Bengal was partitioned into the Indian state of West Bengal and therefore the Pakistani province of East Bengal. East Bengal was later renamed East Pakistan, which subsequently broke away from Pakistan to form the independent country of Bangladesh. Most of Sylhet district in Assam also joined East Pakistan and was subsequently considered to be East Bengal. East Bengal was the area of agricultural growth whereas West Bengal was meant for industrial development.

TREATMENT OF THE 1971 EAST BENGALI REFUGEES:A FORGOTTEN EXPERIENCE

On December 16, 2021, Bangladesh and India celebrated the golden jubilee of the victory within the Liberation War against Pakistan. On that day in 1971, the Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) nationalist forces with the help of the Indian soldiers managed to require Dhaka, the last city within the hands of the Pakistani military junta. It is celebrated as ‘Vijay Diwas’ per annum in India remembering the bravery, valor and sacrifice of the Indian soldiers.
Unfortunately, in this heroic tale, the remarkable feat of India’s hosting of 10 million refugees over 10 months has become insignificant. Besides being the most important single refugee movement (East Pakistan to India) within the times till date, it posed a huge burden on a rather struggling economy at the start of the 1970s. This achievement came despite the very fact that India was (and is) neither a celebration to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol. Furthermore, there was (and is) no domestic law handling treatment of refugees within the country.

Since the Partition in 1947, Bangladesh presented an anomaly, not just geographically but culturally. There was no integration of Bengali and Pakistani culture and racial tensions arose between Bengali Muslims with sizable Hindu population of Bangladesh and Pathans of Pakistan . Such alienation fuelled Bengali nationalism in Bangladesh , resulting in involves self-determination. On 26 March 1971, the Pakistan Army launched Operation Searchlight, which clothed to be a genocide of the Bengali population. To escape brutal violence from the Pakistani army, people crossed over to the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam between March-end and mid-December, 1971. In fact, the large influx of refugees and India’s inability to require more pressure was cited together of the justifications for the war with Pakistan.
Despite all odds, India managed the state of affairs almost unilaterally as aid from other countries, especially the developed ones which were insufficient to say . India adhered to the essential principle of non-refoulement (see here for understanding the concept) regarding refugees. Even in the backdrop of volatile relation between the Muslims and Hindus in the sub-continent, India followed non-discriminatory attitude in dealing with refugees. The
Government took adequate measure to prevent any communal tension. Over 3 million Muslim refugees also sought refuge in India.

On the domestic front, it has also received a step-motherly treatment as the main talking point has been India’s victory in the 13-day Indo-Pak war. We have did not learn from our own experience and enact any law on refugee protection. Officially, around 2 lakh refugees of varied groups reside in India at the present but there's no consistent policy for his or her treatment and protection of their rights. It has remained a playground for state fiat. In fact, there's a growing reluctance of the Indian State towards refugee protection, especially the Muslim refugees (read here). So much in order that the Tibetans, arguably one among the foremost fortunate refugee groups within the world, also are leaving India for other countries due to lack of opportunities, government’s changed attitude, etc. This doesn’t augur well for a nation which has long-cherished the motto of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (meaning ‘the world is one family’).

SETTLEMENT OF THE REFUGEES

The majority of East Bengali refugees settled in the city of Kolkata (Calcutta) and various other towns and rural areas of West Bengal, but a significant number also moved to the Barak Valley of Assam and the princely state of Tripura which eventually joined India in 1949. Around 0.5 million were also settled in other parts of India, including the East Pakistan Displaced Persons' Colony (EPDP) in Delhi (subsequently renamed Chittranjan Park), Odhisa, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Chattisgarh. The estimated 0.5 million Bengalis in Delhi and 0.3 million in Mumbai are also largely East Bengali refugees and their descendants.