THE UNWANTED CHILDREN: UNHEARD VOICES OF HINDU BENGALI REFUGEES IN THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS

Abstract

: Concept Note & Objectives: Partition of Bengal in 1947 owing to India’s Partition probably witnessed the longest history of migration. However, our discourse around migration from East Bengal has mostly focused on the states like West Bengal and Assam resulting in the omission of a significant place of migration for the Bengali refugees- Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which has been ill famous for its cellular jail. As a second-generation Hindu refugee who grew up in a refugee colony, I have always tried to understand the intricate reasons for which the Bengali Hindu people from the Eastern side of Bengal decided to migrate. In this research paper, I would like to represent the unheard factors that prompted the migration in 1950s. We have not brought forth the discourse on Violence coupled with economic factors which was going unchecked in East Bengal (which later officially became East Pakistan) after 1947. The existing historical discourses primarily focus on rehabilitation in West Bengal and completely ignore the reason of this continuous migration and also the governmental apathy in independent India to send these Bengali Hindu refugees to a place which was neither habitable nor ideal for agriculture. Methodology: To reconsider the construction of partition experiences in Bengal as anthologized by writers and scholars, oral history is possibly the only way to explore the neglected stories of Hindu partition survivors. In the last couple of years, I have extensively visited the Andaman Islands and interviewed several Hindu Bengali Partition survivors. In this research paper, their Oral narratives shall bring forth many layers which were hidden by the state-sponsored historical distortions. Relevance: As we have already spent more than 75 years after Indian’s Partition and Independence, it is the call of the hour to show the genesis of Hindu migration from East Bengal lying in the communal hatred, which has been largely ignored in our mainstream discussion around Partition. This paper attempts to unearth the untold history.