Partitioned lives : migrants, refugees, citizens in India and Pakistan, 1947-65

The processes of establishing new national orders in the aftermath of the Partition entailed that minorities-Hindus in Pakistan and Muslims in India-had to re-negotiate their identities as rightful citizens. This book focuses on the partition of Bengal, its effects on minorities, and the subsequent reordering of national identities in India and East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). Divided in three thematic sections, it examines issues of territoriality, identity, migration, and citizenship. This volume joins new scholarship on the Partition, which sees it as a process rather than a single event. It provides a cross border analysis of how India and East Pakistan engaged with their post-Partition predicaments and how ordinary people on both sides reacted, adopted, and negotiated. This book will be of considerable interest to scholars and students of modern Indian history, sociology, and the interested general reader. Partitioned States offers new perspective in the histories of Partition and its aftermath by connecting it to the long drawn out and skewed formation of new national entities: India and East Pakistan. Haimanti Roy focuses on the Bengal Partition and locates its narrative within the intersection of long term cross border movement, chronic small scale violence and the emergence of a document regime, biased national refugee policies, all of which contributed to the formation of national citizenships in India and East Pakistan. Roy argues that minorities, Hindus in East Pakistan and Muslims in eastern India and the discourse over their citizenship and national identity were central to the project of nation building. However, rather than being automatic after 1947, the identity of Indian and Pakistanis were produced , as often constructed arbitrarily through the discretionary powers of lowly officials as through legislation emerging out of parliaments over the next two decades. The product of several years of archival research in Calcutta, Dhaka, Delhi and London, Partitioned States is the first to examine the experience of Partition from both sides of the Bengal border. It urges for a rethinking of the Bengal Partition, which continues to inform the contemporary politics of India and Bangladesh "The processes of establishing new national orders in the aftermath of the Partition entailed that minorities-Hindus in Pakistan and Muslims in India-had to re-negotiate their identities as rightful citizens. This book focuses on the partition of Bengal, its effects on minorities, and the subsequent reordering of national identities in India and East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh). Divided in three thematic sections, it examines issues of territoriality, identity, migration, and citizenship. This volume joins new scholarship on the Partition, which sees it as a process rather than a single event. It provides a cross border analysis of how India and East Pakistan engaged with their post-Partition predicaments and how ordinary people on both sides reacted, adopted, and negotiated."--Publisher's website The Processes Of Establishing New National Orders In The Aftermath Of The Partition Entailed That Minorities - Hindus In Pakistan And Muslims In India - Had To Re-negotiate Their Identities As Rightful Citizens. This Book Focuses On The Partition Of Bengal, Its Effects On Minorities, And The Subsequent Reordering Of National Identities In India And East Pakistan (present Day Bangladesh). Introduction : Partitioned Histories, Divided Identities. -- Part I: Territories. Drafting A New Nation ; Limits Of The Nation. -- Part Ii: Citizens. Home And Hearth ; Citizens Of The Nation. -- Part Iii: Identities. The Routine Of Violence ; Refugees And The Indian State. Haimanti Roy. Includes Bibliographical References (p. [226]-242) And Index.