The partition of India in 1947 resulted in displacement of approximately 18 million people in Punjab and Bengal and killing of thousands. For Bengal, the refugee exodus continued for years after partition. It is important to note that while the Partition of Punjab was a one-time event with carnage and forced migration, however restricted primarily to first few years, the Partition of Bengal has turned out to be a continuing process. It would be important to observe that how these people struggled to reconstruct their lives, and to what extent their new environment posed a challenge to their existence and culture. What was their attitude towards the government policies of relief and rehabilitation? The government policy to resettle these migrants requires a critical appraisal. For a proper analysis and critique of the government policy, we need to depend upon the government sources, especially of the Ministry of Refugee, Relief and Rehabilitation of Government of West Bengal and those of the Department of Rehabilitation, Government of India, and the Lok Sabha Debates and West Bengal State Legislative Assembly Debates, Report of the Indian Planning Commission etc., along with other sources.

According to a French academician Jean Luc Nancy, "the gravest and most painful testimony of the modern world, the one that possibly involves all other testimonies to which this epoch must answer is the testimony of the dissolution, the dislocation or the conflagration of community". Ashis Nandy has observed that "the historical self configures memories differently from the way the historical self does". It has been also, perhaps, rightly pointed out that "memory begins where history ends".

The division of India was done according to the Mountbatten Plan (3^rd June Plan). On July 18, 1947, the British Parliament passed the Indian Independence Act for transfer of power. The border between India and Pakistan was determined by a British Government-commissioned report, usually referred as Radcliffe Award after the London lawyer, Cyril Radcliffe, who wrote it. Pakistan came into being with two non-contiguous enclaves, East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan, separated geographically by 1,000 miles. India was formed out of the majority Hindu regions of the colony, and Pakistan from the majority Muslim areas.

For Punjab and Bengal, the Boundary Commission comprised of two Muslim and two non-Muslim judges headed by Cyril Radcliffe, who had no previous experience of India and its territory. The mission of the Punjab commission was to demarcate the boundaries of the two parts of Punjab, on the basis of ascertaining the contiguous majority areas of Muslims and non-Muslims. In doing so, it was to take into account other factors. Each side (the Muslims and the Congress/Sikhs) presented its claim through counsel. The judges were divided on all major issues which enabled Cyril Radcliffe to make the actual decisions. The 2,736 km long boundary line passes through Jessore, Nadia, Malda, Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri districts of Bengal and Sylhet district of neighboring Assam. The demarcation of the line was arbitrary since it cut across water channels, pilgrimage centers, location of industries and other vital strategic locations.

History and Culture Journal, Refugee Crisis, Eastern India, Government Policies, Government Sources, Indian Planning Commission, Strategic Locations, Water Channels, Refugee Rehabilitation, Agricultural Laborers, Refugee Movement.