Partition and the Ruptures in Dalit Identity Politics in Bengal

Abstract A number of historical studies have revealed that there were powerful Dalit movements among groups such as the Rajbansis and Namasudras in northern and eastern districts in colonial Bengal. The weakening and in some cases almost disappearance of these movements after 1947 is difficult to explain. One plausible explanation could lie in the emotional and physical displacement caused by Partition of the province. Both groups lived in the border region and lost their geographical anchorage following Partition. This essay explores the movement of the Namasudras before and immediately after Partition. Partition represented a major historical contextual shift that resulted in a transfiguration of Namasudra identity politics in the two Bengals, revealing the conjunctural nature of such collective social identities. In the late 1940s and early 1950s the Namasudra experience of displacement and struggle for rehabilitation brought to the foreground their “Hindu refugee” identity, overshadowing, at least for a time, their Dalit cultural politics.