孟加拉的种姓和分裂：达利特难民的故事，1946-1961

作为一本书中的阶级划分的讨论。在传统的分割叙事中，达利特或在册种姓的角色要么被完全忽视，要么被顺便提及。作者讨论了这种话语缺失和
认为在孟加拉，达利特人既不是被动的旁观者，也不是分裂政治和暴力的意外受害者，分裂政治和暴力破坏了他们的团结，削弱了他们的政治自主权。他们是分裂最严重的受害者。当东孟加拉邦的达利特农民开始迁移到印度时
1950年后，他们被视为西孟加拉邦脆弱经济的“负担”，印度政府没有为他们提供适当的康复方案。他们首先被隔离在有围栏的难民营里，那里的生活无法忍受，然后被分散到印度的其他地方——首先是印度
安达曼群岛和邻国，然后是丹达卡兰亚的荒凉地带，在那里，它们可以作为各种开发项目的廉价劳动力。这本书批判性地审视了他们参与分裂政治的情况，以及他们三年后移民的原因
他们在难民营中难以忍受的生活和斗争，他们在这些新环境中与种姓和性别身份进行谈判，他们有组织地抗议难民营管理不善，最后是他们反对印度国家难民分散政策的萨蒂亚格拉哈运动。
这本书着眼于难民政治如何影响分裂后西孟加拉邦的达利特身份和抗议运动。
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Caste and Partition in Bengal: The Story of Dalit Refugees, 1946-1961
The book seeks to situate caste as a discursive category in the discussion of Partition in Bengal. In conventional narratives of Partition, the role of the Dalit or the Scheduled Castes is either completely ignored or mentioned in passing. The authors addresse this discursive absence and
argues that in Bengal the Dalits were neither passive onlookers nor accidental victims of Partition politics and violence, which ruptured their unity and weakened their political autonomy. They were the worst victims of Partition. When the Dalit peasants of Eastern Bengal began to migrate to India
after 1950, they were seen as the ‘burden’ of a frail economy of West Bengal, and the Indian state did not provide them with a proper rehabilitation package. They were first segregated in fenced refugee camps where life was unbearable, and then dispersed to other parts of India – first to the
Andaman Islands and the neighbouring states, and then to the inhospitable terrains of Dandakaranya, where they could be used as cheap labour for various development projects. This book looks critically at their participation in Partition politics, the reasons for their migration three years after
Partition, their insufferable life and struggles in the refugee camps, their negotiations with caste and gender identities in these new environments, their organized protests against camp maladministration, and finally their satyagraha campaigns against the Indian state’s refugee dispersal policy.
This book looks at how refugee politics impacted Dalit identity and protest movements in post-Partition West Bengal.
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