Comparative Review of the Identity Issues Faced by the Victims of Bengal Partition and

the Exodus of Kashmiri Pandits

Arshia Pal Roy

2239411

Dr. Neha Wadhwa

Advanced Social Psychology

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Introduction

Cultural identity can be loosely defined as the distinct identities of the people who belong

to a specific geographical area. Cultural identity is a part of the people’s identity or

self-conception and self-perception.

An individual's self-categorizing sense of ethnic identity is their identification with a

particular ethnic group, including its cultural identity, origins, beliefs, and values. An individual's

ethnic identity is subject to change throughout time, and associations with the ethnic group might

be either good or negative.

The migration between India and Pakistan after the independence of 1947 can be

considered one of the biggest population movements in history. The migration of Hindu Bengalis

from East Bengal to West Bengal brought forward numerous issues of citizenship, identification,

and sense of belonging. In this expatriation, the Hindus and Muslims of Bengal from both sides

of the border faced appalling living situations. Even after being relocated the people faced

sociological issues of religious identity, cultural differences, and financial complications.

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The other major migration of a huge number of people from one geographical area to

another, due to political and religious reasons was the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir

to other areas. When viewed in all its dimensions, the post-1989 migration of Kashmiri Pandits is

the most calamitous, having a tremendous impact on the social fabric of the state apart from the

hazardous effect on the displaced community of Kashmiri Pandits. This migration of the

Kashmiri Pandits from Kashmir brought an undercurrent of terror, a sense of total deprivation,

loss, and uprootedness.

In the Bengal Partition of 1905, after being relocated the immigrants faced a myriad of

cultural and ethnic issues. The major was the religious clashes due to which the partition took an

uglier turn, where the people from the two religions started mercilessly killing and looting each

other. The Hindu Bengalis who migrated from East Bengal had to leave their entire ancestral

property and come to a new country with mostly nothing. The cultural changes were also a big
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issue because the culture in India was quite different from the culture in Bangladesh. This change

led to an influx of feelings of uprootedness and a lack of sense of belonging among the

immigrants.

Similarly in the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, the Pandits also faced very similar

problems arising from them being uprooted from their ancestral living to someplace completely

unknown. In the relocated place the Pandits knew nobody and nobody knew the Pandits as well.

This scenario of being completely unknown to the new social environment gave rise to a sense of

mistrust and prejudice in the already established society.

Although the fate of the immigrants in both areas came about due to political decisions,

the sociological perspective played a big role in sealing the fate of the immigrants in the new

land. Various sociological and psychological theories and concepts played their part in deciding

how well it be or how difficult it would be for the evicted population to settle into their new

lives. Concepts such as prejudice, religious discrimination, casteist ideas, and social acceptance

shaped the political and social scenario post-partition and after the Kashmiri Pandits were forced

to flee their homeland.

From the social psychology perspective, certain concepts played a part in the issues faced

by the deracinated people from both East Bengal and Kashmir. The first is that cultural diversity

plays a much bigger and more significant role than we realise. Humans as we know are social

beings, thus the cultural diversity in their social environment plays a much more significant role

than human beings can comprehend. It has been seen that confronting another culture can be a

straddling experience because the other culture comes with a different set of mental sets, rituals,

food, and traditions. Sometimes, these differences can be quite challenging to accept in an
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already established and running culture. This leads to the feelings of being intruded on by the

people of the other culture.

The other concept that plays a crucial role in the acceptance of a new culture or people of

a new ethnic identity is Prejudice. Prejudice can loosely be defined as the change or difference in

behavior towards people of a particular cultural or ethnic identity. Prejudice comes from the very

evident differences between the groups. The people tend to have a hard time accepting their

traditions and rituals, especially if they go very much against their own traditions. This can be

explained by the prejudice the Bengali Hindus and Muslims held against each other, due to their

food habits. In Hinduism eating beef is considered a sin, while in Islam and especially among

Bangladeshi Muslims, their most preferred choice of meat is beef. Thus, this was looked down

upon by the Hindus as being unclean or unholy. Thus, it was very tough for the Muslims in

Bangladesh to accept the Hindus. This gave rise to prejudice against the Hindus in Bangladesh,

which ended in the partition and the Hindus had to leave in thousands to India under appalling

conditions.

The third concept that played a major role was the belief in having shared ideas in a

specific cultural or ethnic identity. In the immigration of both the groups from their land to an

unknown land, the groups brought their own shared beliefs and ideas about how the society

should work. Very evidently this went against the shared ideas of the people who were already

settled in that area. Thus this led to a clash of cultural ideas between the two cultural groups.

This in turn made the cultural scenario extremely tense and very difficult for the immigrants to

settle down.
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The fourth concept that played a major role in the formation of the immigrants’ cultural

identity and ethnic identities was the long road of social acceptance. Social acceptance can be

defined as tolerating and welcoming differences and diversity in others. Most people who are

different try to change themselves to fit in with their current environment. In the context of the

immigration of people from Bangladesh and Kashmir, they have had to change their ways of

being in order to fit in with their current society. This must have led to a feeling of being

inadequate or unacceptable, and this was exacerbated by the already existing prejudice against

the immigrants.

The exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits and the Bangladeshi refugees had arisen due to very

political decisions that were taken by politicians who did not have to face even an iota of the

consequences of their decisions. Due to the sudden nature of these political decisions, the evicted

population of the areas was forced to leave their ancestral homes and most of their belongings

and settle in an area that was not ready to accept the influx the immigrants. The evicted

population was also left with very little financial aid to settle down and make ends meet. The

poverty of the previously well-to-do population compelled them to take up jobs that were

socially considered lowly jobs. This incurred more prejudice from the existing population. These

things slowly made the immigrant population lose their actual identity and were compelled to

take on the identity enforced upon them by the current social environment. This identity loss has

also pushed them to act in ways that were punished by society.

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Regarding the Partition of Bangladesh:

My mother’s Grandmother 94 years old.+ “The government just one day decided to

break the land we were living in. There was an alarming terror throughout the country. We were

so worried about our relatives in other districts. My mother had to bring her jewelry and some

cash in an emptied-out pumpkin because everything was getting looted by the gundas. My uncles

were all killed in the dangas. The train we came to India had more dead bodies than alive

people. After coming to India, my mother worked as a maid and my elder brothers worked in a

construction site. We were always in fear of being killed or deported back to Bangladesh. So

many of our cousins were left in Bangladesh and we do not even know what happened to them….

If they are dead or alive”

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References

● THE EXODUS OF KASHMIRI PANDITS AND ITS IMPACT (1989- 2002) Gh. Rasool

Bhat (2012)

● Baig, M. R. A. (1969). THE PARTITION OF BENGAL AND ITS AFTERMATH. The

Indian Journal of Political Science, 30(2), 103–129. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41854318

● Duschinski, H. (2008). “Survival Is Now Our Politics”: Kashmiri Hindu Community

Identity and the Politics of Homeland. International Journal of Hindu Studies, 12(1),

41–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40343840

● PARTITION OF BENGAL AND STRUGGLE FOR EXISTENCE OF THE

SCHEDULED CASTES Impact of the Partition (1947) on the Rajbanshis of North

Bengal Rup Kumar Barman* (2009)

● Leonard A. Gordon (1978) Divided Bengal: Problems of nationalism and identity in the

1947 partition 1 , The Journal of Commonwealth & Comparative Politics, 16:2, 136-168,

DOI: 10.1080/14662047808447306