[MENTION=71]KB[/MENTION] very informative post, your knowledge of modern history is striking.
I am not well read like you in these matters so have a few questions.
We have seen that in both sides of Punjab the minority population has been annihilated. But why has this not happened in Bengal, especially the western part? I am unable to come to terms with your statement about 2 way flow/exodus in East India. Hindu population in East Pakistan/Bangladesh has been declining, during some time frames very sharply. But the Muslim population in West Bengal and Assam is rising very quickly. TFR alone can not explain this phenomenon, it does seem that Muslims in East India have always been staying put while minority Hindus (to escape persecution) and Muslims (economic reasons) from Bangladesh are migrating to India. I don't agree with your 2 way exodus theory, unlike Punjab it has been only 1 way in Bengal. Also the West Bengal government has taken much better care of minorities than her eastern counterpart. Would you agree? I can provide the census figures if you want.
In Punjab, the intensity and brutality of violence in 1947 led both states making the decision to effectively exchange populations. Both states assisted and regulated the movements. Hence why the minority populations were largely emptied from both sides of Punjab. In Bengal, despite violence in Calcutta and Noakhali in the prior year, 1946, when Punjab was ablaze in 1947, Bengal was
relatively peaceful at this time. Both states consistently adopted the stance to discourage migration in Bengal. Hence significant number of minorities remained on both sides of the border in Bengal. Why was violence more intense in Punjab in 1947? The presence of demobilised soldiers in Punjab is certainly likely to have contributed to the intensity of violence. The existence of a sizeable third community - the Sikhs - also complicated the process of a division of territory which satisfied all sides. The role of the princely ruled areas within Punjab was another complicating factor and there is evidence that some princely rulers encouraged violence.
As to whether the flow within Bengal in the period 1947 to 1971 was one way or two way, the evidence indicates the latter. Refer to the works of historians, Joya Chatterji (
The Spoils of Partition) Haimanti Roy (
Partitioned Lives) and Willem Van Schendel (
Bengal Borderlands and
A History of Bangladesh).
Van Schendel summarises the waves succinctly in the following words:
“The two new states were quite unable to monitor the migrants and often manipulated the figures for political ends. By early 1948, when the flows reduced, officials guesstimated that about 800,000 people from India had migrated to East Pakistan and about a million people from East Pakistan were living in India. After these initial exchanges, cross-border migration did not come to an end, however. It continued in a boom-and-slump pattern over the years, fluctuating in response to political events such as India’s 1949 invasion of Hyderabad (a region in the southern subcontinent that was poised to join Pakistan) and widespread communal rioting in both parts of Bengal in 1950. A third upsurge occurred in 1952 just before a passport and visa system was imposed. Up to then travel between India and East Pakistan had been relatively easy, with considerable return migration after each exodus. The remaining years of the 1950s saw little cross-border migration but it shot up again in 1961–5 after riots occurred in both parts of Bengal. Muslims entering East Pakistan came mostly from neighbouring regions: West Bengal, Assam, Tripura and Bihar, but also from Uttar Pradesh in north India.”
On the last question as to whether West Bengal treated its minority communities better than East Bengal, I find the premise of the question somewhat troubling. Too often this way of thinking leads to an effort to minimise the actions of the country to which they have allegiance to. In both India and Pakistan minorities have frequently been treated in an appalling fashion and faced discrimination. That the lives of Hindus were made very difficult in East Bengal in the 1950s and 1960s is well documented, but so too is the difficulties that Muslims encountered in West Bengal - refer to chapter 4 of Joya Chatterji’s
The Spoils of Partition and Haimanti Roy’s
Partitioned Lives. I am not interested in the question of 'who is better' as neither has been good enough. There is no solace to be sought in the idea that the record of the other is worse.
