Politics and Resistance

The chapter critically examines the roles of the United Central Refugee Council under the Communist Party of India’s leadership and the Sara Bangla Bastuhara Sammelan under Praja Socialist Party’s leadership in the massive refugee satyagraha of March–April 1958. It looks at the forms of resistance and modes of mobilisation, and assesses their revolutionary potential. It also unpacks the contradictions between different layers of political leadership in this refugee movement, shows how the caste question was deliberately suppressed by the Leftist leadership, although it was very much present in the structure of the movement. It also looks at the movement led by Jogendranath Mandal’s East India Refugee Council that deliberately raised the caste issue and examines critically the consequences of its rightward political drift. Finally, it tries to explain why the Dalit refugees were ultimately abandoned by the bhadralok political elite, forcing them to go to Dandakaranya.