In the Shadow of Space and Time: The trajectory of Dalit refugees

Abstract

The 1947-Partition was a traumatic event, often remembered through refugee narratives
in popular culture. Yet these narratives overlook the Dalit perspective. This paper will
focus, historically and ethnographically, on generations that did not experience Partition
but grew up in its shadow to establish an understanding of memory transmission. The
paper shows the interplay between silencing, forgetting, and ignorance in constructing of
partition memory. What are the remembered post-partition interjections for Dalits? How
do generational diKerences shape narratives of displacement and rehabilitation? Even
though people are thought of as belonging to a religious-communal identity in partition
memory, the fundamental information and experiences that form caste identity have
been lost over time in partition history. Dalit refugees hardly remember their
displacement from very scarce literary works in academia and oral recollections. The
diKiculty in distinguishing what is not remembered from what unknown highlights is the
crucial void in Dalit refugees’ memories. Delving into the intricate dynamics of collective
violence and collective memory, the paper will try to unravel how the impact of identity
extends beyond the immediate generation that experienced it. The access to the
historical past through historical discourse and spaces such as museums is also an
exclusive-elite discourse of memory commemoration in Partition, as the two museums
(Delhi and Amritsar) for partition do not address this category of refugees.