Book review: Rup Kumar Barman,Migration,State Policies and Citizenship: A Historical Study on India,Bangladesh and Bhutan

In the Eastern Hemisphere, it is close to the eighth century ce. A group of Gujarat-based merchants felt the need to go further south to ensure their survival and find a better climate for their trade. Four centuries later, another group of people, the Chowtas, migrated from Gujarat to Southern India and eventually erected their empire. Let’s move on to the Western Hemisphere. A mother and her two children made a successful attempt to flee Oklahoma for California in 1936, an effort to combat the notorious agony of the Great Depression. She did this in the hopes of finding a better life for her family (Bentley & Ziegler, 2008, p. 988). All these facts are not connected, nor do they constitute a coherent pattern. Yet, they prove that migration is not a ‘modern capitalist phenomenon’.

Throughout history, only three types of people moved more: merchants, scholars and diplomats. Adding common people to this inventory became a reality only after the birth of modern industrial societies. Additionally, the factors driving human migration in modern times have shifted from universal needs such as climate and economy to man-made disasters such as political upheavals, state policies and war. Such accounts of widespread human movement have always been a choice among historians to depict (Williamson & Hatton, 2005) or have become a very timely topic, especially when it goes to the never-ending squabbles among politicians. Although, economists have not fallen behind. Their ‘rational choice’ model, ‘push and pull factor’ theory or ‘cost-benefit’ analysis, greatly aided in assessing a number of crucial aspects of global migration. But what is far more absent from all these worthwhile works is the issue of internal migration (Mann, 2015, p. 215). Nothing can be as good an example of this kind as the case of South Asia. In this turmoil of academic lacuna, the present author of great repute on studies such as Dalits, castes and conflicts, Professor Rup Kumar Barman has done a laudable service.

With a total of five core chapters, together with a prolegomenon on the concept of migration and citizenship, a long list of 70 glossaries exclusively prepared for non-native readers, and a whacking appendix abundant with sterling data, this book casts light on the various issues of migration on South Asian perspective. Contextualizing the author’s own life added a unique flavour to the narrative.

Placing the partition issue (1947) at the central to the discussion, the author in the first chapter went on to detail how various political events, as well as state-enacted policies, affected the livelihood of the common people of the subcontinent. Although mainstream national movements in late colonial India are thought to be nonviolent, Professor Barman challenges this notion and presents an alternative model. He finds the violent root of the national movement that he termed ‘conflict of interest’. Tying the reader to the global history of violence, he effectively illustrates how numerous factions with various ideologies and interests ultimately gave birth to the need for the ‘right to self-determination’. This urge swiftly grew so harsh in the last decade of the colonial rule that it led to the partition (pp. 52–54).

In the second chapter, a great deal of discussion is focused on the immediate impact of the partition on socially outcast Hindus who chose to settle in Pakistan rather than India or West Bengal. Yes, we are talking about the Scheduled Castes (SCs) of East Bengal. The author’s initial section examined different internal and external factors influencing their decision to move from East Bengal to India. Professor Barman made an accurate observation that the SCs of East Bengal were unwilling to relocate to West Bengal for various economic reasons and in particular because they were linked with agriculture. It was only after the death of Mohammed Ali Jinnah that they began to migrate. Furthermore, the resignation of Mr Jogendra Nath Mondal (an influential SC leader who occupied many prestigious positions in the Government of Pakistan), followed by his own move to West Bengal, threatened the lives of the SCs in East Bengal. Keeping a careful eye on the history of the migration of SCs, the author identifies a very specific geographical and ethnic pattern in their resettlement process in the Indian Subcontinent. Dr Barman is absolutely correct in his observation that most of the SCs relocated to places ‘backward in terms of civil amenities’ (p. 95). That is why we find most of the migrant SCs in the hilly areas of India, such as the Northeast, Bihar, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and often Andaman and Nicobar Island.

Not at all the path to the resettlement of the SC migrant refugees was smooth and easy. Not always do the forces—economy or politics—have a big part to play. Sometimes, even the social level that migrating people often held within the caste-based social system of India turned out to be the most prized. Additionally, this can result in the development of a sense of ‘otherness’ within both the host nation’s populace and the ruling elite. In this case, the Marichjhapi massacre has been shown to be the finest example of such state-committed atrocities and has given credence to the tale of SC migrants’ struggle for survival. By venturing into the detailed historical events of this case, the author has brought attention to the state policies of the Government of Bengal on the issue of migration. One other unique feature is that here the reader will be well assured about how much the attitude of the then government towards the lower caste people was discriminating in nature. The viewpoint is supported by a sufficient number of examples provided by the author. For policymakers, especially SCs, the conclusion of this chapter may be worrying. Dr Barman has lamented deeply at this point because, in the majority of Indian states, SC migrants from East Bengal are not considered as ‘socially backward class’, and therefore they are not entitled to enjoy various constitutional benefits.

The agony of partition on different levels is visible in many forms and representations throughout the works of South Asian historians. By deviating slightly from this conventional narrative on the partition, Professor Barman has contextualized a very crucial and critical but less-documented case in historiography, that is, the issue of enclaves, which is the subject matter of the third chapter of this book. This chapter is the most extensive part in length in the book. The first section is devoted to elucidating the fundamental idea of enclaves from both a geographical and a historical standpoint. The issue of enclaves, like other post-partition-induced problems, was getting the attention of the politicians of India and Bangladesh. In its early phase, certain initial attempts were made to deal with the issues of enclaves basically through the execution of bilateral treaties. However, this did not work out very well with the disparity in yearning among state makers, particularly from the Indian side where transferring enclaves often generated a feeling of ‘degradation of prestige’ to some opponents. Such political ambiguities made the life of the enclaves even worse and rendered them ‘stateless people’.

A large part of this chapter consists mainly of the discussion about the distribution of Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves since the time of partition and their geographical patterns. However, the author’s overemphasis on providing village-wise regional data may entail an atrophied experience in the reader’s reading (pp. 130–143). Then the author went on to vividly depict how different parameters set up by the states, and their neighbours made the lives of the enclaves too costly to survive. Drawing information from his field survey conducted at the Masaldanga enclave, Professor Barman tells the story of the sacrifice and struggle of Bangladeshi enclaves and their peculiar method of getting Indian government facilities from their counter-Indian enclaves (their children were adopted by the citizens of their neighbouring Indian villages so that they could get admitted to schools). However, in the end, the author did not forget to paint some of their progressive pictures for survival. The enclaves eventually established many associations and committees intending to raise awareness of the injustices the state had inflicted upon them. In many cases, thanks to their leaders’ prolonged protests and demonstrations, they frequently garnered fair media coverage.

Professor Rup Kumar Barman then arrives at the crux of the matter on various dimensions of the struggles of enclaves. We are able to measure from the third chapter how, after the partition, the issue of enclaves was causing friction among the policymakers of India and Pakistan. However, this was not the case until 1952, when Pakistan abolished the ‘free regime’ and introduced its own passport system. Because of this policy, which placed stringent controls and regulations on the movement of common people between India and Bangladesh, the state of the enclaves deteriorated further after it was implemented. They ended up playing the role of ‘host’ in their own country. Concurrently, in the same year, the newly introduced land reform, which was adopted exclusively for the abolition of the Zamindari system, posed an additional threat to the enclaves of East Bengal as it had severed their ties with their Indian landlords. The government-sponsored passport–visa alternative proved ineffective in resolving their complex status.

To paint this complex picture more exoteric to the reader, the author has presented here the prolonged history of the Berubari Movement, in which the people of Berubari had peacefully protested against numerous policies adopted by the governments of both India and Pakistan. With the passage of time and the creation of a variety of institutions and committees, their movement eventually gained widespread support among political figures. Even their issue reached Supreme Court. Here, the author did a good job of elaborating on how, after the partition, numerous state policies and actions adopted by both India and Pakistan had elevated the level of sacrifice and fight for the survival of the enclaves. The Tin Bigha Episode and the Indira–Mujib Pact (1974), both of which were connected to the issue of international migration and the issues of the two nations’ enclaves, gained particular attention in this instance. Despite their attempts to find a solution, neither of them proved to be fruitful nor beneficial to the enclaves. Finally, Dr Barman offers some information on recent efforts made by the Indian State to secure the lives of the enclaves, including the provision of shelter and job cards. However, he outlines several challenges they have been facing since their inception, which accentuates more explicitly their real condition. Some of them even went back to where they came from after having their dreams crashed.

Generally, the growth of democracy and the development of constitutional reforms bring peace and stability to modern states as well as ensure the lives and rights of the people. However, such a dogma of political studies doesn’t always hold true, as is the case with modern Bhutan. Here in the last chapter, Professor Barman performs a commendable case study. Due to its very peculiar geographical position—located between many regional, national and international borders—Bhutan has historically been home to people of different languages, cultures, faiths and ethnicities (pp. 179–180). Even, the 400-year rule of monarchical government from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century, as the author has asserted, posed no threat to the preservation and continuation of the country’s pluralistic society (p. 181). He succinctly summarised all of the significant historical events of Bhutan’s state formation and nation-building process, but paid a special emphasis on the decade of 1980, when many policies undertaken by the then government were upsetting the country’s residents, including the policy of adopting a national language, preservation of cultural heritage and renovation of old forts (dzongs) and monasteries. All of these steps made things hard for people from other cultures or ethnic groups, especially the Nepali-speaking Bhutanese (known as Bhupalese). Finally, Dr Barman shows how the newly imposed cultural policy of the Royal Government of Bhutan—the Driglam Namza [one nation, one people]—undertaken in 1989 proved to be a masterstroke for outsiders. This law, enacted by the State, introduced a common dress/uniform essential for every citizen.

Such a move by the government towards unifying the people of many varieties into a single identity through the process of unjust cultural imposition sparked political commotion in Bhutan. Newly implemented cultural policies for the common even propelled the outsiders to unite and build institutions with the goal of undoing the policy. Within a decade, several new regional parties and political associations based on language, culture and ethnicity came into existence (like Druk National Congress (DNC), Bhutan National Democratic Party (BNDP), Appeal Movement Coordinating Committee (AMCC), etc.). Although these associations and institutions were very vocal in their opposition to the concept of government-sponsored pan-Bhutan identity, eventually their chronic protest and activities to fulfil their demands deteriorated the condition of the Bhutanese refugees even further. Professor Barman concludes this chapter by shedding light on how the internal political condition of Bhutan finally led to the growth of Forced Migration of Bhutanese refugees as well as the stages in which their voices and activities garnered international attention. Countries including the USA, New Zealand, Canada, Australia, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands paid a keen interest in finding a solution by somewhat unfastening the rigidity of their own immigration laws and by providing the refugees’ citizenship rights in their nation (p. 190).

There are, however, a few things to consider. Further interest may compel the readers to go beyond the pre-planned dimension of the discussion when the author addresses the role that certain international states played in solving the ethnic-induced problems that occurred in Bhutan. The discussion might be of more interest if the author explained to what extent the incorporation of interests from global nations on South Asian soil had affected the state policy, since this issue was receiving substantial attention on a worldwide scale. In discussing the enclaves or refugees, Professor Barman rightly signals their political maturity by bringing up the diverse activities of their institutions and associations, which include things such as protests, petitions or appeals to the court, and so on. However, the sequel of those institutions might examine more clearly both their competence and the degree to which they influenced government policies. Another crucial area the book omitted to cover is examining the dynamic shift in the psychological makeup of enclaves and refugees following their migration, including their perceptions of the very nature of contemporary states and their sense of citizenship, which could have shed light on whether their ‘statelessness’ affected their participation in other activities.

By and large, this book is to be considered a tour de force in the fields of post-partition history, history of migration and border studies. It covers two broad objectives—the direct impacts of the partition on socially marginalized common people of this subcontinent, and how various state-enacted policies spurred both forced and voluntary migrations. To achieve this dual-purpose, Dr Barman has distilled various contours of their struggle by delving into huge primary and rare secondary sources of history that range from archival documents, memorandums, accounts, letters and unpublished dissertations to field surveys and oral history narratives. Pictorial representations in between the discussion have clarified the story even more. In conclusion, some of the points that make the book stands apart from other works in the same fields need to be mentioned.

To begin, this is the only piece of literature that provides a significant amount of space for the two groups of people that are subjected to the greatest amount of societal discrimination: the SCs and the enclaves. Additionally, Dr Barman does a superb job of analysing the intricate interplay between ethnic identities and governmental actions. His use of Bhutan as an example (Barman, 2009) makes us think of Huntington’s hypothesis on the clash of cultures, which he first put forth 30 years ago. One further thing that sets this book apart from others is some of the technical terms of reference Professor Barman has coined in the text. He is right when he calls the endeavour of the Bhupalese to settle some institutions as ‘Political Mobilization’. Also, ‘third party resettlement’, ‘mini-state system’ and ‘political modernization’ are the terms that fall under this category. Considering all these facts, the book, Migration, State Policies and Citizenship, indisputably will play tutelage role for the future scholars of its genre.