Prantik Manob by Prafulla Kumar Chakraborty [Hardcover]

Prantik Manab is a comprehensive historical account of the refugees from East Pakistan and their impact on West Bengal’s politics. For the first time, through an extensive study of “the most painful migration in history,” Professor Chakraborty documents the saga of millions of displaced people forced to migrate from East Pakistan, their constant search for settlement, and the hardships they endured.

Amidst the horrors of displacement, this book narrates how these refugees, despite immense suffering, exhibited resilience, courage, and creativity, ultimately forging a new collective life. By occupying abandoned wastelands, they established their place in West Bengal. This act of defying traditional property laws introduced a new political element in the state—refugee power.

The author examines how the establishment of squatter colonies and the rise of the United Central Refugee Council (UCRC) as the primary refugee organization represented a progressive, change-seeking society in contrast to West Bengal’s conservative, compromise-driven mainstream politics. He argues that the foundation of all leftist movements in the state was laid by the structure of this refugee organization.

A stark testament to government neglect was the existence of nearly a thousand refugee colonies. By the 1960s, these colonies were filled with starving and neglected children, who, growing up in inhuman conditions, emerged as a new generation in the 1970s—a generation the author identifies as the Prantik Manab or the marginalized people.