Negotiating the Centrality of Regional Identity in Real Time: Punjabi, Bengali, and NWFP-Ness among Partition Refugees in Delhi

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Seeing Migrant and Diaspora Communities Archaeologically: Beyond the Cultural Fixity/Fluidity Binary" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Archaeologists understand the limitations of viewing cultural categories as deterministic of material use and preference. Nonetheless, it is challenging to avoid such assumptions when trying to understand material patterns associated with moments of migration. This paper considers how regional identities shaped the ways refugees interacted with resettlement housing landscapes in Delhi (India) following the 1947 Partition of South Asia. Collating information from in-site survey, oral history interviews, and documentary records, I argue that refugees view their pre-Partition regional identities as a major orienting factor in how they have interacted with urban landscapes in the city. Punjabi refugees self-describe their resettlement spaces as modern and quick-changing. Bengali refugees highlight the green space and festival grounds in their communities. Refugees from the NWFP highlight their resilience in the face of coercive government planning. All view foregrounding such regional identities as means to counter the negative stereotypes associated with the broader identifier “refugee.” This case study highlights how individuals can themselves contribute to assumptions about the determinism of cultural identities. Documenting varying opinions within communities and focusing on the materials that living people see as emblematic of cultural distinctiveness can facilitate understanding how perceived parameters of identity are negotiated on the ground.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Seeing Migrant and Diaspora Communities Archaeologically: Beyond the Cultural Fixity/Fluidity Binary   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 36401.0