Coming out of partition : refugee women of Bengal / Gargi Chakravartty ; foreword by Tanika Sarkar

incl. bibliographical references

Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. Abandoned Ancestral Home : Noakhali Riots and the Growing Fears -- State Policy : Discrimination and Repression -- The Riots of 1950: A Turning Point -- A Hazardous Journey towards an Uncertain Future -- The Liaqat Ali - Jawaharlal Nehru Pact and its Fallout -- Nostalgia Remains: The Emotional Bond -- 2. Political Activism of Refugee Women : A Pre-history of Women's Politics -- Working among Refugee Women - "Abducted and Unattached" -- Involvement of the Communist Party -- From Station to Camps: From Camps to Colonies -- The Struggle for Colony Building -- A Case Study of the Viveknagar Colony -- Women in the Refugee Movement -- The Women's Movement and Secularism -- 3. The Crossover: Towards a New Social and Cultural Milieu : Spatial Loss and its Impact on Women -- Everyday Adjustment : Changed Food Habits and Dialects -- Towards Self-reliance -- The Cultural Construct of a Colony -- 4. Partition in the Lives of Bengali Muslim Women : Stereotyped Image of Bengali Muslims -- Education of Bengali Muslim Women in the Pre-Partition Era -- The Calcutta Killings of 1946 -- The Story of Migration -- The Women's Movement in East Pakistan: The Gender Awakening -- A Comparative Study of Bengali Muslim Women in East Pakistan and West Bengal -- 5. The 1964 Calcutta Riots through the Eyes of a Teenager : Appendix 1: Voices of Women -- Appendix 2: The Foundation of Viveknagar Colony: Musings of a Veteran -- Appendix 3: The Foundation of Shahidnagar Colony -- Appendix 4: The Camps -- Bibliography

"Partition has by and large come to mean the vivisection of Punjab as well as the holocaust accompanying it. Bengal suffers from a relative neglect, although of late some studies have focused on the trauma that Bengal underwent during and after 1947.
This book portrays the hardships experienced by women in the aftermath of the Bengal Partition and how they were able to emerge as a distinct category of refugee Women in due course, Their struggles for shelter, food and jobs became part of the wider women’s movement Facing the tremendous challenge of rebuilding their lives in a different environment, these uprooted women gradually turned into activists.
An interesting aspect is the author's attempt to initiate a comparative study of the Muslim women of the two Bengals in the post-Partition period." -- Book jacket