In the heart of Delhi, near Karol Bagh, is a sprawling neighborhood named Rehgar Pura that hums with the sounds and sights of urban life. The streets are lined with narrow buildings, residences stacked above bustling commercial establishments—wholesale and retail shops, godowns and small leather and garment production units. The neighborhood is well known in the city as a primary trading hub for leather goods. Yet for all its commercial renown and central location, Rehgar Pura barely marks a presence in the social landscape of the city. It is one of many invisible neighbourhoods, which, despite their long histories, do not feature in city guidebooks. Yet Rehgar Pura is a prime site of South Asian history even in its invisibility. It is entrenched in the politics of the formation of modern India and Pakistan—the history of Partition.
It wasn’t until 2001, when I began my archival work on the history of Partition migration and resettlement, that I first discovered these connections. In the now-defunct archives of the erstwhile Ministry of Rehabilitation—it was later merged with the home ministry as a department—Rehgar Pura was listed as a site of resettlement for the “Harijan” community displaced during the violent upheavals of Partition. (The term “Harijan” was most popularly employed by Mohandas Gandhi, to refer to those belonging to Scheduled Caste communities. The term is widely considered condescending.) I was no stranger to this neighborhood—I was born about two kilometres from it, and had been a frequent visitor to the bazaar through my childhood. What was unfamiliar to me was how Rehgar Pura was deeply woven into—and yet concealed within—the story of Partition migration and resettlement.
At the turn of the twentieth century, this location was a marked site for the Dalit residents of Delhi, many of whom were employed in the city municipality as sweepers. It was also to become a site of resettlement for the newly arrived Dalit refugees from West Punjab and the North West Frontier Province (NWFP), separated and set apart from the “regular” resettlement locations meant for upper-caste refugees. In 1947 and 1948, the urban refugees classified as Harijan, Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe and “untouchables” were offered resettlement in this location by the newly-liberated postcolonial Indian state.
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