ABSTRACT
The majority of Bengali refugees who were settled in the Andamans belonged to the second category, chotolok, whom the state sought to distribute. As a result of the hegemonic character of nationalist propaganda, the narrative of successful refugee rehabilitation has become omnipresent in collective modes of self-definition among Bengali refugees and their descendants. The transportation of Bengali refugees to the Andamans after the Partition was influenced by the ideological framework of government policies towards East Bengal Hindu refugees in West Bengal, which distinguished refugees on the basis of class and caste. Apart from the difficulties implied in starting a new life in the Andamans, Bengali refugees also had to deal with their individual and collective traumas of turmoil, displacement, and camp life; this was a process in which recourse to religiosity and spirituality played a big role. Government service is the most common and desired source of social mobility among refugees and their descendants in the second and third generation.
