The experience of the Partition (1947)—the contexts of migration and the experience of refugeehood—in East-India is assumed to be different from that in the West. But, even after some 70 years after the Partition, there has been no substantial study on the difference in the ontology of refugeehood across the two sites. More to it, narratives from the North-east (Meghalaya, Assam, Tripura), which again differ significantly from their western Indian or West Bengali counterparts, are under-represented in the existing database of oral narratives and ethnographies on the Partition.

The issue of the Partition of the Indian subcontinent which was selected for study was, is and will always be an issue of national importance. The Indian Partition is not to be seen only as an important and crucial moment in history. It is coupled with the birth of a nation and is also a permanent marker of ‘self’ and ‘other’ on a gigantic material and national scale The Indian Partition has raised many issues and questions about citizenship, national identity and the making of national and sub national mentalities.