How are migrant communities policed in cities of the Global South where racially securitized discourses and colonial institutional legacies shape contemporary police practice? Critical criminologists advise that postcolonial perspectives offer valuable insights on imperial legacies, while allowing us to expand conceptual and empirical analyses of crime, policing, justice, and social order.

Partition of India was one of the most traumatic events of History. Millions were uprooted from their roots and migrated as a consequence. This partition was as a result of the ‘Divide and Rule’ policy followed by the British and taken up' by the Muslims fundamentalists. The division was not based on a clear-cut acceptance of geographical boundaries by India and Pakistan. When the final Radcliffe Award was announced, it failed to satisfy the aspirations of the people.

Calcutta (Kolkata) was deeply affected by the partition of British India. Sir Cyril Radcliffe’s line that separated the eastern wing of Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) from India had devastating consequences for the region’s economy and society.

The objective of this study were to determine the existing conditions of the refugees in the West Dinajpur district in West Bengal, India, and their grievances towards the central and state government of India and the demographic change which had a severe impact on the society and economy of West Dinajpur District from 1947-2011. The other objectives of this study are as follows. To study the history of refugee resettlement programme in West Dinajpur. To asses the origin of the Refugee problem, it’s nature, characteristics and development.

In the aftermath of conflicts, refugees are often treated as helpless victims of trauma in need of international aid and intervention. Refugees can and do however move beyond the culture of dependency to create sustainable existences within their new environments. While much attention is given to the politics of displacement, humanitarian intervention and human rights of refugees, little is written about the ways in which refugees actually live, particularly those who have chosen to settle themselves rather than allow outside powers to intervene in their settlement choices.

The Partition of India (1947) is commonly understood as a violent territorial and political separation of peoples, their forced evictions and migration as well as communal upheavals. But India's Partition can be seen as something more than separation of communities and the creation of distinct national identities. This paper suggests that refugee rehabilitation, one of the important processes of the post-Partition years, formed the rubric through which we remember 1947.