The chapter begins with a brief description of how the autonomous Scheduled Caste (SC) movement developed in colonial Bengal, spearheaded by two communities—the Rajbansis in the north and the Namasudras in the eastern districts. It looks critically at how space was important for their social mobilisation in the early twentieth century. When that cultural habitat was threatened by the Partition, they could hardly remain unaffected. It looks at how Partition politics affected and disrupted the organised SC movement in Bengal, taking the narrative through the election of 1946, the riots in Calcutta, Noakhali, and other parts of east Bengal, the Hindu mobilisation of the Dalit, and the Communist intervention through the Tebhaga movement. It looks critically at the question of Dalit identity on the eve of Partition and the division of Dalit leadership into two rival groups on the issue of Partition and alliance with the Muslim League. It concludes that we need to understand their participation in Partition politics within the context of a complex relationship between subalternity, religion, identity, space, and political mobilisation.

The chapter critically examines the roles of the United Central Refugee Council under the Communist Party of India’s leadership and the Sara Bangla Bastuhara Sammelan under Praja Socialist Party’s leadership in the massive refugee satyagraha of March–April 1958. It looks at the forms of resistance and modes of mobilisation, and assesses their revolutionary potential. It also unpacks the contradictions between different layers of political leadership in this refugee movement, shows how the caste question was deliberately suppressed by the Leftist leadership, although it was very much present in the structure of the movement. It also looks at the movement led by Jogendranath Mandal’s East India Refugee Council that deliberately raised the caste issue and examines critically the consequences of its rightward political drift. Finally, it tries to explain why the Dalit refugees were ultimately abandoned by the bhadralok political elite, forcing them to go to Dandakaranya.

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