On the Margins of Citizenship: Cooper’s Camp in Nadia
Ishita Dey
In this endeavour, we will try to understand one of the unique refugee experience of the Indian Subcontinent; partition refugees through the lens of the transition of one of the largest traverse camps “Cooper’s camp” in Nadia District. This essay will reflect on “ the processes and practices by which certain images, meanings, and identities of the refugee have been historically produced, differentiated from other subjectivities, institutionalized, and deployed as actual resources of and for practices of statecraft”.
On 11 March 1950 Cooper’s Camp was established by the West Bengal Government. It was one of the largest transportation camps in West Bengal. The camp offered a basic medical facility in the form of Cooper’s general hospital and it functioned cultivate 1977.Acording to Tushar Sinha ( 1999), despite being one of the largest transit camps, which once functioned as a military indecent had the basic infrastructural facilities of housing people. The lighting facility of the camp was limited to 18 petromax and 1000 typhoon. For every 750 people there were 40 tubewells. The camp was full of open latrines and open drainage system which was hazaradous and was principal for the decline in health among camp residents. From 21 March 1950 the camp was supported by the central Sway. By this time 126 people died after suffering from cholera. On 3 April, 1950, J P Narayan visited the camping-ground.
Gouranga Das’s family was of the 22 families who arrived in Coopers in 1950. Cooper’s Camp was divided into several blocks and huts for administrative purposes. Each inhabitant was registered in the relief office and was registered in the “Ranaghat transit centre records” according to his Hand out Card No, Date of admission and Name and family details. After this classification, the displaced was allocated a Hut which had to be shared and Block billion.
“We had read in the newspaper about Cooper’s Camp. I was among...
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