Thakurnagar as a Political Location: Place Making Practices of Matua Refugees in West Bengal

This paper examines the making and transformation of Thakurnagar as a place that has evolved as the epicentre of Dalit refugee activism in contemporary West Bengal. Based on literary and ethnographic evidence, the paper looks at the place making practices of Namasudra refugees in and around Thakurnagar to show why and how did this place develop as a sacred, civic, and political location, and in turn, shape their community and identity in the post-Partition decades. In doing so, the paper reflects on the relationship between caste, refugeehood, and place making in postcolonial India.