User:BengaliHindu/Bengali Hindu refugees

After the Partition of India, Bengali Hindus from East Pakistan and later Bangladesh have arrived in India as refugees at different times. The exodus of Bengali Hindus from Bangladesh to India continues to this day. The Bengali Hindus have mostly settled in the Indian states of West Bengal, Assam and Tripura. Several batches of refugees were settled by the Indian government in many other states as well. The Bengali Hindus of Assam and Meghalaya were forced to migrate to West Bengal during the Bongal Kheda in the 1960s and this internal displacement continued till the 1980s.

Terminology
The Government of India and the Government of West Bengal used several terminologies from time to time to refer to the Bengali Hindu refugee population. Two months after the Partition of India, the Government of India introduced the term 'displaced person' (later shortened to DP). A displaced person was defined as a person who left or was compelled to leave his home in East Pakistan on or after 15 October 1947 due to disturbances or fear of disturbances.

History of exodus
The exodus of the Bengali Hindus from what was to become East Pakistan began as early as 1946. In October-November 1946, the Bengali Hindus of Noakhali and Tipperah were subjected to genocidal massacres accompanied by rape, abduction and forcible conversion to Islam. Many of the Bengali Hindus who survived the massacres took refuge in Kolkata.

1947-50
After the Partition of India, around 42% of erstwhile undivided Bengal's 11.4 million Bengali Hindu population remained in East Bengal. In 1947, only 344,000 Bengali Hindus migrated to West Bengal. In 1948, the number grew to 786,000 while in 1949 the number of refugees were 213,000. The Chief Minister of West Bengal estimated the total valuation of the real estate and other assets abandoned by the Bengali Hindu refugees in East Pakistan till 30 June 1950 to be 870 million rupees.

1950-52
In February-March 1950 there were widespread killings of Bengali Hindus in East Bengal. The Bengali Hindus were attacked by the Muslim mobs, the police, East Pakistan Ansars and East Pakistan Rifles. Around 500,000 Bengali Hindus were killed in the massacres. Millions of Bengali Hindus fled Pakistan and arrived in India as refugees. On 4 April 1950, Bidhan Chandra Roy, the Chief Minister of West Bengal stated that two million refugees from East Bengal had already taken shelter in India. According to Rabindranath Trivedi, 3.5 million Bengali Hindu refugees arrived in India in 1950. According to A. Roy, 4.5 million refugees arrived in India as a result of the genocide. Between 7 February 1950 and 8 July 1951, approximately 4,784,000 non-Muslims migrated from East Pakistan to India.

1952-56
In October 1952, Pakistan enforced the use of passport for movement between Pakistan and India on the eastern border.