Two classes of migrant in India 👳
- Rich 🤑: preplanned and came before 15Aug
- Poor 😔: hope of honorable living in Pak, but eventually came due to communal violence (until Oct 1947)
Indian Response 📨
- Organization
- Dept. of Rehabilitation w/ special cadre of officers set up
- Secretariat w/ 7k officers in Jhalandhar
- modern day: we have NDMA, SDMA etc (institutional mechanisms)
- Immediate Measure
- refugee camps set up
- total 200 camps for migrants from Pak Punjab & 5 camps for migrants from Sindh
- eg. Kurukshetra camps, Koliwada Camp (Mumbai)
- Short Term Measure
- each family given 4 acre plot and loans to buy seeds and equipment for cultivation
- Long Term Measure
- Permanent rehab: land claims invited based on lands left behind in Pak Punjab
- biggest rehab operation
Dual Challenge
Hindus & Sikhs left behind 2.7M Ha in Pak Punjab while Muslims left behind only 1.9M Ha in Indian Punjab. Fertility greater in Pak Punjab as it was better irrigated.
lesser land available and lower fertility
- rehab secretariat collected, verified and executed land claims
- verification of land claims done via community verification
- resolve problem of overclaiming false claims punished by decreasing land to be allotted ideally and even short term jail sentences
- still claim inflation 25%
Concepts given by Sardar Tarlok Singh (ICS)
- Standard Acre
- lands that could produce roughly 400kg rice
- solved problem of varying fertility
- eg. 1acre in IWP = 4acres in IEP
- Graded Cut
- more % cut when greater land claim
By Nov 1949, Tarlok Singh made 2.5 lakh allotment + review applications leads to 80k acres being redistributed. By 1951, rehab complete in the West.
- however, cultural loss to Sikhs was permanent because lost imp. gurudwara (in Pak)