6 min readNew DelhiJul 10, 2022 09:53 AM IST
First published on: Jul 10, 2022 at 09:53 AM IST
Till the 1970s-80s, the packed lanes of Regharpura in West Delhi were lined with leather factories. The neighbourhood adjacent to Karol Bagh is dominated by the Regar community, a leather tanning caste group who trace their origins to Rajasthan and have stories to narrate of how their forefathers were employed by the British to build New Delhi. Today, the leather industry has been replaced by retail shops. Also invisible is the untold story of caste-based resettlement of refugees that took place here following the Partition.
Hari Singh (83), who belongs to the Jatav community and lives in a tiny 12×30 feet one-room flat, has faint recollections of the chaotic days following the Partition. He recalls the many camps that had come up around his neighbourhood and how details of refugees were noted down. “Those from the lower castes were allotted houses in this area,” he said. Pointing to the row of quarters on his opposite site, he noted, “All refugees from the Valmiki community were settled here, for instance.”
Echoes from 1947 can be heard in almost every nook and corner of Delhi. Large parts of the city such as Lajpat Nagar, Malviya Nagar, Karol Bagh and Rajinder Nagar came up with the specific purpose of resettling Partition refugees.
Historian Ravinder Kaur, who authored the book, Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi migrants of Delhi (2007), said she conducted a large-scale survey of different resettlement colonies in Delhi in the early 2000s and realised that almost everyone was upper caste there.
In her search for the Dalit refugee settlements in Delhi, she found that the Ministry of Rehabilitation had, on February 15, 1948, established a ‘Harijan section’ with the purpose of settling uprooted Dalits, and funds were allocated for establishing a housing colony for such communities in Regharpura. “On the Delhi resettlement, the report further mentions that ‘at the end of August 1948, Regharpura scheme was almost completed. Two co-operative housing societies for Harijans were formed, and a share capital worth Rupees 4000 was subscribed till 31st August, 1948. The Harijan families also secured tarpaulins to cover their roofless huts’,” she noted in her book.
Worth noting is the fact that Regharpura was first settled by the British colonial government in the early decades of the 20th Century when they required people to build the new capital. Many who were recruited were from the Scheduled Castes, and by the 1940s, settled in the visibly poor colony. After the Partition, lower caste refugees from Pakistan were resettled in this same locality, where fresh mud huts were built for them. Later, the government constructed concrete sheds for the refugees.
Hari Singh (83), who belongs to the Jatav community, lives in a tiny 12×30 feet one-room flat. (Express Photo by Adrija Roychowdhury)
Kaur explained that while the ordinances of the Ministry of Rehabilitation mentioned nothing about caste, the stratified resettlement of the refugees in Regharpura was a result of the official principle of compensation that dominated the ministry’s plan for all Partition refugees.
“Compensation means that you will be returned something that you owned before. But what if you did not have anything to begin with?” she asked. “This is why you find huge distinctions between people who got very large plots in Nizamuddin, those who got smaller plots in Rajinder Nagar and Tilak Nagar and then those who were compensated as part of the ‘Harijan upliftment project’ in Regharpura. The bureaucratic principle of compensation led to some sort of recreation of the past order.”
The caste-based distinction in resettlement of Partition refugees comes alive in conversations with residents of Regharpura. Jayprakash Ratawal (75) from the Regar community said that after the Partition, several people from his caste moved to the city from the other side of the border. “But none were given the kind of accommodation that the Punjabis got in places like Karol Bagh,” he said. “Our people were mostly poor and illiterate. Perhaps they did not know how to go about the bureaucracy.”
Echoes from 1947 can be heard in almost every nook and corner of Delhi. (Express Photo by Adrija Roychowdhury)
Kaur explained that one marked difference in the narrative of resettlement by the refugees at Regharpura and the middle class, upper caste Hindus in other parts of Delhi is in their gratitude to the government for their efforts. “I found it surprising since the archival records tell us that the state, in fact, did very less for them in comparison to that for the upper castes,” she said.
Bharteshwari (52), who belongs to the Valmiki community and is a resident at Regharpura, explained: “At least the government did enough for us so that we could survive after fleeing so much violence.” Her parents, who passed away a few years ago, had moved to Delhi from Sindh during the Partition.
“If you are not used to getting the public goods or a share in the resources, and then you do get something, even though it is very minor, there is bound to be a sense of gratitude,” said Kaur.
In recent times, most of the original occupants of the allocated houses in Regharpura have moved out of the locality. Real estate being cheaper in the area has led to many upper caste Hindus from Karol Bagh purchasing property here to use as manufacturing units or storage sites. “The profile of this area has changed a lot from pure residential to very commercial,” said Kaur. The tall four-storeyed buildings and painted houses, noted Kaur, is evidence of the capital earned on property rent by the original owners.
Regar Pura, Karol Bagh in Delhi on Saturday. (Express Photo By Amit Mehra) 
Hari Singh (83), who belongs to the Jatav community, lives in a tiny 12×30 feet one-room flat. (Express Photo by Adrija Roychowdhury)
Echoes from 1947 can be heard in almost every nook and corner of Delhi. (Express Photo by Adrija Roychowdhury)
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