Geneva Camp, Dhaka: “Bihari” Refugees, State of Exception, and Camouflage

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article looks at the lingering complexities of the Indian partition and the current state of refugees in south Asia. More specifically, it deals with one of the most marginal segments known as the Urdu-speaking Bihari’s living in Bangladesh. We trace the arcs of migration, prosperity and dispossession in the life histories of an extended family with two households characteristic of a particular refugee camp, that feature in many mega-cities today. The article plots this in the background of transformation of Dhaka and the metamorphosis of neighborhoods that house the camp. We focuse on details that one may understand in terms of Agamben’s “state of exception.” However, we make a case for a critical difference between “bare life” and a political form of behavior distinctive of the refugees. Their frantic struggle to exist in the middle of exception involves a ‘camouflage’ by constant shuffling of identities but that also means destabilizing their selfhood and a being in transit that may well become permanent.