On 22 August 2026, the Community Library Project, in collaboration with History for Peace, organised another session of Doing History, where Dr. Akanksha Kumar, professor of history at Janki Devi Memorial College, spoke about her experience studying the missing Dalit histories of Partition.

She began her research at JNU in 2008, focusing on the Dalit experience via oral history, identifying a research gap that had been overshadowed for long. In terms of methodology, her aim is to see research participants as co-creators of historical narratives rather than merely passive subjects.

She referred to the events of the Partition of India, especially the role of B.R. Ambedkar and the Harijan Sevak Sangh in facilitating the migration and rehabilitation of Dalits across India and Pakistan. Those Dalits being repatriated were recorded as ‘Displaced Harijan’ in state archives. Special attention was paid to the evacuation of these groups, who, along with Criminal Tribes, were reportedly being forced to convert to Islam and Christianity.

Dr. Kumar began her fieldwork by studying Dalit colonies in Delhi, especially Lajpat Nagar, Vinoba Puri, Baljit Nagar and Shahdara, where many Scheduled Castes and Tribes like Sansis, Bhils, Baazigars and Sikh Bhats had settled after 1947. Through her experiences interacting with survivors of Partition and their descendants, she found that contrary to earlier historiography, Dalits too as a social group experienced Partition violence and chaos.

She bases her work on the lived experiences of people and how they recount the tumultuous times that forced them to relocate and start living anew. She also drew attention to further scope in Partition studies, especially the experiences of Dalit women, which illustrate the intersection of gender and caste.