Mobility Humanities

Migration is an act of displacement and/or dislocation that can be experienced depending on political, economic, and cultural factors. The mobility of people or communities to a different place, country, or even continent carries the added burden of profound psychological realignment. Thus, within the migration, irrespective of the antecedents, displacement and trauma constitute the cardinal aesthetics of mobility. An epistemological inquiry into human mobility yields many moral insights into displacement and resettlement. The partition of British India and the repatriation of Burmese Indians are remarkable examples of displacement, with significant cross-migration and repatriation events. While the partition narratives represent trauma caused by relocation, the experiences recounted by repatriates expose deep-seated fears of social exclusion. These events and narratives raise critical questions about displacement, dislocation, psychological realignment, and/or the renegotiation of identities. This study explores the depiction of displaced lives in Partition literature and interviews with repatriated Burmese Indians, employing narrative analysis to examine the formation of migrant identities. The resultant exploration of the aesthetics and ethics of displacement in refugee and repatriate narratives from India enables us to perceive migration-engendered displacement as a geopolitical shift and a profoundly human experience.