In the hands of a ‘secular state’: Meos in the aftermath of Partition, 1947-49

This article focuses on unpacking the workings of the independent Indian nation-state in the region of Mewat in the aftermath of Partition violence, particularly the state’s rendering of the Meo community there as a minority. This violence has been called a ‘rite of political and territorial passage’ and ‘systemic ethnic cleansing’ by scholars Shail Mayaram and Ian Copland, respectively. Building upon their works, this article focuses on state actors and details their ‘rule of difference’ in the treatment of Meos through the years 1947 to 1949, that is, from their displacement to the conditions of their resettlement. This documentation is done by accessing the hitherto unused files of the Ministry of States, the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Prime Minister’s Secretariat at the National Archives, and the post-1947 papers of Jawaharlal Nehru and Pandit Sunder Lal held at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.