Forced displacement and social capital: long-run impact of the Indian partition

We investigate whether the historical shock of the Indian Partition, one of the largest forced displacements in the twentieth century, affected social capital in affected parts of India in the long-run. India was partitioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan (East and West Pakistan). At this time, many Hindus and Sikhs migrated from Pakistan to India while Muslims migrated from India to Pakistan. The Partition shock is measured as the proportion of "displaced" migrants in Indian districts in 1951 from census data. Using data from the World Health Organisation Survey on the Aged and Elderly conducted in six Indian states, we find that social capital is lower in districts that received more Partition migrants. The effect remains strongly robust to spatial robustness checks, contemporary differences in demographics and income, public goods provisions, literacy, urbanisation and the gender ratio. We find these effects are mediated through riots, community conflicts and violent crime that start from Partition sixty years ago and continue through to more recent times. Our study contributes to the understanding of large forced displacement events and their shadow on institutions-here social capital-over the long run.