Forced Displacement and Social Capital in the Long Run: Lessons from the Indian Partition

This paper investigates the impact of migrant inflows due to forced displacement events on the social capital in the recipient societies. We exploit the setting of Partition of India. Using data from districts in post 1947 India belonging to six states that saw a higher inflow of migrants, relative to outflow, we analyse how the ‘shock' inflow of migrants affected social capital in the districts sixty years later. The shock is measured as the proportion of “displaced†migrants in Indian districts in 1951 from census data. Survey data conducted in 2007 indicates that social capital is lower in districts that received more Partition migrants. The effect remains strongly robust to spatial robustness checks, contemporary differences in a host of demographic and public goods provision indicators. We find that 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. We also find that political participation, a proxy for social capital, falls over time in districts which see a relatively larger flow of displaced migrants. Our study contributes to the understanding of the long run implications of large forced displacement events.