Why Marwaris in Bangladesh still feel like outsiders in their home

In a modest Dhaka office, Jitendra Jalan absently stirs his tea and speaks like a man carrying two countries in one passport. His ancestors left Rajasthan’s Churu district generations ago, drawn to the trading towns of undivided Bengal.

Yet at 58, Jalan says his community — Bangladesh’s Marwaris — has never felt fully at home.
“Our forefathers stayed back at the time of Partition in 1947. Even in 1971, we stayed back in the newly born Bangladesh,” he said. “But, despite holding citizenship, we never felt we were part of this country — ‘ na ghar ka na ghat ka ’ is a description that fits us.”