The Weaver and the Refugee: How Urdu-Speaking Bihari Migration Shaped East Bengal's Textile Mills

When the Partition of British India divided Bengal in 1947, all 108 existing jute processing mills ended up in Indian territory. East Pakistan held the fertile delta that grew the raw "golden fiber," but it lacked the industrial infrastructure to process it into sacks, twine, and industrial fabric. Over the following decade, a massive influx of Urdu-speaking Muslim refugees—collectively referred to as Biharis—supplied the technical skill and industrial workforce that built East Bengal's factory ecosystem from the ground up.

Scholars debate the exact socio-economic drivers of this post-Partition movement, but archival records show that roughly one million Muslims crossed into East Bengal from northern India, primarily from Bihar. They were not a uniform group. Alongside agriculturalists and traders were thousands of skilled artisans, railway technicians, and handloom weavers. Their arrival coincided with an urgent push by the Pakistani state to establish local processing capacity along East Bengal's navigable river networks.

The Rise of Narayanganj

The geographic heart of this transformation was Narayanganj, a river port situated along the Shitalakshya River. Known historically as a trading post for raw agricultural goods, the city rapidly earned the moniker "Eastern Dundee" as capital and labor converged on its banks.

In December 1949, the industrial group founded by Abdul Wahid Adamjee submitted a proposal to build a massive processing complex in Narayanganj. Established in 1950, the Adamjee Jute Mills expanded across nearly 300 acres to become the largest single jute-processing mill in the world, outstripping older operations in Kolkata and Scotland.

┌──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│             East Bengal Industrial Corridor              │
│                                                          │
│   [ Bihar & Northern India ]                             │
│               │ (Migration of skilled labor, 1947–50s)   │
│               ▼                                          │
│     [ River Trade Hubs ] ──► [ Narayanganj Mills ]       │
│    (Shitalakshya River)     (Adamjee, Bawa Jute Works)   │
└──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The scale of these industrial projects required an immediate, specialized workforce. Pakistani state administrators favored hiring non-Bengali Muslim refugees for supervisory roles, machine maintenance, and technical loom operations. The preference stemmed partly from the existing mechanical background of many migrants who had worked on the East Indian Railway or in urban workshops in northern India.

The influx reshaped the social geography of industrial towns. Enclaves like Adamjee Nagar in Narayanganj and various quarters of Khulna and Saidpur developed distinct linguistic and architectural footprints. Urdu became the dominant language of the factory floor and the surrounding bazaars, creating distinct enclaves alongside the established Bengali agricultural communities.

Labor Solidarities and Fissures

The rapid integration of non-Bengali labor into managerial and skilled tiers created complex labor dynamics. State planning treated industrialization and refugee settlement as a single administrative objective. As non-Bengali migrants filled positions as factory clerks, overseers, and skilled mechanics, economic friction grew between local Bengali workers and the newly arrived Bihari population.

These tensions periodically erupted into violence. In March and May of 1954, severe industrial clashes broke out at the Karnaphuli Paper Mills in Chandragohna and at the Adamjee Jute Mills in Narayanganj. Historical research by scholars examining archival police files and embassy records indicates that these outbreaks were not merely spontaneous ethnic riots, but complex disputes over wage structures, housing allocation, and corporate control. More than 600 people lost their lives in the 1954 Adamjee violence, prompting the central government in Karachi to impose governor's rule over the province.

Despite these violent ruptures, the day-to-day operation of the mills relied on a shared industrial rhythm. For two decades, Bengali and Urdu-speaking workers operated the heavy mechanical looms side by side, producing golden fiber exports that generated the bulk of Pakistan's foreign exchange earnings.

Legacy along the Waterfront

The events of 1971 permanently fractured this industrial structure. During the Bangladesh Liberation War, political loyalties split sharply along linguistic lines, leading to tragic cycles of retributive violence. Following the independence of Bangladesh, industrial assets like the Adamjee Jute Mills were nationalized under the Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation in 1972.

Many Urdu-speaking mill workers were displaced from their company quarters and relocated to makeshift urban settlements. According to the Minority Rights Group, tens of thousands of Bihari descendants remained in densely populated camps across Bangladesh for decades, facing long-standing legal ambiguity regarding their citizenship until court rulings recognized their national rights.

The physical landscape of the river ports has shifted as well. The Adamjee Jute Mills closed permanently in 2002 due to falling global demand for natural jute in the face of synthetic alternatives. The site was redeveloped into the Adamjee Export Processing Zone, where modern garment factories now produce ready-made apparel for global markets. Yet the history of East Bengal’s mid-century industrial expansion remains tied to the history of the Bihari migration—a period when river trade routes and displaced artisans combined to turn Narayanganj into a global center of textile manufacturing.