The Partition of Identity (POI) project examines the Pakistani Bengali community, tracing its history and exploring how, in their everyday lives, its members traverse the space between being Pakistani and being Bengali. We focus on those Pakistani Bengalis who arrived in Pakistan in the 1970s, following the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, and their children and grandchildren who were born in Pakistan.

Estimates suggest that there are between 2.8 – 3 million members of this group living in Pakistan, but in reality, the numbers are likely to be much higher. This is the first time a study will explore this community in such depth and capture the accounts of members across generations.