The Intertwining Relationship between Acculturation and Space

Abstract During the partition of India, Muslims from India migrated to Bangladesh, where they started to be known as Bihari. But years of cultural dissimilarities and political conflict in 1971 with the local Bengalis forced most of them to live in camps dispersed across the country. The goal of this study was to determine whether the Bihari community’s degree of acculturation is influenced by the geographical locations of the camps. The aim of the research is to understand how geography affects acculturation and vice versa. The research objectives were supported by direct interviews, key informant interviews ( KII ) and camp observations in three distinct locations. According to the study, hosts and camp-residents from various spatial backgrounds integrated with each other in different ways. It found that a camp that offered better opportunity for Bihari–Bengali interaction, less communal conflict and a more tolerant attitude towards the dominant group assimilated better with the native population.