And there, in the camps, the Biharis remain. Over half (600,000) accepted Bangladesh’s offer of citizenship in 1974, while 539,000 registered with the International Community of the Red Cross as refugees, to “return to their country of nationality – Pakistan”. Since 1972, Pakistan has accepted back around 175,000 Biharis. 300,000, meanwhile, have continued to live in the camps for more than three decades.

Camp conditions are deplorable, characterised by chronic shortages of clean or running water, undependable electricity, communal kitchens and hour-long queues for squalid bathrooms. The majority of Biharis held university degrees in 1947; today, while primary enrollment in Bangladesh nears 100 percent, less than 20 percent of Bihari children are in schools.

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