Abhik Dasgupta's Blog, page 2
August 15, 2020
The Attic
ABOUT:
An Attic is a place for storing useless things to be got rid of later in our leisure. It is much like the Recycle Bin in computer where we store unwanted files to be later deleted from the system memory. But is it only a room where we abandon stuff ? Even though we let go of things which have lost their utility in our lives, can we forget the memories associated with them ? In deeper sense the attic is actually a secluded corner in our minds we want to store our childhood .. youth .. the parts of our lives which we want to forget .. the lives we abandoned into becoming what we are today
THE POEM:
Have you ever looked back at dried leaves
The ones you used to hide inside books
The place to search for your lost diary
Like the tears whenever you want to cry now
A small room lost in the bustling of spaces
A dusty smell .. cobwebs hanging like curtains
Attic is the only place you can find yourself back
The lumped pastels inside the stained pencil box
Remember the last time your aunt paid a visit ?
The old turntable .. your patience for a song
Cliff Richard .. Elvis Presley .. Manna Dey
The discs getting stuck at the same place
The big fat radio which once ruled the house
Could you've imagined a year without 'Mahalaya' ?
A report card which made your father proud
Your first appointment letter .. manhood
His choked voice .. the first time he let you go
Medical Prescriptions staled over years
Doctors who cured people rather illnesses
The earthen pots now home of sparrows
While your little balcony is starved of sunlight
Remains of comics books ruined by termites
Heroes who made you fly in air once
How people have been falling since then
Remember that rusted cycle, that broken bat
How you wished to touch the ceiling in a jiff
Now you crave for the paper fans and whistles
The world's wealth can't bring the Piper back
Yellowed newspapers savoured with morning tea
Does news make any difference to you now ?
Stealing pickles kept for drying in the sun
The torn kites which once sailed in blue skies
That first love letter scribbled in shaky hands
That first kiss which both of you dared
The news of her family's sudden moving to city
Like the steam engine billowing black smoke
The emptiness she left in your life
Your father's smoked medicine bottles
The reports which diagnosed cancer
Some photographs can never age with time
The postcards with same words repeated
You wondered how people could love so foolishly
The empty bottles of shampoo, oils and perfumes
You can still smell their fragrance after all these years
Trivial things each with a story to tell
The attic is a spectator to your growing up
Just like few people who loves you for yourself
But why keep such trash of years ?
Don't you know memories are painful ?
But can memories be wiped away ?
They only get hidden like dried leaves
In various pages of our lives
To return whenever you open the book
The attic is a secluded corner of our minds
The only place we can always return back.
© 2019. All rights reserved.
August 13, 2020
Your Eyes and the Sea
What lay hidden in your eyes ?
The impeccable truth or a sea of lies ?
Every time I'd tried collecting sea shells
The sea had mercilessly decimated my sandcastles
Why do I never tire waiting for spring to unveil ?
What makes me still believe in a fairytale ?
Is it possible to love someone
Without having seen or heard or met ?
Without the heart having bled
Not accused, never been used or insulted
Without relationships turned sour or dead
Without ever making life complicated ?
Never leaving one high and dry
Leaving one to only sit back and cry ?
Your eyes sent me on a quest
To set sail in a journey east or west
And swim across the sea of lies
To discover the truth which never dies
So I struggle to tune into life's symphony
With only the cuckoo's song to give me company
Mooring my life to your shore
I can't wait to run and tap at your door
Having found the answer now peacefully I lie
And keep watching your eyes till I die.
© 2019. All rights reserved.
August 11, 2020
A Goodnight Wish
Have you ever received a goodnight wish from a stranger ? And the next moment felt that she was the one you've been searching your life ? Perhaps now you'd be led to believe that there is never a time or place for true love. It happens accidentally in a heartbeat, in a single flashing, a throbbing moment.
Why does an unexpected goodnight wish
Keep awake an inevitable, mundane existence of years ?
The full moonlight spilling in through the mind's pane
Having awakened unrealized desires
As the passer-by looked up at the vast black sea of shining diyas
One of them seemed to cry
'I've got to return in the morning to the country of clouds
You see I have the responsibility of lighting up the entire sky
So what the fire consumes my mind, my youth night after night
I've been longing to hear your footsteps since eternity
When my tears dry, my rose petals peel off to the ground
And the realization of my haplessness tortures my heart
Like the trembling of a cruel winter night
'Why did you beckon me towards you if you won't surrender ? the passer - bye's tears demands
Why fill the air with the scent of your moonlight wet body then ?
O my love how can I fall asleep ever again ?
Till the time you kiss me Goodnight
© 2020. All rights reserved.
July 22, 2020
The Doll : Chapter 2 - A Creature on loose
Both of us looked out in horror. That same small face .. round eyes .. thick eyebrows .. high forehead .. plump cheeks .. heart-shaped lips .. flat depressed chin . Soon the differences started manifesting themselves .. dark circles under eyes .. dry, unkempt hairs. The pink dress gone, it was now wearing a silk frock similar to Isha's with the same embroidery and a big circular broach near the neck. A necklace of silver beads embraced it's neck, which actually belonged to Isha's mother. It seemed Isha had shrunk into a smaller size, just like Alice of Lewis Carroll's classic novel.
As I rang her school's number, my worst fears seemed to come true. The class teacher said that Isha had not turned up that day. Trying to keep my cool in the face of adversities, I contacted the bus operator and came to know that my daughter had suddenly halted the bus in the middle of the road, stating an emergency and got off near the market. My wife grew hysterical hearing the news and started screaming, while never stopping to blame me for everything .
The teacher who accompanied my daughter later told the bus driver that Isha was not feeling well, so she had sent her home. I immediately set off for the teacher's house but when I reached Mrs. Gomes's complex, an one hour drive from my place, she was not there. I had the class teacher's number and learnt from her that on the way to school Mrs Gomes came to know of her mother-in-law's heart attack and immediately had to return back, pack her bags and go. 'And where did her mother-in-law stay ?' I asked excitedly. 'Versova, Mumbai', Isha's class teacher said matter-of-factly.
After lodging a formal FIR at the local P.S. I was wondering how to face my wife back home, when I suddenly remembered that I still had the info about the seller on the app's Order list . Opening the mobile app, I was surprised to find the address to be near the supermarket we frequented. I lost no time in reaching the shop only to find a closed board. The footpath peddlars told me that the man had shut down his shop once and for all. I jotted down the address of Raghu, the one famous for selling children's toys in the area. 'What made him decide to close his flourishing business of years ? I felt devastated.
'Raghu mainly sold online and made a fortune in a couple of years of opening his tiny shop. He mainly bought made in China products smuggled through the Kidderpore docks. His offers being the cheapest, he had no trouble in procuring the orders. Since couple of months Raghu was disturbed. His consignments were suddenly being rejected by customers one by one . There were negative feedback on online shopping sites. The police had also raided his shop a couple of times. I guess there was some business rivalry. The products were getting tampered midway. Yesterday he looked completely shattered'. 'One glass special with extra malai' a young man orders siding off his bike and the man excused himself. 'Make It quick man, if you want to catch him. Raghu had told me he'll be going home tonight. His train leaves in two hours from now'. Hari, a local tea seller seemed to be a close confidante of Raghu, both hailing from the same village in Rajasthan.
The address showed South Kolkata and going by the traffic at that hour of the day. it'd take minimum two hours to reach. I knew I couldn't allow so much time. So I rode like a maniac dodging traffic signals and ignoring police sirens behind me . As it was the time of festivals, Kolkata was having a facelift resulting in blockades and traffic detours to facilitate construction of marquees, festooning of public spaces and carrying out lighting arrangements.
Coming halfway through I remembered that I haven't given a call home when my mobile rang. 'Isha had come back by herself' It was my wife's excited voice at the other end. I heaved a sigh of relief. But the next moment I failed to let go of a sneaking suspicion. 'Where is that thing now ? I demanded. She took time to answer. 'Actually Isha called out Mamma in her typical tone. Won't a mother recognize her child ? I had no doubt it was her. Maybe there is nothing eerie and this has something to do with her health. Come home and we'll take her for a check-up' my wife blurted put. 'But it was decided between us that you'd not open that door ' .. I clenched my teeth inadvertently.. ' .. That goddamn store room door till I returned' I spat out my frustration, cursing myself before cutting the line off.
Should I continue riding towards my destination or take a turn back to check my home ? I was in a dilemma now. On one hand I'd got to find my daughter, while on the other that doll .. that creature was let loose in my house. My wife's life was in danger. Without taking my foot from the accelerator I dialled my wife's number. Once. Twice. Thrice. But why wasn't she picking up the phone ?
© 2019. All rights reserved.
You can go back to Chapter 1 here or move ahead to Chapter 3 here.
You can also read the story on TTT here . To read more of such stories follow me on TTT
Watch out for my series 'Don't Fall Asleep' on Wattpad and Sweek
The Doll : Chapter 1 - A Unique Birthday Gift
I ran down stairs hearing the calling bell ring. I could hardly wait to open the door. The delivery boy gave a broad smile and handed me the box. I looked at the thing neatly packed inside and sighed . 'Remember the days when we were young ?', my wife reminded, flashing her eyebrows.
My daughter's indulgence with dolls had taken on a high since she started going to school. She would be enchanted with a new doll for few months, then it would find a place in our store room along with the previous abandoned ones .The figurines of plastic and rubber - stripped of clothes and crippled with an arm or leg, with a missing eye, an ear plucked off, a 360 degree twisted head or body severed from the hip sat on the shelves like clowns leaving her in splits whenever she saw them.
She had had her tryst with dolls which came with home furniture and kitchen appliances, the ones which closed eyes when laid down and those big ones which simply looked at you with round eyes and wide smiles. This new one was different though. A pretty girl with a mischievous grin, she'd keep on crying if you didn't cuddle her in your arms and once she started she'd never stop giggling. She talked using monosyllables of exactly an eight year old. One had to just set the age and language. And her reactions would make you wonder if you're talking to a human girl or an inanimate doll .. It was the one-of-a-kind girl's toy in the market and I had read average five stars ratings on the website. Except just one drawback though. She couldn't walk and you've to always carry her with you. Of course elite features like those would've made her inaccessible to the flourishing toy market in the country.
No doubt it was my eight year daughter's latest fancy. Her most desired barbie doll! She had started throwing tantrums the day she saw the thing at the mall and we had tried means to pacify her, but to no avail. Then one day I saw the thing on a mobile app - exactly the same one we had seen at the toyshop. And I wasted no time in ordering it. I could hardly wait for her to return from school .. to see her eyes widen in amazement, throw up her hands in excitement and hug me tight declaring me to be the best dad in the world.
Time flitted by with the new member in our family and Isha's tenth birthday was nearing. Yes. I had to treat her like my daughter .. I wasn't allowed to call her a doll. My daughter named her Nisha, to rhyme in with her name Isha. It didn't take long for Nisha to become her best friend, her sibling and they chatted and played around together. Isha even recorded a one-liner in its memory chip and the doll would keep on reciting it whenever Isha's spirits went down. It was commendable that she was programmed to recognize human emotions as well making her an adorable companion.
My daughter's bedroom had become her abode now and the first thing Isha did upon returning from school was to run and take Nisha in her arms. Which parents would'nt want to watch their daughters have fun and keep the entire house occupied ? So we had let Isha get her own way. Then suddenly some strange incidents started to occur.
Our daughter started saying things which we never told her and which she couldn't possibly have known at her age. When cornered by her mother she'd say that Nisha told her. We knew It was natural for a girl of her age to seek attention imagining things and we knew what an imp our daughter was, but this was absurd. I knew the doll could only speak the dialogues that had been installed in its memory.
We tried to engage Isha more into swimming, singing classes and other exterior activities which required her to take her mind away from Nisha. We fixed time she could spend with her doll. My wife started keeping tabs on her, but nothing came out of it. Isha's precocious behavior continued day by day, till one day we decided to put the doll into our store room. We knew it was difficult explaining to our stubborn child, but we tried telling her the exigencies of her nearing annuals .. the need to maintain her first rank in class in order to prevent being rebuked by Rahul, her closest competitor. After all Nisha was not going anywhere. And it did the job.
I got my first shock when I touched the doll. It felt warm .. like the warmth of a living body. I had a similar feeling when I took my daughter in my arms, the first time when she was born. It was certainly heavier than a doll of its size, but less than my daughter's weight. And then a cold chill went down my spines. I thought I saw it's breasts heaving. I knew this was absurd again, so I called my wife, expecting her to awaken me from a nightmare. But she let out a wail instead. The doll looked exactly like Isha now!
© 2019. All rights reserved.
You can move over to Chapter 2 here
You can also read the story on TTT here . To read more of such stories follow me on TTT
Watch out for my series 'Don't Fall Asleep' on Wattpad and Sweek
The Doll : Chapter 3 - A Desperate Hunt
I was at a loss. A police motorcycle screeched to a halt beside me and a young officer checked my licence and other documents but not before hurling a heap of abuses and threatening to put me behind bars the next time he found me flouting traffic rules. After greasing his palms substantially and promising to do the needful from then onwards, I continued driving and didn't realize when the wide, busy Southern Avenue had given way to quieter, narrow single lane of Joka.
The houses wore a deserted look in this part of greater Kolkata unlike those of the South which bustled with activities even at wee hours during the pujas. Promoter Raj was yet to claw it's way into this area and as such high rise apartments at every nook and corner was missing. I took a turn into an alley, as directed by the google map on my mobile screen, oblivious to where I was going. If there wasn't any open area ahead I won't be able to turn my car back leaving me with no option other than to ride one kilometre in back gear to get back into the main road, while returning .. But it wasn't the time to be bothered by such trivialities now. There was nothing important than finding Isha and carrying her back safe to her mother. The road ahead was illuminated only by my car's headlights with no streetlights in the vicinity. It was bumpy and less frequented, I found from the weeds having grown on the surface. Suddenly I was compelled to brake my car to a standstill, as there was a dead end.
A small, single floor building stood blocking my way. It looked dark and shabby. It was unlikely anyone lived here. With no living souls around, there was no way to confirm the address other than to knock and find out. ' Hello. Anybody there ?' My voice echoed in the darkness causing my heart to race. 'Raghu are you there ?' But still no answer. The rusty, metal door creaked open when I gave it a hard push and immediately a putrid smell caused me to feel sick to my stomach. Taking out my torch from the car I sneaked into the passage and immediately I felt something run behind me. Turning behind I saw nothing. 'Must be field rats' I thought, looking at the rice fields behind the house and kept walking .
A small room led to a big hall and it was here that the smell was more prominent. My torchlight illuminated heaps of cardboard boxes lying on the floor all packed with dolls. So this was Raghu's godown, I told myself. Did he live nearby or his friend had misguided me ? As the light shone on one of the boxes, a barbie doll's face peeped from inside the transparent cover.. I could recognize the company's logo instantly. As I began to open the top cover an uneasiness gripped me . Then I realized this one had a different face. And also a different body.
This was ridiculous. It was an older version of Nisha, in fact an old lady wearing a gown and not a young girl wearing fancy dress . Her skin was shrivelled of age and hair dry and unkempt. Out of curiosity I took the doll in my hand and watched it open its hazelnut brown eyes. Wondering why it wasn't introducing itself, I checked the battery holder. It was empty. Suddenly the lips of the thing quivered and I clearly heard it say 'Go back home. You still have time to save your wife and daughter. Go before it's too late'. It was then that I noticed the identity card worn around her neck. It had also got shrinked from its normal size and I had to strain my eyes in reading the name Sister S. Gomes, St. Mary's Convent School, Ballygunge. I didn't knew whether I was in a trance, seeing and hearing things, but suddenly I wished I could fly back home.
There was a load shedding in my locality and the street and houses were all shrouded in darkness when I returned. It was 2:30 AM in the month of December and a few stray dogs were barking from cold. I called my wife's name a couple of times, but there was no answer. When banging didn't yield results, I tried the backyard, hoping to find the rear door open .. if by any chance my wife had forgotten to close it after the maid left in the evening. But I found it locked too. Now the only way inside was to climb the water pipe like a thief and steal into the terrace of my own house. The bang of the terrace door was not working and it was my only chance .
When I reached the top the terrace was flooded with moonlight. The house was so quiet that it appeared to be deserted. I kept calling out my wife's name in low tone as I tiptoed through the living, hall and dining, noiselessly like a cat. When I reached the kitchen I found the oven still warm with few cups and dishes scattered in the sink . A peculiar smell filled the entire house, like of burnt plastic. I took out a kitchen knife from the counter for my safety and walked back to the passage.
© 2019. All rights reserved.
You can go back to Chapter 2 here or move ahead to Chapter 4 here.
You can also read the story on TTT here . To read more of such stories follow me on TTT
Watch out for my series 'Don't Fall Asleep' on Wattpad and Sweek
The Doll : Chapter 4 - A Faceless Evil
When I came infront of the store room, it was locked from outside. Sliding the hatch bolt open I flashed my torch inside. There was no one in the room except the remains of the abandoned dolls on the rack. Unlike the day when these inanimate, crippled figures fetched pity and laughter; now in the dark they acquired a ghastly look. It seemed they were all alive and my torchlight had awakened them from their sleep. I could bet I saw one of them flash their eyelids.
Suddenly I heard the scurrying of a pair of tiny feet behind me. I turned back brandishing my knife only to find a blank wall staring at my face. A putrid smell filled the room like the one I had experienced at Raghu's godown, a little while ago. My heart had started beating in my mouth in anticipation of an impending disaster . One of the dolls had its head severed off, with the trunk missing. I was so startled that it made me jump out of my skin. The rack was stained with paint and it was sticky to touch. I searched frantically for the doll Nisha or any trace which would lead to my wife and daughter.
Hearing someone groan I rushed outside and found to my dismay my wife lying on the floor with a knife lodged in her chest . The floor had turned into a pool of blood and I wanted to kill myself for staying inside the store room uselessly. Seeing her gasping for breath I was reduced to tears. All the moments we'd spent together rolled out like a video film before my eyes .. Our college days .. marriage finally solemnised amidst adversities .. the birth of our only child.
My world was falling to pieces now and I knew I could do nothing to prevent it. I told myself I was through a bad dream and it will pass. Like in a dream I took out the knife slowly and bandaged the wound with my shirt before making a futile attempt of blowing air into her lungs . Her lips felt cold and smelt strangely of plastic. Her eyes had widened and she was trying to say something amidst her gasps . As I laid her on the bed her finger pointed to something in the room but I didn't care.
Then the transformation started taking place before my eyes like those horror movies. I saw her skin to peel off her body, revealing her flesh, bones and arteries. Her head got severed from her body by some invisible blade. Her heart slowed it's beating and came to a stop finally as a putrid smell of rotten flesh filled the air . I saw her flesh coming off her skeleton and sliding down to the floor below like thick molten plastic. One by one her limbs got severed off her body, disintegrating into a thick liquid of red and blue, fuming and sizzling . Then her trunk and head was gone and I found myself staring at an empty bed.
Now it was behind me again. But this time it didn't run away. I could feel it creeping behind me .. waiting for me to turn back. I knew what it was now and was prepared to face it.
© 2019. All rights reserved.
You can go back to Chapter 3 here or move ahead to Chapter 5 here.
You can also read the story on TTT here . To read more of such stories follow me on TTT
Watch out for my series 'Don't Fall Asleep' on Wattpad and Sweek
The Doll : Chapter 5 - A New Family
'Shall I pack the doll Sir ?' the sales girl asked enthusiastically.
'Do you have something else .. Actually my daughter loves new things to play with. She already has such kind of single she dolls'.
'We do have some real cool concepts .. What about a small family .. husband, wife and daughter ? They have different dialogue catalogues and voices matching with their ages. You can adjust the age. And each one looks real. You can have a demo of all tasks they've been programmed for. There is an improvisation from the previous models. Now the dolls can walk and you can control them through a mobile app. You can make them carry out small household errands too.
'Wow. I think that's great. My daughter will be able to relate well to her family. But I'm afraid I won't be able to stretch my budget that much'.
'Don't worry, this sale is under promotion by the company .. You get three dolls for the price of one. I'm sure no other company has offered such deals before.
I nod as all three of us are taken down from the shelf. We've been tired of acting like inanimate objects inside boxes. Now I won't need to wait for the night to talk to my wife and daughter. Now my family will get a home once again.
* * * * *
In one of the most gruesome murders in the history of Kolkata to be reported of late a 42 year old man is said to have hacked his wife and only daughter to death before committing suicide in their house at Ballygunge. A missing person report for their daughter, aged 9 had been filed a day before at the South Kolkata P.S.. In the afternoon two men, tortured with foul smell emanating from their neighbour's house had gone to inspect and later reported the mishap to the P.S. The bodies are believed to have been incinerated in a micro oven after mutilation and could be identified only on the basis of charred remains of cloth attached to them. Police are yet to find any leads in the case.
In another incident, a woman aged 62, identified to be the teacher of a local convent school has been murdered and her body incinerated in a godown near Joka on the outskirts of the city. It was found that the godown belonged to a shopkeeper named Raghavendra Yadav (nickname 'Raghu) selling dolls at a shop near Ballygunge supermarket. The police have retrieved around five hundred dolls from the godown. Raghu is absconding from the place of crime and the police are on his trail. A special force team has been sent to his native place in Rajasthan where he is believed to have fled.
The murders at these two places are similar in pattern and the police are investigating whether they are connected to each other.
In a recent development this afternoon the police have arrested a footpath peddlar in relation with the murder of the school teacher at Joka. The police have also raided a house in Bowbazaar where queer rituals were reported being practised in its basement. Mutilated remains of dolls were found scattered on the floor, smeared with vermilion; along with green chillies and lemons. A huge number of dolls were also found to be stacked at a corner in boxes of the same make as those found at Joka. The case initially believed to be an open and shut one has now ..
'Oh Shit .. Such appalling incidents during festival times'. Anirban switched off the radio with a frown. Tora, his beloved daughter .. his world .. would turn nine the next day, the auspicious day of Sasthi, when the Goddess Durga comes to visit the earth. And she just loved dolls. Her fancy with each one lasts hardly for a few months, though.
Their store room abounded with lame dolls made of plastic and rubber, with an eye or ear missing in some, sitting on the shelves like clowns; leaving her in laughing splits whenever she saw them. But he was sure that this birthday gift would be beyond her expectations. And he could hope that it would keep her engaged for long.
© 2019. All rights reserved.
You may like to go back to Chapter 4 here
You can also read the story on TTT here . To read more of such stories follow me on TTT
Watch out for my series 'Don't Fall Asleep' on Wattpad and Sweek
July 17, 2020
Anyone Might Find Themselves Across The Barbed Wire Fence Now
A couple of months back a woman had committed suicide in Assam by jumping into a well fearing being sent to detention camp on account of her name missing from the final NRC list. Recently another woman in West Bengal had hanged herself from the ceiling as her son didn’t have a birth certificate – one of the prime documents needed to have him listed as a valid citizen of India, according to the new law passed by the NDA led Central government.
The recently concluded NRC drive in Assam going on for several years also saw a large number of bonafide citizens being left out from the final list, many being members of the same family; with no clarity about the illegal immigrants actually identified in the exercise. To make matters worse the Centre says that the list might get truncated further.
Fear looms over all illegal entrants from bangladesh, who had crossed the barbed wire fence after a while since the partition along with their family members in search of jobs and better livelihood – the woman who recently self-immolated herself had been working under MGNREGA scheme, while her husband was a van driver.
Not that the hindu bengali bhadralok who had been fleeing Bangladesh since 1971 Bangladesh liberation war to escape religious persecution or even those few resettled in 1950-60s post-partition, who have one of their feet in the grave now, are feeling secured either; for neither were their children issued birth certificates by KMC/ Municipalities in West Bengal like the ghotis (the bengalis native to the state), nor did they find it necessary to document proofs of their entry in India. Not after exercising their voting right all these years – a prerogative known to be reserved for any citizen of a democratic country, that is till the time the CAA had been enacted.
Those bengalis who’ve been brainwashed by Hindu nationalists since decades into believing the refugees from other side of the Bay of bengal to be the root cause for all their misery need to question themselves – who these people, these refugees, actually are ?
A peek into the history of India would easily reveal that the bengalis had always been at the receiving end of the State’s anguish as it was always them who kindled any reform which channelised mass movement in the country. Hence there’ve been consistent efforts to partition them on the basis of religion, caste, language, geographical location etc. in order to nip their unity in the bud.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857, the first major armed resistance against British East India Company had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes; the unrest first showing itself in Dum-dum, West Bengal.
The introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle had provoked much of the trouble. The cartridges wrapped in greased paper had to be bitten open to load in rifle barrels. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which was highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. On March 29, 1857 Mangal Pandey, a sepoy (sipahi) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment enacted the first bold act of defiance, in March at Barrackpore by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant.
In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded and shot in the chest by British. He however survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. The flames of the revolution spread to Lucknow early in May; and on May 9 and 10, a full scale mutiny erupted at Meerut. The Meerut Sepoys occupied Delhi on May 11. This proved to be the decisive signal for the whole of the Bengal Army to join the uprising. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British, joined by the Sepoy units of Bengal Army in the north – turning the uprising extremely violent.
The British were ultimately able to establish control in 1858. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, but many were executed in dramatic fashion out of which ‘lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon and blasting the man to pieces’ was the most horrendous amongst them. Though the revolt ultimately failed but 93% of Sepoys putting up an united uprising against the British was itself an incredible feat achieved in the history of war of Indian Independence.
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A scene from the 1857 Indian Rebellion (Bengal Army)
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A Bikaner dye factory in Bengal, 1867
Since 1777 with the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. By 1788, most of the production of Indigo had started in Bengal.
The indigo planters compelled the peasants to plant indigo in place of food crops in return for a meagre price and against loans at a very high interest; often resorting to mortgages/ destruction of their property if they disobeyed. A farmer taking such loan remained in debt for the rest of his life before passing it on to his successors, with hardly any profit made from growing of the plant. The British Government rules favoured the planters to the extent that by an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters.
Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt in 1858, known as Indigo revolt (Nil vidroha). It spread rapidly to Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail areas, the Bengali middle class supporting the peasants wholeheartedly . The revolt was suppressed with the combined effort of the British Government’s police and military forces and the zamindars; by mercilessly slaughtering a number of peasants.
The Indigo revolt in Bengal was the first non-violent revolution in the country, a forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi. The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the ‘Indigo Commission’ in 1860. In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower, District magistrate of Faridpur (of undivided Bengal), 1860 noted that “not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood”.
In 1905, Lord Curzon’s move to divide Bengal Presidency into muslim dominated province of East Bengal – Assam and hindu province of Bengal (present day West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand) was meted out to alienate the bengalis’ political assertiveness against the British government.
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Map showing the result of the partition of Bengal in 1905. The western part (Bengal) gained parts of Odisha, the eastern part (Eastern Bengal and Assam) regained Assam that had been made a separate province in 1874
The Hindu elite of Bengal who leased out lands to Muslim peasants in East Bengal lost them in no time as a result. The large Bengali Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok) were outnumbered in their own province by Biharis and Oriyas leading to their losing of jobs to them and denudation of bengali culture. Despite that the Bengali Renaissance of the nineteenth century brought in literary and artistic bloom in the country.
The Partition initiated Swadeshi movement in Bengal – the first uprising against British in the entire country. Launched as a protest movement the Swadeshi gave way to boycotting British goods along with revival of domestic products and production processes. Later on, the economic boycott developed into non-cooperation against the British aimed at the political regeneration of the country with the distant goal of absolute freedom. Risley, the Home Secretary to the Government of India in an official note had expressed his concern. “Bengal united is power; Bengal divided will pull several different ways”.
Fed up with the nuisances posed by Bengali dissidents the Partition was annulled in 1911 and the British had to shift their capital to Delhi. However instead of the protests coming to end, the assertive egalitarianism of Bengalis seemed to become the mood of the entire country. When India won independence in 1947, it became the world’s largest socialist democracy.
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, prior to India’s Independence took place post World War Two when British wished to end the colonial rule in haste. It was a compromised move of British India under sectarian pressure, as the Muslim League pushed for division riding on Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory conspiracy. Bengal was however left out from being a part of the new Muslim State; even the support for a unified, Independent Bengal was vetoed by the British. The consequence was the flight of about 10 million refugees (the largest human movement in history) – Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India, amid terrifying bloodshed.
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Old Sikh man carrying his wife along with others on the way to their promised new home
A huge number of Bengalis were compelled to flee Pakistan later in 1947 on account of persecution at the hands of urdu speaking community but had to return back in the 80s in search of better opportunities post formation of Bangladesh.
At present there are around 3.0 million Bengali Muslims living as refugees in Pakistan’s Karachi. When approached for enrolling as Pakistani citizens, the authorities deliberately create problems for these poor and illiterate people, either turning them away or demanding bribes failing which they are jailed on the grounds of illegal stay. Even the few lucky ones who had managed to get Pakistani NICs after living more than six decades in the country are often denied hospital services/ medical treatment due to their Bengali origin. Police never stop rounding-up and harassing them on flimsy grounds because of the language they speak.
Back home in India the same fate awaits 7000 Bengali Hindus refugees at Coopers Camp (a notified area in Nadia district under Ranaghat police station of Ranaghat subdivision in the state of West Bengal) since 73 years- a major embarrassment for the progressive West Bengal government, with its focus on industrial development only around Kolkata. To cope with the huge influx of refugees into West Bengal in 1947, the Indian government had decided to send the excess refugees in the region to outposts like the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Those who refused to go, like most of the Coopers refugees, were robbed of their voting rights and are still fighting to obtain their nationalities.
The history of Bengali language can be traced back to the period of continuously evolving of languages in the Indo-Aryan family that also eventually produced Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi, among many others. Old Bengali divided into Middle Bengali by the 15th century, and Middle Bengali remained a distinct language until the early 19th century.
In the eighteenth century the Bengali alphabet was reconstructed and the Bengali typography was simplified into 12 vowels and 40 consonants by Iswar Chandra Vidyasagar – a Bengali polymath from the Indian subcontinent, and a key figure of the Bengal Renaissance.
Since 1948, the Bengali speaking majority of East Bengal had been fighting to implement Bengali against Pakistan government’s ordinance of Urdu to be the sole national language – to allow use of bengali in government affairs, to continue its use in education, in media, currency and stamps, and in the Bengali script.
The Bengali language movement reached its climax when police killed student demonstrators on 21 February 1952 (known as language martyr’s day). After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956.
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Shaheed Minar, or language martyr’s memorial, located at Dhaka, Bangladesh
The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination rights. It was a systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, hindus and armed personnel in which around 3.0 million of bengali people were killed and 4. 0 lacs Bangladeshi women were raped according to bangladesh government sources. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were internally displaced.
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A young protester demanding capital punishment for 1971 War Criminals.
The Liberation War in Bangladesh announced from Chittagong by members of the Mukti Bahini (the national liberation army formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians) was an armed revolution against Pakistan military sponsored Operation Searchlight. Staged as a mass guerrilla war and air strikes, the Mukti Bahini carried out widespread sabotage against the Pakistan Navy and restricted the Pakistani military to its barracks, liberating the countrywide and securing control in the process.
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh was formed on 17 April 1971 in Mujibnagar and moved to Calcutta as a government in exile. Bengali members of the Pakistani civil, military and diplomatic corps defected to the Bangladeshi provisional government. Thousands of Bengali families were interned in West Pakistan, from where many escaped to Afghanistan.
The plight of millions of war-ravaged Bengali civilians caused worldwide outrage and alarm. India intervened in providing substantial diplomatic, economic and military support to Bangladeshi nationalist forces, led by Indira Gandhi. In answer to Pakistan’s preemptive air strikes on North India India joined the war on 3 December 1971. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War witnessed engagements on two war fronts. With air supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre and the rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Bangladesh and India, Pakistan surrendered in Dacca on 16 December 1971.
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Pakistan Instrument of Surrender
The first influx of refugees from Bangladesh during Independence 1947 who were mostly the upper and middle class got easily settled in West Bengal but not the latter 1.50 lacs poor Hindu bangladeshis in 1978. Satisfied with their vote bank strength, the Left Front government meanwhile had also changed its policy on refugee settling and started considering the refugees to be a national burden now, not just the State’s anymore.
After initial resistance from the refugees they were forcibly sent to the rocky, inhospitable land of Dandakaranya (mostly in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh), Terai (Uttar Pradesh, now in Uttarakhand), Little Andamans etc.
In 1979, around 40,000 refugees strayed to south of West Bengal and camping for few months in Hasnabad settled in Marichjhapi illegally, a protected place under Reserve Forest Act. When the government’s pursuance to make them return to their assigned place followed by the deplorable economic blockade didn’t yield results it started forcibly evicting them leading to gutting of huts and death of thousands in police gunfire and by politically-aligned goondas.
During economic blockade women were held captive, gangraped and drowned in river when they tried to procure rations, drinking water and medicines from other islands. Back on the island tube wells were poisoned, men were killed and their belongings looted, leaving the survivors to die either from hunger or disease. It is said that the Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans became man-eaters after they feasted on the bodies of the people killed at Marichjhapi.
After 14th June 1979, the survivors were either sent to Dandakaranya or settled in Marichjhapi Colony near Barasat while others settled themselves in Hingalganj, Canning areas and even in shanties near Sealdah railway tracks.
This refers to an organised campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Bengali Hindus in undivided Assam by the Assamese people, that originated in the Brahmaputra Valley in the late 1940s and continued into the 1960s. Significant vandalising and destroying of bengali houses and properties; beating, stabbing and ousting of occupants, attack on women and street violence occurred throughout the region. The Bengali students of universities and medical colleges were forcibly expelled from the institutions.
During its peak in 1960, around 50,000 Bengali Hindus were expelled from Assam; including many bengali-born writers, academicians and other eminent people, who took shelter in West Bengal, with the estimated figure of displaced bengalis totalling to 5.0 lacs. Bengali-owned shops were looted in Guwahati. Abusive wall graffiti were put out across the streets of Guwahati aimed at bengalis.
In 1960, large scale ethnic riots erupted in the lower Assam districts when Assamese groups demanded for making Assamese the sole language for writing examinations under the reputed Guwahati university, where as usual the Bengali Hindus were mostly targeted. Around 14,000 Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal and elsewhere in the North East.
In 1983, the Bengali Hindus were attacked again during the anti-foreign agitation and a Bengali technical officer working at Oil India’s headquarters in Duliajan was killed. In Dhemaji district, the Bengali houses were vandalised by rioting Assamese mobs in Silapathar. Cases have been reported of the Missing tribals being incited to attack government sanctioned Bengali Hindu refugee settlements in the Lakhimpur district, resulting in horrendous massacres where Bengali babies were snatched from their mothers and thrown to fire, alive.
The sophisticated bengali raising voices over the injustices in the world – from the cosy comforts of their drawing rooms, over puffs of filter wills and sips of champagne would surely find their anger boiling up; reading their ancestors’ history. But the time has come once again that instead of falling prey to the temptation of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth or watching with amused curiosity the political brawls on TV; we should tickle our grey cells into looking seriously at the cause behind the effect.
The days of watching politics at safety from visitors’ gallery and admonishing our children to stay out of it gone with the menace spreading it’s tentacles into our daily lives now; the bigger picture needs to be seen instead of restricting our vision to a mere ‘I and my family’ if history is to be prevented from repeating itself once again. Certainly a history that is marked by so much bayonets and bloodsheds – where efforts had been continuously made in trying to dominate a community’s psyche, change their identity, make their vision myopic, choke the voice of dissent has a lot more to teach other than hatred, vengeance or indifference.
Presently in Assam, in the name of NRC it is actually ‘Bongal Kheda’ reinitiated maliciously by the BJP using it’s divisive politics. The fear of loss of identity, of being minorized in their own state had led the Assamese people to seek political help in ousting the bangladeshis and now they’d have to face the music as more aliens are going to invade their home and that too officially. And they won’t be like the earlier refugees who didn’t have a choice. That the Bengalis are the most tolerant of all Indian people is evident from the fact that it is a home to people from almost all states of the country – people who have settled here through generations. West Bengal also had to bear the burden of the largest number of refugees during Partition.
Even after such inhuman treatment meted out by Assamese people during ‘Bongal kheda’, the minority of Assamese people staying in West Bengal were unharmed. West Bengal has remained unpolarized on communal lines till the last decade; the sectarian decay in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid’s demolition swaying the whole country except West Bengal, being a noteworthy example. But not anymore. The new age bengalis are more inclined to ask today ‘But, why us .. why should we be the only torchbearers of secularism ?’ The answer lies in the fact that secularism is a religion in itself synonymous with bengalis and like Hindus, muslims or other perennial religions of the world, it too needs to be protected from annihilation.
Bengalis comprise only 47% of Kolkata’s population now, playing host to Hindi-speaking immigrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Marwaris, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Parsees, Anglo-Indians and people who hail from south Indian states. The first hindi newspaper of the country was published from Kolkata. Bengalis are perhaps the only people known to embrace other cultures such overwhelmingly unlike any other community in the world. Critiques may argue that such generosity subjects them to ridicule, making others take them for granted; but it is the intrinsic character of a community – not forcefully imposed upon, and it is perhaps this nature to adapt, influence and improvise which wins the bengalis love and respect in the world.
The CPM had ruled over them for 34 years – converted the bangladeshis and the core muslims of the state, both from lower sections of the society, into devoted vote banks. The TMC had taken hold of the stock since then and grown upon their loyalty base for next 10 years. 5 years down the line and the BJP is playing the same appeasement politics once again to conquer West Bengal. However since their anti-Muslim doctrine can’t buy them Muslim votes, hence in addition to cutting swadeshi hindu votes to their side, pooling in of hindu minorities from foreign countries is necessary using the CAA bait in order to consolidate their hindu vote bank; all with the eye of majoritarian politics in the future. Till here it is comprehendible.
But after the demonetization and GST falling flat on their objectives, why is the government hell-bent on carrying out the herculean task of country wide NRC and that too at a time when the coffers are empty, GDP has dropped to an all time low of 4.5% in the July-September quarter of 2019-20 and total liabilities of the Modi government has increased by 49% amounting to 82 lakh crores in last four and half years ? Why is the government playing a kumbhakaran to the wails of 25 Crores of educated people demanding jobs, 126 million farmers failing to get even minimum support price of their produce, 64 million micro/small/ middle-scale entrepreneurs suffering from the new tax system ?
Already a whopping sum of more than Rs. 9000 Crores have been spent on Aadhar exercise till 2017-18 which seem to serve no other purpose other than having easy access to everyone’s personal information, mobile numbers, bank accounts etc. linked to a digital database; with greater possibility of data leaks – in absence of data protection and privacy law in the country.
The government claims it has tackled black-marketing like it’s earlier historic demonetization drive; but it has made little difference to the customers’ lives. Earlier they bought subsidised LPG in cash, now their subsidy gets remitted in bank. On the contrary, along with having to manage their household amidst skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the aam admi would soon have to do with zero subsidy on their cooking gas following government’s measure to restrict spiralling of petroleum subsidies – attributed to the LPG customers having increased by 77% in last four years. So much for the identification of illegal customers through Aadhar exercise and reduction of aam admi ‘s domestic gas monthly bill. To top it all the millions of people lured through Jan Dhan Yojana to open bank accounts in the name of subsidy transfers and other govt schemes are now having to deal with hiked MAB by the banks.
The costs for the earlier whims and fancies notwithstanding, now with Rs. 1600 Crores already spent on Assam NRC alone and the cost for the entire operation pan India easily assessible, how does the government propose to pay it’s debt in the foreign market ? Increasing taxes further on unsuspecting Indians or seizing depositors’ money and swapping them with worthless stocks in their failing banks ? Is the consideration for revival of the draconian FRDI bill as FSDR done in anticipation of financial emergency, with a mild hiking of deposit insurance cover only to divert customers’ attention from the real risk?
The mulling done at a time when financial institutions, especially non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and co-operative banks, are showing signs of distress; raises suspicion. This is also corroborated by the fact that the number of occurrances and amounts involved in bank frauds have rocketed in the last four years with the Public sector banks accounting for 88% of loan frauds, as admitted by RBI. The bail-in provision cleared in FSDR still fails to eliminate worries of the once bitten, twice shy customers due to the bill suffering from clarity.
Coming back to illegal immigrants, Hindu nationalists have claimed for decades that vast numbers of Bangladeshis have been trickling steadily into India, while several Bangladeshi government officials, for their part, asserted that not one Bangladeshi citizen has entered India illegally since 1971.
Who are these people then without an identity, shunned by the society as refugees – a community unique by itself with which they might be defined ? Surely they didn’t fall from the sky. They could be descendants of those very bengali people once living next doors to our ancestors – those who took part in all affairs of our lives, shared our joys and sorrows like our nearest kins; the ones who had been driven like cattle from one region to another of our own state, own country, ever since territorial boundaries had been drawn in favour of political expediency.
Bengal Partition failed to respect a community’s affirmation of solidarity owing to their historical, cultural and linguistic identity across the religious divide. The bengalis never wanted partition. No community desires to leave their birthplace and move on to an alien territory, face uncertainty and gloom for generations, even if they’re a minority; unless compelled to by vested interests of the state. A nation aiming to flourish through unity and cooperation of its people needs to minimize and abolish all conflicts by building bridges between communities, not to partition them.
While the BJP has alleged that there are one crore illegal bangladeshi immigrants in West Bengal it doesn’t think of deporting them back to Bangladesh on the ground that majority of them being hindus are victims of religious persecution (despite the CAA not mentioning persecution anywhere). Even if purpose of CAA is to be believed (Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946 are not overridden in the amended act and religious persecution very difficult to prove through documents) then along with legalising these people and inviting an additional 16.0 Million hindus from Bangladesh and Pakistan; an equal number of people have also to be ousted from the country in order to prevent population shooting up suddenly and causing further problems for the government. It is simple arithmetic. Again it has to be remembered that these people would demand the rights of bonafide citizens now unlike previously when they were used to live at the mercy of the State.
In the light of the above the NRC drive is far more an intended ethnic purge of the muslim community than a census. Along with it the 6.50 million hindu bengalis who either have lost their bangladeshi documents in 1971 partition or don’t have birth certificates before 31st December, 2014 in India stand the risk of having to prove their citizenship before foreign tribunal, failing which they would be treated as illegal immigrants and would be at the mercy of the government to be either inducted or deported.
The acts for proof of citizenship for foreigners/ illegal migrants remaining unamended, the CAA only bars Muslims from applying for citizenship this time. So despite BJP’s deceptive claims, the fact is CAA doesn’t come to the aide of hindu, sikh, buddhist, jain, parsis and christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh staying in India for last five years or more whose names fail to get listed in NRC. Indians particularly the bengalis need to understand this very clearly.
In absence of repatriation agreement with Bangladesh and Modi government determinedly unwilling to sign the Refugee Treaty (India has neither signed the 1951 United Nations Refugee Convention nor its 1967 Protocol, which has 140 signatories, an overwhelming majority of the world’s 190-odd nations till now) citing ancient Sanskrit slogan Atithi Devo Bhava (the guest is God) it is at liberty to repatriate refugees against their will.
If the BJP is successful in its political intention it would always represent these evicted people to be infiltrators and termites in the future thereby reinstating the support of millions of hindus who attribute all the problems of the country to one particular religious community of the world. And hence these devoted hindutvavadi deshbhakts‘ attention could be diverted again from the real issues of the country .. at least till the time Pakistan declares war against India or another surgical strike can be effected when hatred of the people could again be used to hoodwink them against promises of ‘Acchhe din’ .
Already a section of unemployed youth have chosen Ram Mandir over their careers and many UP residents believe construction of the temple would inundate the state with pilgrims from all over the world causing surge in sales of religious books, their only livelihood. Intoxicated with neo-patriotism, its only matter of time before these people would either become BJP’s henchmen or join propagandists of saffronized extremism on social media in order to appease the prime religion of all times – pangs of hunger.
If you think Hindus needn’t worry over NRC, think again. Already there are 12.0 lakh hindus amongst the 19.6 lakh excluded in the final list of Assam NRC (61%), out of which 5.0 lakh are bengali hindus. Like many previous others, NRC is also a government process not free from errors, but unlike Aadhar mistakes which could be corrected umpteen times by standing in queues and paying a little fee, every time; fighting NRC verdicts will incur heavy expenses and demand endurance for the travails typical of the Indian judicial system. Not to mention the paranoia associated with the inflicted identity crisis after living in a country through generations, in addition to stress of a down turned economy where unemployment reigns supreme and the purchasing power of common man is getting diminished day by day; all of which can drive a person to take his/ her own life. Already 51 people have committed suicide in Assam in the NRC process according to the Citizens for Justice and Peace and 8 more in West Bengal are reported to have taken their lives so far, over the fear of its implementation.
If you heave a sigh of relief thinking only the large number of illiterate people living in slums to run the risk of facing the harassment, you’re wrong again. A retired officer of the Indian Air Force, an MLA, the relatives of a former president of India all found their names excluded from the citizens’ registry in Assam. Those blessed to be born in a society higher up the socio-economic ladder are exhausting their fortunes, knocking the doors of the right people to prove their citizenship, but what about the poor and lower middle class ? To whom would they turn to ?
Fed up with the status-quo of political affairs of the country since decades the aam admi wary of revolution are falling prey to mass-hypnotism of politicians propagating myths using all three pillars of democracy to their advantage and compelling people to believe fiction in place of facts. People are getting carried away by the grooming, oratory skills and overall charisma of the leaders to the extent that they don’t feel the urge to question their intentions anymore – this itself poses as a big threat to democracy of a country.
But you can prevent yet another partition from happening . You can fail a cunning ploy of wiping out the identities of an entire bengali clan from the world. Only if you recall your regional past .. choose to revive the centuries old bengaliness which gained its egalitarianism and nobility from its intrinsically secular character .. the far-sightedness which prevented the mixing of religion with culture in their daily lives .. which never stooped before separatist and totalitarian forces, irrespective of any political affiliation. And secularism and democracy are the twin pillars of our State, the very foundations of Indian society; at least they had been till CAB was passed and CAA threatened to be forcefully implemented.
CAA and NRC are instruments for creating a majoritarian India. Not just the bengalis but all secular community runs the risk of being wiped away one by one who stand on the way of creating a hindu rashtra, an anti – Pakistan nation – one that runs on hatred against a particular community, just like the Nazis of Germany.
So the next time you meet a refugee don’t frown, rather be alarmed. Its long you’ve looked the other way and kept your fingers crossed for yourselves. You have your backs to the wall now. The time has come when you might have to fight tooth and nail to prevent yourself/ your family from being made to cross the barbed wire fence on the other side and bear the tortures and humiliation for the rest of your life. Unless you draw the line and protest now.
References:
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, No. 47 of 2019, dated 12th December, 2019.
The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920
The Foreigners Act, 1946
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July 10, 2020
Anyone Might Find Themselves Across The Barbed Wire Fence Now
A couple of months back a woman had committed suicide in Assam by jumping into a well fearing being sent to detention camp on account of her name missing from the final NRC list. Recently another woman in West Bengal had hanged herself from the ceiling as her son didn’t have a birth certificate – one of the prime documents needed to have him listed as a valid citizen of India, according to the new law passed by the NDA led Central government.
The recently concluded NRC drive in Assam going on for several years also saw a large number of bonafide citizens being left out from the final list, many being members of the same family; with no clarity about the illegal immigrants actually identified in the exercise.
Fear looms over all illegal entrants from bangladesh, who had crossed the barbed wire fence after a while since the partition along with their family members in search of jobs and better livelihood – the woman who recently self-immolated herself had been working under MGNREGA scheme, while her husband was a van driver.
Not that the hindu bengali bhadralok who had been fleeing Bangladesh since 1971 Bangladesh liberation war to escape religious persecution or even those few resettled in 1950-60s post-partition, who have one of their feet in the grave now, are feeling secured either; for neither were their children issued birth certificates by KMC/ Municipalities in West Bengal like the ghotis (the bengalis native to the state), nor did they find it necessary to document proofs of their entry in India. Not after exercising their voting right all these years – a prerogative known to be reserved for any citizen of a democratic country, that is till the time the CAA had been enacted.
Those bengalis who’ve been brainwashed by Hindu nationalists since decades into believing the refugees from other side of the Bay of bengal to be the root cause for all their misery need to question themselves – who these people, these refugees, actually are ?
A peek into the history of India would easily reveal that the bengalis had always been at the receiving end of the State’s anguish as it was always them who kindled any reform which channelised mass movement in the country. Hence there’ve been consistent efforts to partition them on the basis of religion, caste, language, geographical location etc. in order to nip their unity in the bud.
The Indian Rebellion of 1857, the first major armed resistance against British East India Company had diverse political, economic, military, religious and social causes; the unrest first showing itself in Dum-dum, West Bengal.
The introduction of a new cartridge for the Enfield rifle had provoked much of the trouble. The cartridges wrapped in greased paper had to be bitten open to load in rifle barrels. Rumors began to spread that the grease used to make the cartridges was derived from pigs and cows, which was highly offensive to Muslims and Hindus. On March 29, 1857 Mangal Pandey, a sepoy (sipahi) in the 34th Bengal Native Infantry (BNI) regiment enacted the first bold act of defiance, in March at Barrackpore by shooting a British sergeant-major and a lieutenant.
In the altercation, Pandey was surrounded and shot in the chest by British. He however survived and was put on trial and hanged on April 8, 1857. The flames of the revolution spread to Lucknow early in May; and on May 9 and 10, a full scale mutiny erupted at Meerut. The Meerut Sepoys occupied Delhi on May 11. This proved to be the decisive signal for the whole of the Bengal Army to join the uprising. Throughout May and June 1857 more units of Indian troops mutinied against the British, joined by the Sepoy units of Bengal Army in the north – turning the uprising extremely violent.
The British were ultimately able to establish control in 1858. As mutineers were captured, they were often killed on the spot, but many were executed in dramatic fashion out of which ‘lashing a mutineer to the mouth of a cannon and blasting the man to pieces’ was the most horrendous amongst them. Though the revolt ultimately failed but 93% of Sepoys putting up an united uprising against the British was itself an incredible feat achieved in the history of war of Indian Independence.
,[image error]A scene from the 1857 Indian Rebellion (Bengal Army)
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A Bikaner dye factory in Bengal, 1867
Since 1777 with the Nawabs of Bengal under British power, indigo planting became more and more commercially profitable because of the demand for blue dye in Europe. By 1788, most of the production of Indigo had started in Bengal.
The indigo planters compelled the peasants to plant indigo in place of food crops in return for a meagre price and against loans at a very high interest; often resorting to mortgages/ destruction of their property if they disobeyed. A farmer taking such loan remained in debt for the rest of his life before passing it on to his successors, with hardly any profit made from growing of the plant. The British Government rules favoured the planters to the extent that by an act in 1833, the planters were granted a free hand in oppression. Even the zamindars sided with the planters.
Under this severe oppression, the farmers resorted to revolt in 1858, known as Indigo revolt (Nil vidroha). It spread rapidly to Murshidabad, Birbhum, Burdwan, Pabna, Khulna, and Narail areas, the Bengali middle class supporting the peasants wholeheartedly . The revolt was suppressed with the combined effort of the British Government’s police and military forces and the zamindars; by mercilessly slaughtering a number of peasants.
The Indigo revolt in Bengal was the first non-violent revolution in the country, a forerunner of the non-violent passive resistance later successfully adopted by Gandhi. The revolt had a strong effect on the government, which immediately appointed the ‘Indigo Commission’ in 1860. In the commission report, E. W. L. Tower, District magistrate of Faridpur (of undivided Bengal), 1860 noted that “not a chest of Indigo reached England without being stained with human blood”.
In 1905, Lord Curzon’s move to divide Bengal Presidency into muslim dominated province of East Bengal – Assam and hindu province of Bengal (present day West Bengal, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand) was meted out to alienate the bengalis’ political assertiveness against the British government.
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The Hindu elite of Bengal who leased out lands to Muslim peasants in East Bengal lost them in no time as a result. The large Bengali Hindu middle-class (the Bhadralok) were outnumbered in their own province by Biharis and Oriyas leading to their losing of jobs to them and denudation of bengali culture. Despite that the Bengali Renaissance of the nineteenth century brought in literary and artistic bloom in the country.
The Partition initiated Swadeshi movement in Bengal – the first uprising against British in the entire country. Launched as a protest movement the Swadeshi gave way to boycotting British goods along with revival of domestic products and production processes. Later on, the economic boycott developed into non-cooperation against the British aimed at the political regeneration of the country with the distant goal of absolute freedom. Risley, the Home Secretary to the Government of India in an official note had expressed his concern. “Bengal united is power; Bengal divided will pull several different ways”.
Fed up with the nuisances posed by Bengali dissidents the Partition was annulled in 1911 and the British had to shift their capital to Delhi. However instead of the protests coming to end, the assertive egalitarianism of Bengalis seemed to become the mood of the entire country. When India won independence in 1947, it became the world’s largest socialist democracy.
The Partition of Bengal in 1947, prior to India’s Independence took place post World War Two when British wished to end the colonial rule in haste. It was a compromised move of British India under sectarian pressure, as the Muslim League pushed for division riding on Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s two-nation theory conspiracy. Bengal was however left out from being a part of the new Muslim State; even the support for a unified, Independent Bengal was vetoed by the British. The consequence was the flight of about 10 million refugees (the largest human movement in history) – Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India, amid terrifying bloodshed.
,[image error]Old Sikh man carrying his wife along with others on the way to their promised new home
A huge number of Bengalis were compelled to flee Pakistan later in 1947 on account of persecution at the hands of urdu speaking community but had to return back in the 80s in search of better opportunities post formation of Bangladesh.
At present there are around 3.0 million Bengali Muslims living as refugees in Pakistan’s Karachi.
Back home in India the same fate awaits 7000 Bengali Hindus refugees at Coopers Camp
The history of Bengali language can be traced back to the period of continuously evolving of languages in the Indo-Aryan family that also eventually produced Sanskrit, Urdu and Hindi, among many others. Old Bengali divided into Middle Bengali by the 15th century, and Middle Bengali remained a distinct language until the early 19th century.
In the eighteenth century the Bengali alphabet was reconstructed and the Bengali typography was simplified into 12 vowels and 40 consonants by
Since 1948, the Bengali speaking majority of East Bengal had been fighting to implement Bengali against Pakistan government’s ordinance of Urdu to be the sole national language – to allow use of bengali in government affairs, to continue its use in education, in media, currency and stamps, and in the Bengali script.
The Bengali language movement reached its climax when police killed student demonstrators on 21 February 1952 (known as language martyr’s day). After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956.
,[image error]Shaheed Minar, or language martyr’s memorial, located at Dhaka, Bangladesh
The genocide in Bangladesh began on 26 March 1971 with the launch of Operation Searchlight as West Pakistan (now Pakistan) began a military crackdown on the Eastern wing (now Bangladesh) of the nation to suppress Bengali calls for self-determination rights. It was a systematic elimination of nationalist Bengali civilians, students, intelligentsia, hindus and armed personnel in which around 3.0 million of bengali people were killed and 4. 0 lacs Bangladeshi women were raped according to bangladesh government sources. An estimated 10 million Bengali refugees fled to neighbouring India, while 30 million were internally displaced.
,[image error]A young protester demanding capital punishment for 1971 War Criminals.
The Liberation War in Bangladesh announced from Chittagong by members of the Mukti Bahini (the national liberation army formed by Bengali military, paramilitary and civilians) was an armed revolution against Pakistan military sponsored Operation Searchlight. Staged as a mass guerrilla war and air strikes, the Mukti Bahini carried out widespread sabotage against the Pakistan Navy and restricted the Pakistani military to its barracks, liberating the countrywide and securing control in the process.
The Provisional Government of Bangladesh was formed on 17 April 1971 in Mujibnagar and moved to Calcutta as a government in exile. Bengali members of the Pakistani civil, military and diplomatic corps defected to the Bangladeshi provisional government. Thousands of Bengali families were interned in West Pakistan, from where many escaped to Afghanistan.
The plight of millions of war-ravaged Bengali civilians caused worldwide outrage and alarm. India intervened in providing substantial diplomatic, economic and military support to Bangladeshi nationalist forces, led by Indira Gandhi. In answer to Pakistan’s preemptive air strikes on North India India joined the war on 3 December 1971. The subsequent Indo-Pakistani War witnessed engagements on two war fronts. With air supremacy achieved in the eastern theatre and the rapid advance of the Allied Forces of Bangladesh and India, Pakistan surrendered in Dacca on 16 December 1971.
,[image error]Pakistan Instrument of Surrender
The first influx of refugees from Bangladesh during Independence 1947 who were mostly the upper and middle class got easily settled in West Bengal but not the latter 1.50 lacs poor Hindu bangladeshis in 1978. Satisfied with their vote bank strength, the Left Front government meanwhile had also changed its policy on refugee settling and started considering the refugees to be a national burden now, not just the State’s anymore.
After initial resistance from the refugees they were forcibly sent to the rocky, inhospitable land of Dandakaranya (mostly in Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh), Terai (Uttar Pradesh, now in Uttarakhand), Little Andamans etc.
In 1979, around 40,000 refugees strayed to south of West Bengal and camping for few months in Hasnabad settled in Marichjhapi illegally, a protected place under Reserve Forest Act. When the government’s pursuance to make them return to their assigned place followed by the deplorable economic blockade didn’t yield results it started forcibly evicting them leading to gutting of huts and death of thousands in police gunfire and by politically-aligned goondas.
During economic blockade women were held captive, gangraped and drowned in river when they tried to procure rations, drinking water and medicines from other islands. Back on the island tube wells were poisoned, men were killed and their belongings looted, leaving the survivors to die either from hunger or disease. It is said that the Bengal tigers of the Sundarbans became man-eaters after they feasted on the bodies of the people killed at Marichjhapi.
After 14th June 1979, the survivors were either sent to Dandakaranya or settled in Marichjhapi Colony near Barasat while others settled themselves in Hingalganj, Canning areas and even in shanties near Sealdah railway tracks.
This refers to an organised campaign of ethnic cleansing of the Bengali Hindus in undivided Assam by the Assamese people, that originated in the Brahmaputra Valley in the late 1940s and continued into the 1960s. Significant vandalising and destroying of bengali houses and properties; beating, stabbing and ousting of occupants, attack on women and street violence occurred throughout the region. The Bengali students of universities and medical colleges were forcibly expelled from the institutions.
During its peak in 1960, around 50,000 Bengali Hindus were expelled from Assam; including many bengali-born writers, academicians and other eminent people, who took shelter in West Bengal, with the estimated figure of displaced bengalis totalling to 5.0 lacs. Bengali-owned shops were looted in Guwahati. Abusive wall graffiti were put out across the streets of Guwahati aimed at bengalis.
In 1960, large scale ethnic riots erupted in the lower Assam districts when Assamese groups demanded for making Assamese the sole language for writing examinations under the reputed Guwahati university, where as usual the Bengali Hindus were mostly targeted. Around 14,000 Bengali Hindus fled to West Bengal and elsewhere in the North East.
In 1983, the Bengali Hindus were attacked again during the anti-foreign agitation and a Bengali technical officer working at Oil India’s headquarters in Duliajan was killed. In Dhemaji district, the Bengali houses were vandalised by rioting Assamese mobs in Silapathar. Cases have been reported of the Missing tribals being incited to attack government sanctioned Bengali Hindu refugee settlements in the Lakhimpur district, resulting in horrendous massacres where Bengali babies were snatched from their mothers and thrown to fire, alive.
The sophisticated bengali raising voices over the injustices in the world – from the cosy comforts of their drawing rooms, over puffs of filter wills and sips of champagne would surely find their anger boiling up; reading their ancestors’ history. But the time has come once again that instead of falling prey to the temptation of an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth or watching with amused curiosity the political brawls on TV; we should tickle our grey cells into looking seriously at the cause behind the effect.
The days of watching politics at safety from visitors’ gallery and admonishing our children to stay out of it gone with the menace spreading it’s tentacles into our daily lives now; the bigger picture needs to be seen instead of restricting our vision to a mere ‘I and my family’ if history is to be prevented from repeating itself once again. Certainly a history that is marked by so much bayonets and bloodsheds – where efforts had been continuously made in trying to dominate a community’s psyche, change their identity, make their vision myopic, choke the voice of dissent has a lot more to teach other than hatred, vengeance or indifference.
Presently in Assam, in the name of NRC it is actually ‘Bongal Kheda’ reinitiated maliciously by the BJP using it’s divisive politics. The fear of loss of identity, of being minorized in their own state had led the Assamese people to seek political help in ousting the bangladeshis and now they’d have to face the music as more aliens are going to invade their home and that too officially. And they won’t be like the earlier refugees who didn’t have a choice. That the Bengalis are the most tolerant of all Indian people is evident from the fact that it is a home to people from almost all states of the country – people who have settled here through generations. West Bengal also had to bear the burden of the largest number of refugees during Partition.
Even after such inhuman treatment meted out by Assamese people during ‘Bongal kheda’, the minority of Assamese people staying in West Bengal were unharmed. West Bengal has remained unpolarized on communal lines till the last decade; the sectarian decay in the aftermath of the Babri Masjid’s demolition swaying the whole country except West Bengal, being a noteworthy example. But not anymore. The new age bengalis are more inclined to ask today ‘But, why us .. why should we be the only torchbearers of secularism ?’ The answer lies in the fact that secularism is a religion in itself synonymous with bengalis and like Hindus, muslims or other perennial religions of the world, it too needs to be protected from annihilation.
Bengalis comprise only 47% of Kolkata’s population now, playing host to Hindi-speaking immigrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, Marwaris, Gujaratis, Punjabis, Parsees, Anglo-Indians and people who hail from south Indian states. The first hindi newspaper of the country was published from Kolkata. Bengalis are perhaps the only people known to embrace other cultures such overwhelmingly unlike any other community in the world. Critiques may argue that such generosity subjects them to ridicule, making others take them for granted; but it is the intrinsic character of a community – not forcefully imposed upon, and it is perhaps this nature to adapt, influence and improvise which wins the bengalis love and respect in the world.
The CPM had ruled over them for 34 years – converted the bangladeshis and the core muslims of the state, both from lower sections of the society, into devoted vote banks. The TMC had taken hold of the stock since then and grown upon their loyalty base for next 10 years. 5 years down the line and the BJP is playing the same appeasement politics once again to conquer West Bengal. However since their anti-Muslim doctrine can’t buy them Muslim votes, hence in addition to cutting swadeshi hindu votes to their side, pooling in of hindu minorities from foreign countries is necessary using the CAA bait in order to consolidate their hindu vote bank; all with the eye of majoritarian politics in the future. Till here it is comprehendible.
But after the demonetization and GST falling flat on their objectives, why is the government hell-bent on carrying out the herculean task of country wide NRC and that too at a time when the coffers are empty,
Already a whopping sum of
The government claims it has tackled black-marketing like it’s earlier historic demonetization drive; but it has made little difference to the customers’ lives. Earlier they bought subsidised LPG in cash, now their subsidy gets remitted in bank. On the contrary, along with having to manage their household amidst skyrocketing prices of essential commodities, the aam admi would soon have to do with zero subsidy on their cooking gas following
The costs for the earlier whims and fancies notwithstanding, now with
The mulling done at a time when financial institutions, especially non-banking financial companies (NBFCs) and co-operative banks, are showing signs of distress; raises suspicion. This is also corroborated by the fact
Coming back to illegal immigrants, Hindu nationalists have claimed for decades that vast numbers of Bangladeshis have been trickling steadily into India, while several Bangladeshi government officials, for their part, asserted that not one Bangladeshi citizen has entered India illegally since 1971.
Who are these people then without an identity, shunned by the society as refugees – a community unique by itself with which they might be defined ? Surely they didn’t fall from the sky. They could be descendants of those very bengali people once living next doors to our ancestors – those who took part in all affairs of our lives, shared our joys and sorrows like our nearest kins; the ones who had been driven like cattle from one region to another of our own state, own country, ever since territorial boundaries had been drawn in favour of political expediency.
Bengal Partition failed to respect a community’s affirmation of solidarity owing to their historical, cultural and linguistic identity across the religious divide. The bengalis never wanted partition. No community desires to leave their birthplace and move on to an alien territory, face uncertainty and gloom for generations, even if they’re a minority; unless compelled to by vested interests of the state. A nation aiming to flourish through unity and cooperation of its people needs to minimize and abolish all conflicts by building bridges between communities, not to partition them.
While the BJP has alleged that there are one crore illegal bangladeshi immigrants in West Bengal it doesn’t think of deporting them back to Bangladesh on the ground that majority of them being hindus are victims of religious persecution (despite the CAA not mentioning persecution anywhere). Even if purpose of CAA is to be believed (Passport Act 1920 and Foreigners Act 1946 are not overridden in the amended act and religious persecution very difficult to prove through documents) then along with legalising these people and inviting an additional 16.0 Million hindus from Bangladesh and Pakistan; an equal number of people have also to be ousted from the country in order to prevent population shooting up suddenly and causing further problems for the government. It is simple arithmetic. Again it has to be remembered that these people would demand the rights of bonafide citizens now unlike previously when they were used to live at the mercy of the State.
In the light of the above the NRC drive is far more an intended ethnic purge of the muslim community than a census. Along with it the 6.50 million hindu bengalis who either have lost their bangladeshi documents in 1971 partition or don’t have birth certificates before 31st December, 2014 in India stand the risk of having to prove their citizenship before foreign tribunal, failing which they would be treated as illegal immigrants and would be at the mercy of the government to be either inducted or deported.
The acts for proof of citizenship for foreigners/ illegal migrants remaining unamended, the CAA only bars Muslims from applying for citizenship this time. So despite BJP’s deceptive claims, the fact is CAA doesn’t come to the aide of hindu, sikh, buddhist, jain, parsis and christians from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh staying in India for last five years or more whose names fail to get listed in NRC. Indians particularly the bengalis need to understand this very clearly.
In absence of repatriation agreement with Bangladesh and
If the BJP is successful in its political intention it would always represent these evicted people to be infiltrators and termites in the future thereby reinstating the support of millions of hindus who attribute all the problems of the country to one particular religious community of the world. And hence these devoted hindutvavadi deshbhakts‘ attention could be diverted again from the real issues of the country .. at least till the time Pakistan declares war against India or another surgical strike can be effected when hatred of the people could again be used to hoodwink them against promises of ‘Acchhe din’ .
Already a section of unemployed youth have chosen Ram Mandir over their careers and many UP residents believe construction of the temple would inundate the state with pilgrims from all over the world causing surge in sales of religious books, their only livelihood. Intoxicated with neo-patriotism, its only matter of time before these people would either become BJP’s henchmen or join propagandists of saffronized extremism on social media in order to appease the prime religion of all times – pangs of hunger.
If you think Hindus needn’t worry over NRC, think again.
If you heave a sigh of relief thinking only the large number of illiterate people living in slums to run the risk of facing the harassment, you’re wrong again. A retired officer of the Indian Air Force, an MLA, the relatives of a former president of India all found their names excluded from the citizens’ registry in Assam. Those blessed to be born in a society higher up the socio-economic ladder are exhausting their fortunes, knocking the doors of the right people to prove their citizenship, but what about the poor and lower middle class ? To whom would they turn to ?
Fed up with the status-quo of political affairs of the country since decades the aam admi wary of revolution are falling prey to mass-hypnotism of politicians propagating myths using all three pillars of democracy to their advantage and compelling people to believe fiction in place of facts. People are getting carried away by the grooming, oratory skills and overall charisma of the leaders to the extent that they don’t feel the urge to question their intentions anymore – this itself poses as a big threat to democracy of a country.
But you can prevent yet another partition from happening . You can fail a cunning ploy of wiping out the identities of an entire bengali clan from the world. Only if you recall your regional past .. choose to revive the centuries old bengaliness which gained its egalitarianism and nobility from its intrinsically secular character .. the far-sightedness which prevented the mixing of religion with culture in their daily lives .. which never stooped before separatist and totalitarian forces, irrespective of any political affiliation. And secularism and democracy are the twin pillars of our State, the very foundations of Indian society; at least they had been till CAB was passed and CAA threatened to be forcefully implemented.
CAA and NRC are instruments for creating a majoritarian India. Not just the bengalis but all secular community runs the risk of being wiped away one by one who stand on the way of creating a hindu rashtra, an anti – Pakistan nation – one that runs on hatred against a particular community, just like the Nazis of Germany.
So the next time you meet a refugee don’t frown, rather be alarmed. Its long you’ve looked the other way and kept your fingers crossed for yourselves. You have your backs to the wall now. The time has come when you might have to fight tooth and nail to prevent yourself/ your family from being made to cross the barbed wire fence on the other side and bear the tortures and humiliation for the rest of your life. Unless you draw the line and protest now.
References:
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019, No. 47 of 2019, dated 12th December, 2019.
The Passport (Entry into India) Act, 1920
The Foreigners Act, 1946
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