pending for Malkangiri
Palash Biswas
(contact: Palash Biswas, c/o Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto
Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-700110, India. Phone:
033-25659551)
Only an incarnation of a real Bapu may save the
Bengali refugees including the resettled Noakhali
victims of Kendrapara. Perhaps a little Gandhigiri,
too.
My parents began their married life in Charbetia
refugee camp near Cuttack. My mother Basanti devi who
died only this June, belonged to Baripada in
Mayurbhanj. She never visited her maternal once exiled
in Dineshpur under Nainital districts in Terai`s dense
forest in 1953. My father Pulin Kumar Biswas was a
real social worker who worked for refugees lifelong.
He led refugee movement in West Bengal, Orrissa, UP
and Uttaranchal. He visited Assam, MP, Maharashtra,
Bihar,Chhattisgargh, rajsthan, Tamilnadu,Andhra,
Bihar, Jharkhand refugee colonies all the year round.
He was a nonpaid wholetimer President of All India
Udvastu Samiti. He used to come orrissa time to time.
He died in June, 2001 suffering cancer. Before his
death he visited Maharashtra refugees. Thus, Orrissa,
Charbetia and refugees resettled in Orrissa and their
problems touched me very very personally. these are my
peaple who suffer. May I not do a little thing for
them. At least, as a proactivist journalist
professional I am trying to circulate the story
untold, a story of inherent injustice and inequality.
Many Bengali Hindu refugees were rehabilitated by
creating number of villges by Dandakaranya Project a
brainchild of Indira Gandhi and Biju Patnaik. The
refugees arrived from erstwhile East Pakistan. These
Bengali villages were named with numbers i.e., MV 1,
MV 79, MPV 17, etc. MV stands for Malkangiri village
and MPV stands for Malkangiri Potteru village. Most of
these villages are found on the two sides of the
Malkangiri-Motu road SH-25 (State Highway) nearly 100
km. stretch and towards Malkangiri-Balimela road. The
Bengali villages are colorful with their weekly haats
(shandies or markets) being held evreyday at one
village or the other. Number of small traders make
good money in these haats. It is quite a tragedy that
the son of the Great national leader, Biju Patnaik -
On whom my friend film director Rajeev Kumar made a
full length documentary- The Eagle in the Storm,
Naveen Patnaik is the mastermind behind Eviction
Bengali drive. Under Dandakaranya Project,
resettlement zones at Umerkote, Malkangiri,. Paralkote
and Kondagoan were earmarked. In each. zone, villages
were set up for 40 to 60 refugee .
I don`t know whether anyone has sent a rose to the
Orriss Chief Minister Naveen Patnike for his anti
bengali drive with eviction notices served to the
resettled partition victims of Kendrapara. Returning
from Kendrapara I saw a TV channel live telecast about
a woman imprisioned in a wooden room for twenty years
in Kendrapara. I reconised those eyes, those
frightened, bright and live eyes challanging the very
existence of a civilized human society in this
country. The TV channel launched a SMS drive to
release her. It is quite understandable that no media
is going to initiate such a campaign for the Noakhali
Victims destined bleeding heart for ever. The second
October and the live discussion on Gandhigiri created
a rere hope that may be, some Munnabhai would stand in
favour of those who were rescued by Bapu himself in
Nokhali.I hope, it has to happen.
As I got a phone call from Khagria the next fine
morning while I posted my report on Noakhali victims
on net. Vivek Umrao, a brilliant student of IIT Kanpur
who did finish his Phd from Lucknow School of
management, has worked with Sandeep Pandey, Rajendra
Singh and Medha Patekar, is the managing director of
Nav Nirman Sanstha was the person on the other side of
the reciever. He is associated with NAPM. We discussed
the refugee problem overall and felt the need to
coordinate all mass movements immidiately. As not only
the refugees across the border , but the refugees
within the country are being victimized by the ruling
classes. Capitalist development, big dams and projects
have been the cause of dispalacement of underclasses.
In Orrissa itself, the dispalced presons having land
in different project areas are fighting for their
existence. Naveen Patnaik and Buddhadev Bhattachary
are signing MOU daily with multinationals for capital
investment without taking consideration of the
underclasses to be displaced. NAPM is active in
Orrissa. Now a new threat seems to overtake all other
miseries, the special economis zone policy adopted and
promoted by the govenment of India.
The Bengali resettlement colonies are situated under
Mahakalpara Block of Kendrapara district which is
going to be the centre of SEZ In search of OIL
resources in the coastal areas of Orrissa encompassing
Paradip and Bhitarkonika Abhayaaranya. Thus not only
the Noakhali victims or other Bengali resttlers , the
old traditional Oria speaking villages and the
Santhals and other tribals face serious threat of
eviction.
Umrao assured the support of NAPM to resettled Bengali
refugees and the Utkal Bangiya Surakshya Samiti.
In Kolkata, Sahmarmi, the organisation who stoodvery
storngly in support of Uttarancal resettled Bengali
refugees, deprived og Domicile certificate and
citizenship and agitated with mass support from the
local communities , political parties and media as
well in 2001, has come forward to creat public
opinion. Sahmarmee organized a seminar on 8th October
in a Cal University Hostel, Udayan. I had to address
the seminar. Wediscussed the problem in detail. Mass
organisations in Bengal, along with Sahmarmi, All
India Refugee Front, Sangramee Udvastu Samiti,Dalit
Samanyaya Samiti, Aiktaan and others stand unitedly
with the Noakhali victims. Not only in Kolkata, I got
phone calls from different parts of India including
the national capital Delhi. The activists and
organizations are pledging support.
All India Bengali Refugee coordination leaders and
workers spread all over the country are trying to
mobilise masses with the support of Mulnivasi Bamsef.
Vaman Meshram has raised the issue on international
forums. The convenor of All India Bengali Refugee
Coordination committe, Dr Subodh Biswas from Nagpur is
taking personal interest in Orrissa. Kanailal Biswas
from Mumbai, Nityanand Mallik from Pilibhit, UP,
Manmatha Biswas from Raipur- all are active.
Most positive point is that the matter is not
communal at all, Utkal Bangiya Surkshya Samiti is
leading us. The CPI(M) also opposed the Government
move to deport the residents strewn across ten
villages of the Mahakalapada block. But the state
government and ruling left front did not issue any
statement. BJP was agains deportation of Hindu
refugees while all prominent Congress leaders in
Orrissa stood united in support of the partition
victims.
Kendrapara`s collector, Hemant Sharma, admits that the
decision of deportation, though not illegal, has
resulted in a human problem. He realises, we
understand. But he has to follow the order of Naveen
Patnaik.Only 201 of the 1548 "infiltrators" residing
in Mahakalapada block of the district had come forward
to submit documents seeking to strike off their names
from the enumerated list of "Bangladeshis". But only
around two dozen of these people were found to have
submitted documents in support of their claim about
Indian citizenship. The rest of the papers were "mere
petitions" Devoid of documentary proof stating they
were natives of West Bengal and had migrated to Orissa
to earn their livelihood, official sources claimed.
I am sure Patnaik has to get heavy amount of roses
some day in future. Yes, Gandhigiri is also to be
practiced to ressist the draconian administrative
action.
Who have been identified for deportation in the
Mahakalpada block are Hindus. The Biju Janata Dal
government is evidently reluctant to deport the
Muslims in Muslim-dominated areas of Kendrapara.
Navven is also playing the game to crate a HIndu
Muslim non existent divide in Orrissa.Though nearly
3,000 illegal Bangladeshis, a majority of them
Muslims, have been identified across the state, never
has the Hindu community residing in the coastal region
been targeted in such a concerted manner. The campaign
speaks of inhumanity as also double standards,?
alleges Milan Debnath, president of the Ramnagar
Traders`Committee.
While the adults in Mahakalpada block of Kendrapara
wrestle with the notices, the children have also been
hit by the drive. Of those who have been served
notices, at least 300 are children. Nervousness is
writ large on their faces even as they play with one
another. A week ago, children in the Hariabanka ME
School of Kharinasi village were adding up figures in
their classrooms. Now, they are calculating how many
of their classmates would have to leave for
Bangladesh.
It is the same story everywhere in Ramnagar,
Kharinasi, Bahakuda, Pitapata, Baraja-bahakuda and
Jamboo. As the teachers try to comfort these hapless
young ones, they have also become the facilitators for
the administration in the deportation process. The
official team that came for handing the notices could
not locate the parents and found it easier to trace
the children in the school. The headmaster was
summoned, leading to a disruption of classes. The
enlisted children were asked to come out of the
classes and receive the notice. ?You are Bangladeshis,
you will have to leave for Bangladesh for continuation
of studies in a Bangla school,? a gun-wielding police
constable told them bluntly
Right to citizenship
Those who argue in favour of the refugees' right of
citizenship say that Bengali refugees had come here
after partition and during the formation of East
Pakistan/Bangladesh. A generation has been created
here. Those who were teenagers or young at that time
have now grown old, they have lost their property and
relatives in Bangladesh. Today they face an identity
crisis. Neither the Bangladeshi government nor the
Indian government accepts them. Not possessing
citizenship certificates, they are vulnerable to
exploitation and torture by the local police.
"Refugees should not be dealt with like outsiders;
they should be treated like human beings," said
Mohammad Amin, chief of Adhikar, a state level NGO.
Wherever they go, they adopt the norms of the local
society, its culture and lifestyle. In fact, the
problems with refugees are not of the local people, it
is the politicians who are making a hue and cry about
the issue, argues Amin. He adds that refugees are
Migrant Labourers and the government should enforce
the Migrant Labour Act to protect them. Besides, many
international bodies and summits exist to protect the
human rights of refugees and migrant labourers.
In the recent past, the tribal and local residents
have raised their voice for the ouster of refugees.
The movement has now taken the shape of violent
resistance. At least four tribal people have been
killed in police firing and two by Bengali refugees,
from June to October last .
The Orissa unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party
expressed displeasure over the deportation of
Bangladeshi infiltrators by the State Government.
Nearly 3,000 infiltrators have been identified in
different districts and a batch of 21 has been
deported. The party's state executive committee passed
a resolutiondemanding that a high-level committee look
into the issue before the Government went ahead with
the deportation.
Observing that the Government was deporting
Bangladeshi refugees treating them as infiltrators,
the committee suggested that there should be proper
identification of refugees and infiltrators living in
the State. Briefing presspersons at the end of the
meeting, the vice-president of the State unit, Anadi
Charan Sahu, said the State Government had started the
deportation in Nawrangpur and Malkangiri districts
under pressure from parties opposed to the BJP. The
800-odd families who had been identified as illegal
infiltrators were second generation refugees, he said.
Not only Kendrapara, the resettled Bengali refugees
are not in peace anywhere in Orrissa in BJD-BJP
regime.
Acting on a writ petition filed by some Bengali
immigrants claiming Indian citizenship, the High
Court, in an interim order, had directed the
Nowarangpur district collector to verify the records
and complete identification of all illegal Bengali
immigrants settled in the district. The district
collector served Quit India notices to 130 illegal
Bengalli immigrants settled in Nowrangpur in the wake
of the recent clashes between the Bengali settlers and
tribals at Raigarh.(OTV Web Bureau)
Administration claimed ,'Most Bangladeshis fail to
provide bonafide evidence'. In Kendrapara, all
evidences show that the resettled refugees are
bonafied Indian citizens. Actually what happened , the
ruling classes were successful to divide the tribal
from the underclass Bengali Resettled refugees
elsewhere. But it did not happen in Kendrapara due to
the positive initiative of Utakal Bangiya Surkshya
Samiti.
The State Government had earlier said that
infiltration posed a potential security threat and
decided to deport the infiltrators in batches of 25
persons each. The deportation process will continue
till all the infiltrators were sent back, the Home
Secretary, T.K. Mishra, had said.
The Government had also clarified that the present
deportation drive would not be restricted to
Nawrangpur district. The next phase would be carried
out in Malkangiri and Kendrapara districts.
Kendrapara is already victimised, now it seems to be
the turn for Malkangiri, where partition victim
Bengali refugees were rehabilated in no less than two
Hundre and Fifteen villages.
Malkangiri is a district in the state of Orissa in
eastern India. It is also a small town the
headquarters of Malkangiri District. The district was
carved out of erstwhile Koraput District in 1992. On
2nd October 1992, Koraput was divided into four
districts: Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Koraput and
Malkangiri. Malkangiri is situated between 17° 45' to
18° 40' North latitude and 81° 10' East to 82°
longitude at an altitude of 641 feet above the sea
level. Oriya is the main language followed by Bengali
and Telugu.Primitive tribes including Bondas, Koyas,
Porajas and Didayis are found in ghats and valleys of
the district. The district has a major jungle cover
with small mountains. Important rivers being Potteru,
Sabari, Sileru, Kolab and Machkund. Balimela hydro
electric project is functioning at Balimela one of the
two NACs (Notified Area Council) another one being
Malkangiri. Its hot and humid climate makes the place
malaria prone.
The partition victims had been rehabilated in jungle
areas of Orrissa, MP, UP and Maharashtra.Malkangiri
consists of Dandakaranya Project. Malaria was the
problem faced by almost all refugees resttled in
different states.
Malkangiri is a very remote area alienated from
mainstream. The Bengali Refugees have been rehabilated
in these tribal pockets where the tribals are the most
deprived lot. Outsider refugees and the tribals stand
divided thanks to politics. Number of NGOs (Non
Governmental Organizations and SHGs (Self Help Groups
function in this area claiming to work for the welfare
and empowerment of the tribals and the women through
programs like health awareness, education, vocational
skills for livelihood. Christian Missionaries also are
ahead working in the tribal, remote and inaccessible
parts of the district where sometimes even the
Government officials fail to reach. Reaching Hand
Society run by Dr. Iris Paul is among the foremost in
the district.
Economy of the district mainly depends on agricultural
products like rasi (til), groundnut, rice etc., and
forest produce like kendu leaf, bamboo, etc. The
district mainly depends on neighbouring Jagdalpur,
Raipur (Chattisgarh) and Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram
(Andhra Pradesh) for the trade, business, and medical
needs. The nearest main railway station is Rayagada
(160 km.) or Vizianagaram (about 300 km).
The twin language formula, Oriya and Bengali, is a
spill-over of the Nehruvian Dandakaranya Project — to
resettle refugees from the erstwhile East Pakistan,
and another wave after Bangladesh was born in 1971.
The Orissa Government now insists that all children
must learn Oriya. The town has a strong presence of
Bengalis — hawkers, petty shop owners, drivers and
Government staff from refugee families. There have
also been a few IAS officers, doctors and engineers
from the refugee population. "When I came here with my
parents in 1963, Malkangiri was a jungle. I graduated
from here,'' said Minister Arabinda Dhali.
"We cleared the area and cultivated the land given to
us. We built our houses. What you see today is a
result of the initiative of the families resettled
here,'' said a group of Bengalis.
Tribals walk down from their enclaves once a week to
sell their wares. "Tribals are not good traders. They
cannot bargain and will accept what you offer. So they
are cheated by the Bengali refugees," said Sajal
Satpathy who owns a phone booth in Malkangiri. The
locals seem to dislike the refugees.
Jeypore (105 km) is the major town located in Koraput
district. Locals are fond of visiting Jeypore for
their many needs like shopping and education. Motu is
located at the Mugi point nosetip of the meeting of
two rivers Sileru and Sabari. Motu is at the
trijunction of Orissa, Chattisgarh (Konta) and Andhra
Pradesh (Chintoor). The entire trijunction is under
the Naxalite influence. The local people require
abridge over the Sabari river which can make a lot of
difference to the dvelopment of the area by way of
transportation and trade. However the construction of
the bridge, improved road quality and laying of
railway lines are not materialized so far due to many
administrative and infrastructural bottlenecks.
The tribals of Orissa are a marginalised lot as the
Bengali refugees are the dalits. Deprived of their
natural environment and traditional social
organisation, they have been driven to the edge of
poverty and destitution.THE highway to Malkangiri is
so bad it would be better to walk all the way. The
700-km drive from Bhubaneshwar lasts over 24 hours,
the stretch after Koraput being the longest. Given the
poor transport facility, the time and money spent to
and from Malkangiri can be high. If the drive were
smooth, one could marvel at the hill ranges the trees
so tall you couldn't see the tops; the cloud rings
round the hills. The Central Reserve Police Force
(CRPF) battalions here to curb the People's War Group
(PWG) menace number as much as the general population.
The town throbs till dusk, by 9 p.m. shops close, only
the jawans can be seen. A few bright yellow diamonds
dangle in front of phone booths.
The interface between the Bengali settlers and the
tribals is a keg of explosives, say political pandits
from 700 km away. A visit to Padmapur, Jharapalli and
some other villages showed otherwise.
The Bengal settlers near Padmapur have named their
village Subhaspalli, it adjoins the area where the
tribals live in Padmapur. The settlers work hard.
Women, girls too, roll bidis, while others make brooms
from coconut fronds. Some families run canteens and
petty shops, sales are usually on credit basis. The
settlements have electricity but no health care or
irrigation facilities. They are completely dependent
on the rains. "Yes, we suffer a lot. We have told our
elected representative, but nothing has been done.
When tribals pledge their land, we lend cash, and till
their land until they repay the debt. There has been
no problem with them so far, but for how long?" asked
a settler.
The Revenue Minister, Bishwa Bhushan Harichandan said
in Bhubaneshwar that there were reports of tribals
being alienated from their land. He said that both the
Bengali settlers and tribals were encroaching on
Government land. The firing in Raighar tehsil on
October 30, 2001 in which three tribals were killed
was a result of tension between Bengalis and tribals.
At Jharapalli, the school was a line of three
single-storey buildings, each about 200 square feet.
Weeds grew in cracks on the walls, the windows had no
bars so the children passed in and out. Passing
through the school, literally, shouldn't be a problem.
"But the drop-out rate is high. Tribal children,
especially girls, do not study beyond the third
standard, but children of settlers go through the
system," said the headmaster. "The family will beg if
necessary, but they will make their children study,"
said a group of Bengali settlers. Bags of paddy were
stacked to the ceiling and paddy was piled high on the
ground in almost every house in this village.
We should discuss the refugee policies and the ways to
save the partition victims.
India's Refugee Policy
The juridical basis of the international obligations
to protect refugees, namely, non-refoulement including
non-rejection at the frontier, non-return,
non-expulsion or non-extradition and the minimum
standard of treatment are traced in international
conventions and customary law. The only treaty regime
having near universal effect pertaining to refugees is
the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol on
the Status of Refugees which is the magna carta of
refugee law. Since India has not yet ratified or
acceded to this regime its legal obligation to protect
refugees is traced mainly in customary international
law. An examination of this aspect raises the basic
question of relation and effect of international law
with the Indian municipal law.
The Constitution of Indian contains just a few
provisions on the status of international law in
India. Leading among them is Article 51 (c), which
states that "the State [India] shall endeavor to
foster respect for international law and treaty
obligations in the dealings of organized peoples with
one another."
Leaving a little confusion, this provision
differentiates between international law and treaty
obligations. It is, however, interpreted and
understood that "international law" represents
international customary law and "treaty obligations"
represent international conventional law.(4) Otherwise
the Article is lucid and directs India to foster
respect for its international obligations arising
under international law for its economic and social
progress. Article 51 (c) is placed under the Directive
Principles of State Policy in Part IV of the Indian
Constitution, which means it is not an enforceable
provision. Since the principle laid down in Article 51
is not enforceable and India has merely to endeavor to
foster respect for international law, this Article
would mean prima facie that international law is not
incorporated into the Indian municipal law which is
binding and enforceable. However, when Article 51(c)
is read in the light of other Articles and judicial
opinion and foreign policy statements, it suggests
otherwise.
Before India became independent, the Indian courts
under British rule administered the English Common
law. They accepted the basic principles governing the
relationship between international law and municipal
law under the common law doctrine. Under the English
common law doctrine, rules of international law in
general were not accepted as part of municipal law.
If, however, there was no conflict between these rules
and the rules of municipal law, international law was
accepted in municipal law without any incorporation.
Indeed, the doctrine of common law is specific about
certain international treaties affecting private
rights of individuals. To implement such treaties, the
doctrine requires modification of statutory law and
the adoption of the enabling legislation in the form
of an Act of Parliament.
These English common law principles are still
applicable to India even after its independence, by
virtue of Article 372 of the Constitution, which says
that:
"all the laws in force in the territory of India
immediately before the commencement of this
Constitution shall continue in force therein until
altered or repealed or amended by a competent
legislature or other competent authority."(5)
This common law practice has been followed by the
Indian executive, legislature and judiciary even after
the independence of India. For instance, until the
specific legislations were adopted India observed the
international customary rules regarding immunity from
domestic jurisdiction and law of the sea particularly
with regard to the high seas, maritime belt, and
innocent passage.
Confirming the common law principle relating to the
specific incorporation of certain treaties, Article
253 provides that:
" Parliament has power to make any law for the whole
or any part of the territory of India for implementing
any treaty, agreement or convention with any other
country or countries or any decision made at any
international conference, association or other body."
What`s conspicuous is the selection and timing of
victims. Such deportations have not been implemented
since 2002 ? almost 125 unauthorized Bangladeshi
settlers were deported between 1973 and 2002 in the
state. The last time such a drive was undertaken was
in 2002, when the Patnaik government arrested 22
illegal settlers in the Dandakaranya settlement region
of Nowrangpur and pushed them through the Bangladesh
border. It was not successful ? a few days later, all
of them sneaked through the porous Indo-Bangladesh
border to their homes.
The partition of India is customarily described in
surgical metaphors, as an operation, an amputation, a
vivisection or a dismemberment. By extension, the new
borders created in 1947 are often thought of as
incision scars.
The division of British India into India and Pakistan
in August 1947 was accompanied by the dislocation of
between twelve and sixteen million people and the
violent deaths of around a million. Punjab and Bengal,
the two provinces that were divided, were the most
affected but so were other parts of the country. After
all, mixed populations (Muslim, Hindu, Sikh,
Christian, and so on) were more the norm than not in
rural and urban India, making the very notion of two
homelands, one with a Muslim majority and another with
a Hindu majority, somewhat difficult to realize.
Apparently the leadership expected what was
euphemistically referred to as "an orderly exchange of
population" in spite of the fact that the boundaries
were officially announced on August 17, 1947, that is,
after the actual transfer of power to the two
successor states on August 14–15, 1947. Individuals,
families, and communities that found themselves on the
"wrong" side of the border were dispossessed of land
and home, faced with the threat of bodily harm, spent
months on the road and in refugee camps, and began the
long process of resettlement
The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 was
followed by the forced uprooting of an estimated 18
million people. This paper focuses on the predicament
of the minority communities in East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh) who were uprooted and forced to seek
shelter in the Indian province of West Bengal. It
considers the responses of Indian federal and
provincial governments to the challenge of refugee
rehabilitation. A study is made of the Dandakaranya
scheme which was undertaken after 1958 to resettle the
refugees by colonising forest land: the project was
sited in a peninsular region marked by plateaus and
hill ranges which the refugees, originally from the
riverine and deltaic landscape of Bengal, found hard
to accept. Despite substantial official rehabilitation
efforts, the refugees demanded to be resettled back in
their "natural habitat" of Indian Bengal. However,
this was resisted by the state. Notwithstanding this
opposition, a large number of East Bengal refugees
moved back into regions which formed a part of
erstwhile undivided Bengal where, without any
government aid and planning, they colonised lands and
created their own habitats. Many preferred to become
squatters in the slums that sprawled in and around
Calcutta. The complex interplay of identity and
landscape, of dependence and self-help, that informed
the choices which the refugees made in rebuilding
their lives is analysed in the paper.
Nehru became prime minister of India, and Jinnah
governor-general of Pakistan. Partition left large
minorities of Hindus and Sikhs in Pakistan and Muslims
in India. Widespread hostilities erupted among the
communities and continued while large numbers of
people—about 16 million in all—fled across the borders
seeking safety. More than 500,000 people died in the
disorders (late 1947). Gandhi was killed by a Hindu
fanatic in Jan., 1948. The hostility between India and
Pakistan was aggravated when warfare broke out (1948)
over their conflicting claims to jurisdiction over the
princely state of Kashmir.
Sumanta Banerjee wrote in his article `Heroines from a
lost homeland ' the most complex problem of continuous
refugee influx from East Bengal and the difference
between the experiences of Punjabi and Bengali
refugees are well elaboarated.He wrote:
The stories told by the Hindus and Sikhs who fled
their homeland in west Punjab (when it was becoming a
part of Pakistan) during the Partition, and became
refugees in Delhi and other parts of east Punjab
(which became a part of the Indian Union), are
different from those of the Bengali Hindu families.
They had to leave East Bengal on the eve of the
Partition (before it turned into a constituent of
Pakistan), driven out by the violent religious
persecution in 1946, which reached its nadir in the
Noakhali killings.
He elaborates: There is another major difference
between the narratives of the refugees from west
Punjab and those from East Bengal. The uprooting in
Punjab occurred in one swift swipe, with a virtual
exchange of the majority of Hindu and Muslim
population across the borders. While some six million
Muslims crossed over to west Pakistan, four and a half
million Hindus and Sikhs had moved into India by 1948.
In Bengal, the migration continued over decades, with
the Hindu refugees coming in trickles. By 1970, their
number had reached five million. As for the Punjabi
refugees (who came in a one-shot migration), by the
1950s they had been more or less re-settled; their
problems solved on a once-and-for-all basis. But the
plight of the refugees in West Bengal became a
long-standing problem because of the peculiar
historical situation and developments in the then East
Pakistan, which determined the flow of these refugees.
It is necessary to remember that a large number of
Hindus in erstwhile East Pakistan; despite the
Noakhali killings of 1946 - refused to leave their
homeland immediately after Partition. But many among
them were gradually driven out by violent acts of
religious persecution carried out against them in
certain parts of East Pakistan. Their migration took
the form of periodic influx. In 1950, more than one
million crossed over to West Bengal. In 1964 again,
following another outburst of communal frenzy there,
some six lakh Hindus took refuge in West Bengal. In
1970, when the then Pakistan government was clamping
down upon all Bengali political opponents, many Hindu
families, feeling more threatened than Muslims,
crossed over to West Bengal (their number rising,
according to one unofficial estimate, to around two
million). The story of the Bengali refugees therefore
did not end with the 1947 Partition. It reads like an
unending tale of long-suffering migrants, spanning
decades; their plight was described as a 'wasting
disease' by one perceptive observer.
He wrote:The years immediately following the Bengal
Famine of 1943 witnessed the consolidation of communal
ideologies culminating in the riots of 1946 in
Calcutta and the violence in Noakhali on 1946-47.
During the infamous Noakhali riots of 1946, where the
Hindu minority was ravaged, the visit of Gandhiji,
along with Sucheta Kripalini, Renuka Roy and Sneharani
Kanjilal, greatly helped restore peace. Gandhiji went
to a village called Kadihati and planted a jackfruit
sapling as a symbol of peace in the compound of the
Kadihati High School. Over the years, the sapling grew
into a tree, first in East Pakistan, then in
Bangladesh, alongside a diminutive and steadily
declining minority community. The people of Noakhali
actively took part in Jehad Movement in 1830 and
Khilafat Movement in 1920. What shocked the conscience
of India even more than Calcutta, was the large-scale
murder, loot, arson, rape, abduction and forced
marriage of Hindu women in the Noakhali District of
Eastern Bengal. This time the trouble came about in
the October of 1946.
palashcbiswas,
gostokanan, sodepur, kolkata-700110 phone:033-25659551
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