[Reader-list] tritiyo posting

[debjani sengupta]

Dear All, here is my third posting. Sorry for being very late.
   
  The city of Calcutta had attracted millions of refugees before 1950 and a large number of colonies emerged within the Calcutta Corporation area itself. The refugees were interested in building their huts of 'darma and bamboo in the low lying and marshy areas near Calcutta and many of them, belonging to middle-classes, wanted to be near the metropolis for occupational interests.
  Till May, 1955, there were about 25 lakh regugees in Calcutta which rose to about 27 lakhs by 1955.
   One of the areas of concentration of the refugee colonies was the south east portion of the CMD in the Tollygunj, Jadavpur, Kasba, Santoshpur Garfa areas. In this area, about 40 pre 1950 Squatter's colonies were located. By 1959, many of these colonies had been regularised and 268 of them were within the Calcutta Metropolitan District.
  Besides the government sponsored and squatter's colonies there is another group of colonies known as private colonies which grew haphazardly where ever the displaced poeple could get together and purchase a bit of land.
  This sharp growth of settlements in the Calcutta Metropolis is certainly due to the influx of refugees. Apart from the demographic and cartographic changes, this entailed other far reaching changes in the whole economic and social foundation of West Bengal. Although the successive West Bengal governments tried to  absorb the bulk of refugees within the economic set up of the state, it was a daunting task. The traditional livlihoods of the displaced people could not be reatined and many agricultural families had to take up other kinds of occupations because of the non availability of land.
  The displaced population had a different language, different culture, different food. Although they spoke Bengali, their dialect soon came to be known by a term 'Bangal' that had often derogatory implications. The colonies tried to replicate, in a minuscule way, the plants and trees of the land the refugees had left behind and many houses were built around a large pond that satisfied the water loving Easterners. The refugge colonies were solitary havens in the midst of the din of Calcutta, a city that had now assumed terrifying anonymity to many who had earlier been aquainted with it. Calcutta had always attracted a fair number of men from Esat Bengal who came to study and work in the city. Living in messes, this population would return to their village homes in East Bengal during holidays and be a part of the festivities at home. Their connection to Calcutta were firm but not of the heart. That remained back home.
  Coming to the city as refugees changed in very subtle ways their connection to the place. The fight for dole, for a job, for a place to live, organising themselves to build their colonies created a different impact on the city. The political atmosphere in West Bengal changed to a large extent when the refugees organised themselves and demanded proper rehabilitation. Their daily fights for survival spawned a large amount of literature that is of special interest. So also the social impact of the shortening of distance between the two Bengals.The impact of the 'Bangal' culture, custom and social behaviour on the city of Calcutta is of great significance.
   
   
   
   
   
   

		
---------------------------------
New Yahoo! Messenger with Voice. Call regular phones from your PC for low, low rates.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/attachments/20060324/33151cf5/attachment.html