[Reader-list] Marichjhapi and the Revenge of Bengali Bhadralok: The story of a Dalit Genocide that remains untold

[Sudeep K S]

On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 11:53 PM, A. Mani <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Caste is of little consequence in Left-Bengal.


    You know what, CPM has been saying the same about Kerala also. What a
coincidence!


> There are two main
> aspects in the marichjhapi story:
>
> 1. Mismanagement of the refugee problem by the Left Government. Due to
> resource constraints, the Govt realised that they could not offer much
> support to the refugees in Dandakarnya.  But entry into the state was
> allowed  - this was a mistake (they were explicitly warned of 'no Govt
> support', though). Most of the village people in West Bengal resisted
> their entry and many violent incidents did take place.
>
> The police action was intended to evict the refugees from Marichjhapi
> and also to arrest particular merceneries.
>
> 2. The involvement of the CIA and related agencies (who apparently had
> infiltrated the refugee lines) in organising armed training camps was
> also a major reason for the police action. The CIA may never
> declassify documents relating to their involvement (and when they
> operate through other agencies, then it is not usually transparent).
>
> All decisions by the Left Government were taken on the basis of
> feedback from the ground level. Within the CPI(M) party all these
> aspects were debated in detail and
> many did not want a direct police action.
>
>  Direct casualties in action were limited. It is also true that most
> of the party people regard the forced eviction as the biggest mistake
> ever.
>

    Could you substantiate the above two "main aspects" of your version of
the Marichjhapi story? Or shall we say this story of yours is completely
fictitious and biased, without any research going into it?

    (The Kerala CPM also says "CIA" and 'foreign hand' whenever there is
anything spoken against them.).

There are no parallels with any other later-day incident.
>

    Ok -- drawing parallels is the job of those who get to hear stories. Let
them do it.

You can try claiming that the villagers in South Bengal were
> 'casteist', but it is not true.
>

    Again, what is the basis of this claim?

    Going back to your allegation of the blog post being biased, what do you
say about the bias of the media and the academia who chose to remain silent
about it?

    It was fun seeing you getting so touchy and trying to get away with huge
claims like "Caste is of little consequence in Left-Bengal". Let me repeat
my request once again: please do some rich research on this and tell us the
stories that still remain untold. I will be happy to hear that.

    Saswati, thanks for throwing some more light into this whole episode.

   Regards
   Sudeep