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

[Sudeep K S]

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:49 PM, A. Mani <a.mani.cms at gmail.com> wrote:

> (sorry for crossposting)
>

    Dear  A.Mani,

    I have no problems with crossposting. I just hope you are sending my
mails also to your party mailing list:-) (pragoti at yahoogroups.com: This
group belongs to everyone who believes in *the correct way towards socialism
* in India. The group endeavours to discuss, debate, and in the way *counter
all the false propaganda made by right and left deviations of* *Indian left
movement*. However, that does not mean that the group is not open to
constructive criticism. Substantial arguments and counter-arguments with
precision are always welcome!)

    I am amused by your mail that looks like a party memo. One can not ask
any questions, as it would be against party rules. Once you mention the word
'party', there is no need for any substantation in any way to whatever you
say. This may work in your party meetings but not on a forum like this. My
question stays,

   "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?"

  (In addition to this, I have commented on a couple of your statements
below)

On Tue, Dec 1, 2009 at 9:57 AM, Sudeep K S <sudeep.ks at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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!

 Caste is the business of a minority bourgeois. Within the party it is
> taboo.
> For the few religion-based clashes in the past, vested interests had
> to rely on very small
> groups of misguided people or hired goons. Caste-based clashes are
> relatively unknown in West Bengal. These are well documented.
>
> >>
> >> 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?
>
> I checked up with party old-timers and former party members. "they
> were explicitly warned of 'no Govt  support', though" was reported in
> the newspapers.
>
> All these were debated extensively within the party at that time and
> quite a lot was reported.
>
>
> >     (The Kerala CPM also says "CIA" and 'foreign hand' whenever there is
> > anything spoken against them.).
>
> CIA and foreign hand have been a problem even before
> http://www.firstministry.kerala.gov.in/articles.htm
>
> 'CIA' and 'foreign hand' usually figure in accusations against others
> and their misdeeds (often of a violent nature). They heavily fund the
> Hindutva forces in Kerala in particular and there is plenty of
> evidence for the same. But the legal framework for dealing with this
> problem is not strong enough and is being persistently weakened
> through liberalisation.
>
> You can find quantitative evidence in lots of places.
>
> >> 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?
>
> Politics is far ahead of castes here (... if there is any).  There
> should be some quantitative studies on this subject.
>

    *"There should be"?* What do you mean by that? In that case I guess
Ajay, Nilesh and Anoop could say the opposite, that caste oppression is far
ahead than anything in West Bengal (sorry Left Bengal) and 'there should be
proof'. I think they have done more than that, in a more convincing manner.
Ajay Hela is from Bengal, from the scavenging Hela community, and I am sure
he knows "if there is any" caste in West Bengal and how it works better than
you or your party does.

   At least in Kerala (where CPM makes similar claims) I know caste exists
in a big way. (My father was a CPM member since he was 18, and he resigned
from the party a few days back after about 43 years in party. His
resignation did not have anything to do with caste but this was to tell you
I also know about 'party' and it is not your private property.)

>     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?

 So much of violence had happened through out the seventies, first it
> was the Naxalites, then S.S. Ray. Over 1700 CPI(M) cadres, hundreds of
> SUCI cadres and lot more people were killed in the period. Even I
> remember seeing people breaking their heads and going to hospital in
> the most natural of ways.
>
> I think people were just too numb to a problem of forced eviction and
> displacement. Most CPI(M) party members were very concerned and not
> just because of connections with East Bengal.
>
> The media has always been biased towards the needs of the bourgeois
> and why should they focus on 'potential vote bank of the CPI(M)'? ...
> and displacement based politics is a very new thing
>
> >     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.
> >
>
> There is nothing untold....if there is you need to come up with
> specific questions.
> Here is some interesting info:
>
> According to data from the 2001 Census of India, the Namasudra is one
> of the main
> scheduled castes in West Bengal, with a population of 3,212,393
> people, or 17.4 percent of the Scheduled Caste population of West
> Bengal. It is second only to the Rajbanshi Scheduled Caste which has
> 3,386,617 people.
>
> The Namashudra caste has the fourth-highest literacy rate of West
> Bengal Scheduled Castes: 71.9 percent, or 80.6 percent for males and
> 62.8 for females. The caste with the highest rate of literacy in West
> Bengal has 82.5 overall, while the national literacy average for
> Scheduled Castes is 54.7 percent (Office of the Registrar General,
> India (undated),‘West Bengal Data Highlights: The Scheduled Castes’,
> Census of India 2001
> http://www.censusindia.gov.in/Tables_Published/SCST/dh_sc_westbengal.pdf –
>

    Does that say anything about their life status in the society?

     -Sudeep