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

[anoop kumar]

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*Marichjhapi and the Revenge of Bengali BhadralokThe story of a Dalit
Genocide that remains untold

By Nilesh Kumar, Ajay Hela, Anoop Kumar

[Nilesh and Ajay are pursuing their Masters in Social work, TISS, Mumbai]

Exactly 30 years ago, Dalits, in West Bengal, came to realize the true
nature of Indian state that is being dominated, in every sense, by a tiny
section of population but at a great personal cost.  It was in 1979, when
thousands of Dalits, refugees from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) lost their
lives at Marichjhapi, in Sunderbans, for their dream of resettling in the
region which they considered part of their motherland.

Marichjhapi is just once incident in the tragic tale of one of the most
powerful Dalit Community-Namashudras of Bengal - who first became the victim
of Hindu-Muslim communalism during the partition and later became the
victims of their castes in independent India.

Moreover, the complete silence of Bengal’s civil society for almost 30 years
and the fact that Dalits were killed by Communist government of West Bengal
that came in the power in the name of poor and dispossessed, raises some
serious questions about representation of Dalits in every sphere, the
constitution of civil society and hegemony of few privileged castes over the
political power in Independent  India.

Apart from these, the Namashudra problem also poses a big question for the
Dalits (and Dalit movement) living in other parts of the country about
whether they are willing to fight for the rights of their fellow community
people who, unfortunately, paid the ultimate price for sending Babasaheb
Ambedkar to the Constituent Assembly.

Before Marichjhapi

In 1946, Constituent Assembly was constituted with the mandate to frame
Indian constitution and to function as provisional parliament for
independent India. Its members were elected by state assemblies and
represented almost all major communities of the country. However, the
Congress government in Bombay province, headed by B.G. Kher and under
instructions from Sardar Patel, ensured that Babasaheb Ambedkar was not
elected.

At this crucial juncture, a very prominent leader Jogendra Nath Mandal
ensured his election from the Bengal province. Thus Babasaheb could enter
into the constituent assembly and, later, become prime architect of Indian
Constitution that guaranteed many rights for the Dalits including
representation in education and government jobs.

Who was Jogendra Nath Mandal? How could Babasaheb enter into Constituent
Assembly from Bengal being ambushed by Congress in Bombay province and
declared persona non grata due to his exposure of Gandhi and Congress as
upholder of ‘upper’ caste Hindu domination?

He could enter at the strength of the then untouchable community called
Namashudras and Jogendra Nath Mandal was one of the prominent Namashudra
leaders of Bengal.

Namashudras were largely an agrarian community well-known for its
hardworking nature, agricultural and artisan skills. It was one of the
biggest communities of Bengal, with majority of its population based in east
part of undivided Bengal (now Bangladesh) with a long tradition of resisting
caste-hindu domination and fighting against untouchability practices and
other ignominies thrust on them by the caste system.

The Namashudra movement had been one of the most politically mobilized
untouchable’s movements in colonial India that, even before Dr Ambedkar, had
rejected Congress leadership for upholding the interests of landowning
‘upper’ castes under the ruse of Indian nationalism. The complete monopoly
of rich Bengali Bhadraloks (a land owning class of people belonging to three
Hindu ‘upper’ castes – brahmins, kayasthas and vaidyas) on congress
leadership validated their severe indictment of the policies of the
Congress.

Even prior to congress, the Namashudras were the only voice of resistance to
much touted Bengal ‘renaissance’ that, in all practical terms, were efforts
of ‘upper’ caste hindus to consolidate themselves and aggressively bargain
with British colonial government to restrict the benefits of British built
institutions like that of education, judiciary, bureaucracy and local
governance for themselves.

The success of the Namashudra Movement could be easily measured by the
autonomous political space which they were able to chalk out for themselves
in Bengal politics and in alliance with Muslims had kept the Bengal Congress
Party in opposition from the 1920s. At the strength of this political space
only they could get Babasaheb elected to the Constituent Assembly.

This exclusion of ‘upper’ caste Hindus from power in Bengal led Hindu elite
and eventually the Congress Party pressing for partition of the province at
independence, so that at least the western half would return to their
control. So successful they have been in their design that West Bengal is
probably the only state in the country where ‘upper’ caste hegemony went
completely unchallenged in independent India till today.

It is clearly manifested in every sphere of life there and one hardly comes
across any murmur of Dalit assertion ever.

One of the best indicators of ‘upper’ caste Hindu domination over West
Bengal would be the number of Cabinet positions enjoyed by them in the
successive state governments - the tiny tri-caste Bengali elite (consisting
of brahmins, kayasthas and vaidyas) increased its Cabinet composition from
78 percent under the Congress regime (1952-62) to 90 percent under the
Communist regime indicating their complete domination over West Bengal.

How this was achieved? What happened to the once powerful Namashudra
community that resisted the ‘upper’ caste hegemony in pre-independent India?

The Plight of Namashudras in post Independent India

Marichjhapi is one of the small islands lying within the Sundarbans area of
West Bengal. It was here, in 1979, that thousands of Dalits were killed by
the communist led West Bengal government. Hundreds were killed directly in
police firings but many more died of starvation, lack of drinking water and
diseases due to the economic blockade that was imposed on them by the state
government and carried out by the police and communist cadres together.

Their settlements in Marichjhapi were completely bulldozed, destroyed and
hundreds of women raped leaving behind only the dead bodies of the Dalits to
be either dumped in the water bodies or to be eaten by the beasts of nearby
jungles in one of the biggest genocide carried out by any state in
independent India.

The people who survived were driven out of West Bengal to continue living
with the tragic memories of their lost loved ones and perpetual longing for
the soil that once constituted parts of their motherland.

What happened at Marichjhapi is just one incident in the long tragic history
of this particular Bengali Dalit community that started with the partition
of the country and is continued till today. They have been living in their
own country as second grade citizens, being forcefully scattered throughout
the country.

These helpless victims belonged to a Dalit community called Namashudras and
were refugees from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) who were dispatched to
different parts of the country by the state government citing the lack of
space in West Bengal but took no time and least efforts to provide maximum
possible relief and rehabilitation to the ‘upper’ caste refugees.

Apart from this, these refugees illegally occupied large areas in and around
Kolkata and other major cities of Bengal and got it regularized but when it
came to Dalit refugees, the then Congress Chief Minister B.C. Roy wrote to
Prime Minister Nehru that ‘we have no place for them, send them to other
states’.

Then these Dalit refugees, despite their vociferous protests, were
dispatched to inhospitable and far flung areas of states like Chhattisgarh,
Orissa, Uttaranchal, Assam to live in completely alien environment. They
were driven down to these places packed in government vehicles as cattle,
under strict police supervision. Later many of their settlements in
different states, like Mana camp in Orissa, were turned into concentration
camps as government employed the services of Indian army to guard the camps
for 12 long years, lest these people would escape to West Bengal.

Marichjhapi massacre of Dalit refugees by Left government in Bengal is just
one incident. Even before Marichjhapi there were numerous incidents where
many Namashudra refugees got killed by police while demanding for better
provisions in the camps where they were being forcefully kept.

Apart from being persecuted by the state, the Namashudras, settled outside
West Bengal, also suffered enormously from various other factors. They
continuously faced hostility of local populace that strongly resented the
presence of outsiders in their surroundings. Most of the camps were in the
areas that were not fit for agriculture and being primarily an agrarian
community, totally different type of climates and soil conditions made them
handicap.

Also even the reservation provisions for which, as Dalits, they would have
been eligible in West Bengal, were not recognized in the states in which
they were settled, as their castes were not native to those states.  Despite
all the difficulties, Namashudra refugees settled in different states kept
their dream alive of returning back to the environment/culture/land that
they belong to.

The Great Communist Betrayal

During this period, in late 1960s and till mid-70s, the Bengali communists
led by CPI (M), which was in opposition then, took up the case of these
refugees and demanded the government to settle them within their native
Bengal rather than scatter them across India on the lands of other peoples.

The communist, again its leadership monopolized by ‘upper’ caste, started
raising their voices in the support of Dalit refugees and promised to
provide them rehabilitation in West Bengal. The sites they mentioned in West
Bengal for resettlement were either the Sundarbans area of the Ganges delta
or vacant land scattered in various places throughout the state. The party
leaders went around various Dalit camps campaigning for their return to West
Bengal, simultaneously promising full support after coming in power.

Particularly one, Mr. Ram Chatterjee, who later became minister in the CPI
(M) led government, exhorted the Dalit refugees by thundering, “The 5 crore
Bengalis by raising their 10 crore hands are welcoming you back.”

In 1977, when the Left Front came to power, they found that the Dalit
refugees had taken them at their words having disposed off whatever their
meager belongings were and have marched towards West Bengal. In all, 1,
50,000 refugees arrived from Dandakaranya region of what is now Chhattisgarh
expecting the communists to honour their words.

Instead the Left Front government started sending them back forcibly citing
the lack of space in the state – the same reason that was cited earlier when
the Dalits arrived from East Bengal during the partition. It was a rude
shock for the refugees who were depending on the newly elected Left Front
government. When they opposed this, Dalit refugees were brutally evicted
from various railway stations, being fired upon by the West Bengal police
and were denied food and water.

Still many refugees managed to escape and reached Marichjhapi, an island
that lies in the northern part of the Sunderbans. Thousands of other Dalit
refugees also marched to Marichjhapi on feet along the railway tracks,
avoiding the police.

By the end of the year 1978, there were 30,000 Dalit refugees in the island
of Marichjhapi who rapidly established it as one of the best-developed
islands of the Sundarbans. Within a few months tube-wells had been dug, a
viable fishing industry, saltpans, dispensaries and schools were
established. In short, in just few months, the hard working Namashudras
built a thriving local economy without any government support in the region
that is considered the poorest in West Bengal.

Deeply humiliated by the successful resettlement of Namashudra refugees in
Marichjhapi, the Left Front government started their propaganda against them
by stating that the ‘Marichjhapi is a part of the Sundarbans government
reserve forest’ and therefore Dalit refugees were ‘violating the Forest Acts
and thereby disturbing the existing and potential forest wealth and also
creating ecological imbalance’.

This was a blatant lie as Marichjhapi did not fall under government reserve
forest at all. The Bengali Bhadralok leadership of Left Front had to resort
to such lies and take up environmental concerns as an excuse as the
Marichjhapi exposed their earlier lie too regarding ‘lack of space in West
Bengal’.

The West Bengal government launched a full frontal assault on the
Marichjhapi and the Dalit refugees. It started with the economic blockade.
The police cordoned off the whole island, cutting every communication links
with the outside world.

Thirty police launches encircled the island thereby depriving the settlers
of food and water; they were also tear-gassed, their huts razed, their boats
sunk, their fisheries and tube-wells destroyed, and those who tried to cross
the river were shot at. Several hundred men, women and children were
believed to have died during that time and their bodies thrown in the river.

And those who tried to defy this economic blockade by swimming across to
other islands in search of food and water were brutally shot. On the January
31, 1979 the police opened fire killing 36 people who were trying to get
food and water from a nearby island.

It was not that the media was not aware of the sufferings and police
brutalities on hapless Namashudras. When the reports of Marichjhapi started
appearing in the media, Jyoti Basu, then chief minister of Bengal,
shamelessly, termed it as ‘CIA conspiracy’ against newly elected communist
government of Bengal and exhorted media to support the government in
‘national interest’.

Jyoti Basu justified the police actions by accusing Namashudra refugees of
being agents of foreign forces and using Marichjhapi as arms-training
centre. Moreover, Jyoti Basu declared the whole area to be out of bound for
media and thus effectively silencing any dissenting voices or reporting of
the killings of Dalit refugees.

It took more than five months and killings of thousands of Dalit refugees
for the West Bengal government to effectively crush the Namashudra
resistance in Marichjhapi. Totally devastated by the government brutalities
the rest of the Namsahudras were packed off, as prisoner of war, back to
Chattishgarh and Andaman.

After destroying all the huts, markets, schools and all other visible
markers of Namashudra settlement, West Bengal government declared, in May
1979, Marichjhapi ‘finally free from all refugees’.

Regarding the total lives lost during the West Bengal government’s assault
on Marichjhapi we will quote from one of the earliest writings on this
incident by A. Biswas who wrote, in 1982, that ‘…out of the 14,388 families
who deserted [for West Bengal), 10,260 families returned to their previous
places . . . and the remaining 4,128 families perished in transit, died of
starvation, exhaustion, and many were killed in Kashipur, Kumirmari, and
Marichjhapi by police firings".  [A. Biswas, 1982, "Why Dandakaranya a
Failure, Why Mass Exodus, Where Solution?" The Oppressed Indian 4(4):18-20.]

Memories in the black hole

Exactly thirty years have passed by of this fateful event that took place in
Marichjhapi but not many from outside are aware of the communist
government’s genocidal acts against Dalits. There has been complete silence
even from the Bengali civil society that claims to be very progressive and
free from caste biases.

The Bengali scholars, Marxist or otherwise, rule the Indian academia and
write, articulate on all the problems that plague this earth. But none of
them broke their silence ever on the merciless killings and eviction of
people who belonged to the same Bengali society but were Dalits. Marichjhapi
was soon forgotten, except by the Dalits themselves.

The communists who keep on harping on fighting for the poor and dispossessed
took no time in killing the same people soon after occupying the state
power.

Perhaps this was the apt revenge from the Bengali Bhadralok, (that
completely monopolizes the Bengali civil society, it’s so called scholarly
class, communist and congress leadership) against Namashudra community that
once successfully challenged ‘upper’ caste hegemony in undivided Bengal. So
successful is the revenge that the community now lives in complete oblivion
and scattered across the country without anyone standing for their rights or
speaking about what actually happened in Marichjhapi in 1979.

References:

While writing this article, we have drawn heavily from following two
research articles among very few that are available on the tragic tale of
one our Dalit communities. We are reproducing both the articles for the
benefit of our readers so that we all become more aware of the tragedy and
are able to fight for the justice. We are taking the liberty of posting the
articles in all good faith despite the possibility of infringing copy
rights.

1. Mallick, Ross, ‘Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal
Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre‘, The Journal of Asian Studies,
Vol. 58, No. 1. (Feb., 1999), pp. 104-125.

2. Jalais, Annu, ‘Dwelling on Morichjhanpi: When Tigers Became ‘Citizens’,
Refugees ‘Tiger-Food’, Economic and Political Weekly, April 23, 2005
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