Marichjhapi massacre

Last updated

Marichjhapi incident
Date24 January 1979 (1979-01-24) – 18 May 1979 (1979-05-18)
Location
Marichjhanpi

22°06′25″N88°57′04″E / 22.1070°N 88.9510°E / 22.1070; 88.9510
Parties
Hindu Refugees from East Pakistan who fled from Dandakaranya (mostly Namasudras)
Lead figures
Casualties and losses

Sources put it between 50-10000 [2] [1]

2(official)

Marichjhapi massacre (also known as Marichjhapi incident) refers to the eviction of Bengali Hindu [1] [2] Dalit refugees [3] who settled on legally protected reserve forest land on Marichjhapi [4] [5] island in the Sundarbans, West Bengal, in 1979, and the subsequent massacres and deaths by disease of Hindu refugees. [2] [6]

Contents

Background

During and after the division of Bengal, many Hindu Bengalis fled communal violence in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). The first flow was of refugees who were mostly upper and middle class Hindus who were able to resettle in West Bengal. However most lower caste Hindus remained behind. But this latter huge flow of poor, mostly low-caste Hindus [7] couldn't be accommodated in Bengal. This later surge reached its peak in 1970's. During this time in 1976 Ram Niwas Mirdha said in Lok Sabha that Bengal had become saturated and relocating migrants was inevitable.

There was resistance from refugees (hailing from wetland marshy coastal landscape) against the relocation to wastelands. However, after initial resistance from they were forcibly sent to "rocky inhospitable semi arid land" of Dandakaranya (mostly in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh), [8] [9] Terai (Uttar Pradesh, now in Uttarakhand), and Little Andamans. Most of them were destined to bear the brunt of an already failed Dandakaranya Project.

Left Front leaders like Ram Chatterjee then opposed the relocation policy of Union Govt[ citation needed ]. They reached out to migrants by visiting camps in Dandakaranya and promised them that if the Left Front comes to power in West Bengal then all migrants would be brought back and settled in Bengal itself.

Incident

Once the Left Front came to power in 1977, the Hindu refugees started to return to Bengal in huge numbers. Approximately 150,000 refugees, which was almost all of Dandakaranya, arrived. [9] But the Left Front had changed its policy on refugee settling and considered the refugees as a burden to the state, and that the refugees were not the citizens of West Bengal but of India. [8] Approximately 150,000 Hindu refugees, which was almost all of Dandakaranya, arrived, where most of them were deported back. In the meanwhile around 40,000 refugees went south to Hasnabad, Hingalganj and Geonkhali, and about 15,000 settling in the small island of Marichjhapi (renamed by them as "Netaji Nagar"), a protected place under Reserve Forest Act. [10] A survivor claims that there were only shrubs on the island when they came. [11] They attained self-sufficiency fishing for food and had built schools and hospitals on their own. However they had to travel to nearby Islands for obtaining grain and clean drinking water.

The Communist government considered the Hindu refugee settlement unauthorized occupation of a reserved forest land, and claimed that with subsequent chain of migrations that it may lead to in that area could result in a severe ecological disaster. It pressured the Hindu refugees to vacate. On 24 January 1979, the Communist-run Government of West Bengal clamped prohibitory orders under Section 144 of the CrPC around the island of Marichjhapi. The police and the district administration started a complete blockade. Thirty police ferries started patrolling the island, [11] preventing food and clean water access to the residents of the island. Under the blockade, the starved Hindu refugees were forced to consume contaminated and poisoned water resulting in dozens of deaths. [2]

Eyewitness accounts say that on 31 January, the police opened fire on the Hindu refugees who settled on the island, when the refugees allegedly attacked a police camp with traditional weapons, [12] killing at least 400-500 [2] refugees. After 15 days, the Calcutta High Court ruled that "The supply of drinking water, essential food items and medicines as well as the passage of doctors must be allowed to Marichjhapi". [13] . Several attacks continued in the months that followed. Hindu refugee women were kidnapped at night and raped to pressure their families. [2] Over 6,000 huts were burnt down. Eyewitness accounts recount the participation of Communist Party of India (Marxist) cadres in the carnage against the refugees. [1] They also recount bayonets being thrust into fifteen school kids – aged between five and twelve – who had taken shelter inside the thatched hut that was their school and their skulls being crushed. The kids had gathered there to make arrangements for Saraswati Puja, which was to be celebrated the next day. The policemen had smashed Saraswati’s idol before they left. The process of firing, rape and threats against the Hindu refugees continued till May. [1]

Some of the remaining 250-300 refugees were then forcibly relocated to Dandakaranya while the rest were escorted in police launches to Hasnabad. Some of them were settled in Marichjhapi Colony near Barasat while others rehabilitated themselves in the shanties near railway tracks in Sealdah. [14] Some of the survivors resettled themselves in Hingalganj, Canning and nearby areas. [15]

Death toll

Different accounts have put the death toll anywhere between 50 and over 10,000. [2] The official toll was two. [16] [17]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jyoti Basu</span> Indian Communist politician (1914-2010)

Jyoti Basu was an Indian Marxist theorist, communist activist, and politician. He was one of the most prominent leaders of Communist movement in India. He served as the 6th and longest serving Chief Minister of West Bengal from 1977 to 2000. He was one of the founding members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). He was the member of Politburo of the party since its formation in 1964 till 2008. He was also the member of West Bengal Legislative Assembly 11 times. In his political career, spanning over seven decades, he was noted to have been the India's longest serving chief minister in an elected democracy, at the time of his resignation. He was proposed for the post of Prime Minister of India for four times.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Partition of Bengal (1947)</span> Partition of Bengal into East Bengal and West Bengal in 1947

The Partition of Bengal in 1947, also known as the Second Partition of Bengal, part of the Partition of India, divided the British Indian Bengal Province along the Radcliffe Line between the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan. The Bengali Hindu-majority West Bengal became a state of India, and the Bengali Muslim-majority East Bengal became a province of Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Basirhat</span> City in West Bengal, India

Basirhat is a city of West Bengal, India. It is located on the banks of the Ichamati (Ichhamati) River.

Namasudra, earlier known as Chandal, is an Avarna Bengali Hindu community originating from eastern and central Bengal. The term Chandal or Chandala is usually considered as a slur. They were traditionally engaged in fishing and as boatmen, and later in cultivation. They lived outside the four-tier ritual varna system and thus were outcastes.

East Bengali Refugees are people who left East Bengal following the Partition of Bengal, which was part of the Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. An overwhelming majority of these refugees and immigrants were Bengali Hindus. During the Bangladesh liberation war with West Pakistan, an estimated ten million people of East Pakistan fled the country and took refuge in India particularly in the Indian states of West Bengal and Indian North East region, especially Tripura and Assam.

Marichjhanpi is an island set in the mangrove forests of the Sundarbans in West Bengal, India. It is mostly remembered today for the incident in 1979 when the newly elected Communist Party of India (Marxist) government of West Bengal evicted several Bengali Dalit refugees who had saving their life in the reserved forest. The clash between armed miscreants and the police resulted in about 10000 deaths ; although the exact number is unknown, researchers believe that several collateral deaths took place from violent clashes, alleged police brutality, and disease.

Politics in West Bengal is dominated by the following major political parties: the All India Trinamool Congress, the Communist Party of India (Marxist), the Bharatiya Janata Party, and the Indian National Congress. For many decades, the state underwent gruesome and terrible political violence. Since the 2011 West Bengal Legislative Assembly election, it has been governed by the Trinamool Congress party. Previously, it was ruled by Left Front led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist) for over three decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taki, India</span> City in West Bengal, India

Taki is a city and a municipality under the Hasnabad police station of the Basirhat subdivision in North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hasnabad (community development block)</span> Community development block in West Bengal, India

Hasnabad is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

This is a list of States and Union Territories of India by Bengali speakers at the time of the 2011 Census.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hingalganj</span> Community development block in West Bengal, India

Hingalganj is a community development block that forms an administrative division in Basirhat subdivision of North 24 Parganas district in the Indian state of West Bengal.

Hasnabad is a village and a gram panchayat in the Hasnabad CD block in the Hasnabad subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.Hasnabad is called the' Second Gateway of Sunderban'.

The Dandakaranya Project, or the DNK Project, was the form of action the Indian government designed in September 1958 for the settlement of displaced persons from Bangladesh and for integrated development of the area with particular regard to the promotion of the interests of the local tribal population. The particular focus was on Bengali refugees from East Pakistan moving to lands and resources in Odisha and Chhattisgarh. To implement this project, the Government of India established the Dandakaranya Development Authority.

Soumya Sankar Bose is an Indian documentary photographer. In his practice he uses photography, archival material and text to explore desire, identity and memory. His first book 'Where the Birds Never Sing(2020)' is on Marichjhapi massacre, the forcible eviction in 1979 of lower caste Bengali refugees on Marichjhapi Island in Sundarban, India, and the subsequent death of thousands by police gunfire, starvation, and disease. The Book was shortlisted for the First Photobook award in the Paris Photo–Aperture Foundation PhotoBook Awards 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Manoranjan Byapari</span> Indian writer and activist

Manoranjan Byapari is an Indian Bengali writer, socio-political activist, and a politician. He stands as one of the pioneering authors in the realm of Dalit literature in Bengali, hailing from the Indian state of West Bengal. Hindered by financial constraints, he was precluded from availing formal education, thereby distinguishing himself as a unique exemplar—a former convict turned rickshaw puller—having authored a substantial corpus comprising twelve novels, in addition to over a hundred short stories and non-fiction essays.

The Bengali Language Movement is a campaign to preserve Bengali language and Bengalis culture and to oppose anti-Bengali sentiment in India. The movement was started in Manbhum in 1940, ahead of the Partition of India which allocated eastern Bengal to the new nation of Pakistan and led to the relocation of many Bengali communities. In 1947 British India bifurcated into India and Pakistan. The population of the eastern part of Bengal was majority Muslim, and was incorporated into Pakistan. Bengali Hindus in this eastern region migrated to India, principally settling in West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Dandakaranya and Odisha, Maharashtra, Karnataka. The Movement remains prominent in Assam, Jharkhand, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Karnataka.

Hingalganj is a census town in the Hingalganj CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

Hemnagar is a village in the Hingalganj CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the southernmost habitation in North 24 Parganas district, beyond which the Sunderbans are spread.

Bamanpukuria is a village and a gram panchayat in the Minakhan CD block in the Basirhat subdivision of the North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India.

The Kolkata Partition Museum is an initiative dedicated to documenting the Partition of India from the Bengal perspective. Dissimilar to the Punjabi context, the Bengal province had been divided twice: once in 1905, and then in 1947. The aftermath of the second partition, as recorded by many historians, unfolded distinctly in postcolonial Bengal vis-à-vis Punjab. Not only was the impact long-drawn and can be witnessed even 75 years after the Partition, its affect can also be seen in the neighbouring states of Bengal and the rest of the country owing to refugee resettlements spread out to as far away states such as Maharashtra and Chhattisgarh. The idea behind the Kolkata Partition Museum is to preserve and present the vanishing memories of partition, to emphasise both the "rupture and continuities between West Bengal and Bangladesh – in terms of language and literature, food, fabric, and the performing arts – and to encourage collaboration between them." The museum aims "to do so by involving public participation in its programs and gearing all its activities in a way that makes it more accessible and interesting to the public at large."

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Deep Halder (11 May 2019). "The Left massacre of migrant Hindus in Bengal that was bigger than 2002 & 1984". theprint.in. ThePrint . Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 "Marichjhapi massacre: Forgotten story of Hindu refugees slaughtered in Bengal". India Today. Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  3. ↑ Dilip Mandal. "40 yrs ago, the Left mercilessly massacred Dalit Bengalis. Now, it's back to haunt them". The Print.
  4. ↑ Soumya Sankar Bose. "Where The Birds Never Sing". Red Turtle Photobook.
  5. ↑ Sengupta, Debjani (3 October 2018). "The Forgotten Massacre of Dalit Refugees in West Bengal's Marichjhapi". The Wire.
  6. ↑ Deep Halder (11 May 2019). "The Left massacre of migrant Hindus in Bengal that was bigger than 2002 & 1984". theprint.in. ThePrint . Retrieved 16 July 2020. Not much is known about the Marichjhapi incident that took place under the Jyoti Basu government on a tiny island in the Sundarbans where Hindu refugees had settled.
  7. ↑ Pramanik, Asim (23 March 2014). "1979 Marichjhapi killings revisited". The Statesman. Archived from the original on 6 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  8. 1 2 Chowdhury, Debdatta (2011). "Space, identity, territory: Marichjhapi Massacre, 1979". The International Journal of Human Rights. 15 (5): 664–682. doi:10.1080/13642987.2011.569333. S2CID   144052321.
  9. 1 2 Mallick, Ross (2007). Development Policy of a Communist Government: West Bengal Since 1977. Cambridge University Press. p. 99. ISBN   978-0-521-04785-2.
  10. ↑ Mallick, Ross (February 1999). ""Refugee Resettlement in Forest Reserves: West Bengal Policy Reversal and the Marichjhapi Massacre"". The Journal of Asian Studies. 58 (1): 104–125. doi:10.2307/2658391. JSTOR   2658391. S2CID   161837294.
  11. 1 2 Halder, Deep (17 May 2019). "'We were attacked thrice': A survivor's story of the Left Front government's siege of Marichjhapi". Scroll.in. Retrieved 27 April 2020.
  12. ↑ ""Controversies that dogged the pragmatic chief minister"". The Telegraph. 18 January 2010. Archived from the original on 21 January 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2012.
  13. ↑ "The Tale of Marichjhapi :Review of the book "Marichjhapi chhinna desh, chhinna itihaash"". radicalsocialist.in. Retrieved 4 October 2014.
  14. ↑ Mitra, Sukumar (6 July 2011). "Today English Newspaper Update Headlines India- the Sunday Indian Online Magazine - - the Sunday Indian" গণহত্যার সুবিচার হবে!. The Sunday Indian (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  15. ↑ Mitra, Shyamalendu (3 August 2011). তিন দশক পরে মরিচঝাঁপির ফাইল ফের খুলল রাজ্য. Anandabazar Patrika (in Bengali). Archived from the original on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 29 May 2012.
  16. ↑ Bhattacharya, Snigdhendu (25 April 2011). "Ghost of Marichjhapi returns to haunt". Hindustan Times. Retrieved 5 August 2013.
  17. ↑ Sankha Ghosh (27 November 2019). "Bauddhayan Mukherji busy with his 'Marichjhapi' project". The Times of India. Retrieved 16 July 2020.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.